How do I cook a decent meal in 20 minutes?

The structure and store-cupboard staples that make fast cooking possible, and the order of operations that saves the most time.

Difficulty: beginner
Time: 20 min
Read: 2 min

Short answer

Put the kettle on and the pan on the heat before you do anything else, prep while things cook, and build from a template: a base (pasta, rice, bread), a fast protein, a vegetable, and a sauce. With the right staples in, most fast meals need no recipe.

Fast cooking is mostly about sequencing and stock. The sequencing is starting anything that takes time immediately and prepping in parallel; the stock is having enough staples that a meal doesn't depend on having shopped that day.

What you'll need

Pasta, rice or couscous
Tinned tomatoes, tinned pulses, tuna
Eggs
Frozen peas and spinach
Garlic, chilli, stock cubes, olive oil, lemon

Step by step

Put the kettle on and a pan on the heat before doing anything else.Water takes several minutes to boil. Starting it first means you're prepping during time that would otherwise be waiting.
Read the whole plan before you start.Ten seconds, and it prevents the discovery halfway through that something needed to start earlier.
Prep while things cook, not before.Chop the vegetables while the pasta boils. Sequential prep-then-cook is what makes fast meals slow.
Choose a fast protein: eggs, prawns, tinned fish, pulses, or thin cuts of meat.All cook in under ten minutes. A large piece of meat is not a twenty-minute meal.
Use frozen vegetables — they need no prep and cook from frozen.Frozen peas and spinach go straight into the pan in the last minute.
Build a sauce from what's already in the cupboard.Garlic, chilli and oil; tinned tomatoes; yoghurt and lemon; soy, honey and ginger. None takes more than two minutes.
Season and taste as you go.The one thing not to skip. An unseasoned fast meal is why fast meals get a poor reputation.
Finish with something fresh or acidic.Lemon, herbs, chilli, a spoonful of yoghurt. It's what makes a quick meal taste deliberate rather than rushed.

Tips

Keep a short mental list of three or four meals you can make from staples without thinking. That's what prevents a takeaway on a bad day.
Cooked rice and pasta portions in the freezer remove the longest step from many fast meals.
A jar of good pesto, some tinned tomatoes and a bag of frozen peas is genuinely a meal within ten minutes.
Clear as you go while things cook. Facing a full sink afterwards is what makes cooking feel like more work than it is.

Common mistakes

Prepping everything before starting to cook — It doubles the elapsed time. Start the slow things first and prep in parallel.
Choosing a protein that needs 40 minutes — It's the single decision that makes a fast meal impossible.
Not keeping staples in — Fast cooking depends on not needing to shop. A small standing stock is what makes it work.
Skipping seasoning to save time — It takes seconds and it's the difference between a quick meal and a disappointing one.

Questions people ask

What staples should I always have?

Pasta or rice, tinned tomatoes, tinned pulses, tinned fish, eggs, frozen peas and spinach, garlic, chilli, stock cubes, olive oil and lemons. Between them they make dozens of meals.

How do I cook faster?

Start the slowest thing immediately and prep during it. Most people prep everything first and then cook, which roughly doubles the time.