Cooking for one or two can often feel like a challenge, especially when so many recipes are designed to feed at least six. But with a few simple strategies, you can easily adapt your favorite family-sized recipes to perfectly suit a smaller household without sacrificing flavor or quality. Here’s how to do it.
Understanding Recipe Scaling
The first step in adapting recipes is understanding how to scale them down. Most recipes can be halved or quartered with relative ease, but it’s essential to keep a few things in mind:
- Ratios Matter. While it’s tempting to simply halve every ingredient, certain elements like spices, leavening agents (baking soda, baking powder), and thickening agents (flour, cornstarch) may need a bit of adjustment. Start with a little less than half, then taste and adjust as needed. For leavening agents, start with about a third less than what half would be and adjust if necessary.
- Cooking Times and Temperatures. When reducing the size of a recipe, cooking times can vary. For example, a smaller casserole might cook faster than its larger counterpart, so keep an eye on your dish as it bakes. Lowering the oven temperature by 25 F can help prevent overcooking smaller portions.
- Equipment Adjustments. Choose appropriately sized cookware. Using a smaller skillet, baking dish, or saucepan will promote even cooking and prevent your dish from drying out. Consider using loaf pans to make lasagna and casseroles. If you don’t have smaller pans, consider making the dish as written and dividing the dish into smaller portions and freezing some for later.
Use a Scale for Precision
- Weigh Ingredients. For more precise scaling, use a kitchen scale to weigh ingredients, especially for baking or complex recipes. This ensures consistency and accuracy when halving or quartering recipes.
- Scaling Liquids. Measure liquids by weight instead of volume for better accuracy, particularly with small quantities where traditional measuring tools may not be as precise.
Portioning Proteins
Meats and proteins are often the trickiest to scale down, but it’s entirely possible with a few tricks:
- Buy Smaller Cuts. Instead of a whole chicken, opt for chicken breasts, thighs, or drumsticks. Instead of a large roast, choose a single steak, pork chop, or a couple of lamb chops. If buying in bulk is more economical, portion out your meats into smaller servings and freeze them for future use.
- Ground Meats. When cooking with ground meat, such as in a chili or spaghetti sauce, simply divide the amount of ground meat that the recipe calls for in half or quarter. You can brown all the meat at once and then freeze the unused portions for quick meals later.
Smart Starch Strategies
When it comes to pasta, rice, or grains, scaling down is simple:
- Single-Serving Sides. Cooking smaller portions of pasta or rice is straightforward. Measure out the dry portion you need and adjust the cooking time slightly, if necessary. Most grains and pastas cook the same way regardless of quantity, but be mindful of the water-to-grain ratio.
- Batch Cooking. Another approach is to cook a full batch and use the leftovers throughout the week. For example, cook a full pot of quinoa or brown rice, and use it in salads, stir-fries, and as side dishes over several days.
Vegetables and Sides
When it comes to vegetables, scaling down is often the easiest part:
- Roast for One or Two. Roasted vegetables are perfect for small servings. Simply use the amount you need, toss with a bit of olive oil and seasoning, and roast on a smaller baking sheet. Leftovers can be added to salads, sandwiches, or scrambled eggs.
- Stir-Fry Savvy. Stir-fries are another great option. Use a small portion of veggies and protein, and cook everything in one pan. The cooking time will be quicker, so keep a close eye on your ingredients to avoid overcooking.
Adjusting Liquids and Sauces
Sauces and soups can be a bit more challenging to scale down due to the way liquids reduce and concentrate flavors:
- Start Small. When halving a sauce recipe, start with less liquid than you think you need and add more as necessary. Taste as you go to make sure that the flavor stays balanced.
- Adjust Seasonings Carefully. When it comes to seasonings and spices, reduce the amount you use, but do so cautiously. Start with a bit less than the proportional amount because the intensity of some spices can become overwhelming in smaller batches. You can always add more as needed after tasting.
- Scale Down Aromatics. Ingredients like onions, garlic, and celery provide a base flavor for many soups. While you should reduce these, be careful not to cut them back so much that the soup lacks depth. A small onion might suffice for a large batch, but a quarter or half of that onion might be enough for a smaller serving. You can also consider swapping a shallot for the onion when making a smaller batch.
- Reduce in Batches. For soups, consider making a full batch and freezing the excess. Soups often freeze well and can be reheated in smaller portions when needed.
Storing Leftovers
Finally, even when cooking for one or two, you may end up with leftovers. Embrace this by planning how to use them:
- Freeze for Later. Many dishes, like casseroles, soups, and sauces, freeze well. Portion out leftovers into single servings, freeze them, and you’ll have homemade meals ready to go whenever you’re short on time.
- Repurpose Leftovers: Get creative with your leftovers. Roast chicken can become a salad topping, a sandwich filling, or a stir-fry addition. Leftover rice can be turned into fried rice or a quick rice pudding.
Store Ingredients Smarter
Even with the best planning at the grocery store and in the kitchen, some ingredients might spoil before you get the chance to use them up. Try these suggestions to help keep these ingredients fresh longer:
- Bacon. Roll up one or two slices of bacon into a tight spirals, place the spirals into a zipper lock freezer bag, and freeze.
- Buttermilk. Pour ½ cup portions into small paper cups arranged on a tray. Place the tray in the freezer until the buttermilk is frozen solid. Then, wrap each cup in plastic wrap and store them together in a large zip-lock freezer bag. When ready to use, thaw the buttermilk in the refrigerator.
- Herbs. Add 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh rosemary, sage, parsley, or thyme to each section of an ice cube tray, then cover with about 1 tablespoon of water. Freeze the tray until solid, then transfer the herb cubes to a zip-lock freezer bag and store them in the freezer. You can add these cubes directly to sauces, soups, or stews.
- Butter. To prevent it from absorbing off-flavors in the refrigerator, freeze butter in its original wrapper. When you need it, simply transfer one stick at a time to the refrigerator.
- Wine. Measure 1 tablespoon wine into each well of an ice cube tray and freeze. Once frozen, remove the cubes from the tray, store them in a zip-lock freezer bag, and add as desired to pan sauces.
Conclusion
Cooking for one or two doesn’t mean you have to abandon your favorite recipes or settle for bland, repetitive meals. With a few adjustments, you can enjoy the same variety and flavor as larger households, all while reducing waste and making mealtime more enjoyable. Happy cooking!
