Brits' Cooking Repertoire Uncovered

Let’s think about two of Britain’s culinary staples for a moment: mashed potato and spaghetti. You wouldn’t like to think you ate one or the other every single night, would you, with the odd bit of toast thrown in for good measure? And you’d certainly (well, we hope not, anyway) eat them on the same plate. But we suppose that could be one way to get some more variety into your diet, if the findings of a recent HelloFresh survey are anything to go by…

The recipe box provider questioned 2,000 Brits about their cooking habits to compile a list of the 20 meals the nation whips up most often. Top of the list was sausage and mash, beans on toast came in second, good ol’ spag bol took third place, boiled eggs and soldiers came in fourth and a classic full English breakfast completed the top five.

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Now, can beans on toast and boiled eggs and soldiers really be classed as cooking? Loosely, perhaps, but they’re hardly meals you’d dream about – more the kind of stuff you have when you’re off work ill and need a bit of comfort food, not the stuff you should be turning to day after day, ideally.

Among Brits’ other favourite meals to cook were porridge, which came in ninth place (again, can we really count this as cooking?!), shepherd’s pie (12th place), pie and mash (13th) and spaghetti and meatballs (18th). Can you see what we mean now about mash and spaghetti and how combining them would actually provide a little more variety to our diets?!

Overall, HelloFresh found that one-quarter of us can only cook three recipes confidently, with just four in ten Brits mastering nine or more recipes. On average, people tend to have just six recipes under their belt.

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So, what’s holding us back from expanding our horizons beyond the safety net of mash, spaghetti and toast?! Mainly, it’s the fear of getting recipes wrong, or wasting ingredients.

Claire Davenport, HelloFresh UK’s chief executive, commented: “We know people want to make sure dinner goes to plan and that’s why they often stick to the same meals rather than trying something new.”

However, it’s important to remember that recipes shouldn’t be totally prescriptive – think of them more like rough guidelines, and let your creative juices flow in the kitchen.

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The survey found that less than one-third of Brits know how to butterfly a chicken breast and only half of people reckon they can perfectly cook a steak, but with a little practice and some extra help from handy gadgets like the Tefal OptiGrill, there’s really nothing to be scared of – you’ll soon be grilling steak to perfection every time.

Also, with a Tefal ActiFry health fryer, you can enjoy some more solid potato-based sides too, as it’s super easy to make healthy chips, wedges and roasties in there, and you can easily expand your cooking repertoire by experimenting with ActiFry recipes like curries, risottos, casseroles and fried chicken.

Once you’ve mastered a new recipe, we reckon it’s okay to reward yourself by serving it up with your much-loved mash; just maybe not the risotto – hi carb overload.