If you were never taught how to cook, these 7 tips will make your life a whole lot easier (and yummier)

I didn't learn to cook growing up.

My mum was always in the kitchen, but she never really taught me. I'd watch from a distance, but I never got hands-on experience.

So when I moved out at 18, I was absolutely hopeless. I survived on toast, pasta with jarred sauce, and a lot of takeaway.

It wasn't until my mid-20s that I properly learned to cook. And I had to figure it all out myself, through trial, error, and a lot of ruined meals.

Looking back now, I wish someone had just told me the basics. The simple tips that would have saved me so much time, money, and frustration.

If you're in that position now, where you want to cook but don't know where to start, these tips will change everything.

1. Start with one-pot meals

The biggest mistake I made when learning to cook was trying to make complicated meals with multiple components.

I'd attempt recipes that required three different pans, precise timing, and coordinating everything to finish simultaneously.

It was overwhelming and usually ended in disaster.

What I should have done was start with one-pot meals. Curries. Stews. Pasta dishes where everything cooks together. Stir-fries in a single wok.

These are forgiving. You can add ingredients gradually. You don't need perfect timing. And there's less washing up at the end.

My first successful meal was a simple vegetable curry. Everything went into one pot. I could taste as I went and adjust seasoning. There was no stress about multiple things finishing at once.

Once I mastered a few one-pot meals, I felt confident enough to move on to more complex cooking.

But starting simple is key. Don't try to make a three-course meal with perfect timing. Make something that all cooks together in one pot.

2. Taste as you go

This seems obvious now, but nobody told me you're supposed to taste your food while cooking.

I thought you just followed the recipe exactly and hoped it would taste good at the end.

But cooking isn't baking. You can and should adjust as you go.

Does it need more salt? Add some. Not enough flavor? Add more spices or herbs. Too bland? A squeeze of lemon might help.

The best cooks I know are constantly tasting and adjusting. They might follow a recipe as a guide, but they use their taste buds to make it right.

I learned this properly when I made a soup that tasted flat and boring despite following the recipe perfectly. My friend came over, tasted it, added salt and lemon juice, and suddenly it was delicious.

That's when I realized recipes are guidelines, not laws. Your taste is the final judge.

Now I taste everything multiple times while cooking. Before adding salt. After adding salt. At the end before serving. Each time, I'm checking and adjusting.

3. Learn to cook onions and garlic properly

This single skill transformed my cooking more than anything else.

Onions and garlic are the foundation of countless dishes. If you can cook them properly, you can make half the world's cuisines.

But there's a technique to it that nobody taught me.

For onions, you usually want to cook them until they're soft and translucent. This takes longer than you think, maybe 5-10 minutes over medium heat. They should lose their sharp bite and become sweet.

For garlic, you want it fragrant but not brown. Burned garlic is bitter and ruins a dish. So you add it after the onions and cook it for just a minute or two.

I used to rush this step, cooking everything on high heat to save time. The onions would be crunchy and sharp. The garlic would burn.

Now I take my time. I cook onions properly until they're soft. I add garlic at the right moment and watch it carefully.

This foundation step makes everything that comes after taste better.

4. Don't be afraid of salt

I was terrified of salt when I started cooking.

I'd been told salt was unhealthy, so I barely used any. My food was consistently bland and boring.

Then I learned that properly seasoning food with salt is what makes it taste good. Salt doesn't just make things salty. It brings out and enhances natural flavors.

Professional cooks use way more salt than home cooks. That's part of why restaurant food tastes so good.

I'm not saying pour salt on everything. But you should be seasoning your food as you cook. A pinch in the onions as they sauté. Some in the sauce as it simmers. Tasting and adjusting at the end.

One trick that changed everything for me: salt your pasta water until it tastes like the sea. Seems like a lot, but it's how you get pasta that actually has flavor.

Start conservative if you're nervous. But taste and add more salt gradually until the food tastes alive rather than flat.

Your food will improve dramatically.

5. Keep it simple with good ingredients

When I first started cooking, I thought more ingredients meant better food.

I'd make dishes with fifteen different components, thinking complexity equaled quality.

But I've learned the opposite is often true.

Simple dishes with good ingredients taste better than complicated dishes with mediocre ingredients.

A tomato salad with great tomatoes, good olive oil, and fresh basil is better than a complex pasta dish with average ingredients.

Roasted vegetables with olive oil and salt can be extraordinary if the vegetables are fresh and you cook them properly.

The Italian approach to cooking taught me this. They take amazing ingredients and do very little to them. The quality of the ingredients does most of the work.

So instead of buying lots of different ingredients for complicated recipes, buy fewer, better quality ingredients and keep your preparations simple.

Fresh vegetables roasted with good olive oil. Pasta with garlic, olive oil, and chili. Rice with perfectly cooked vegetables and simple seasoning.

Simple food done well beats complicated food done poorly every time.

6. Learn to use acid and fat

This tip sounds technical, but it's actually quite simple.

Most food needs a balance of flavors. And two of the most important elements are acid and fat.

Fat carries flavor and makes food taste rich. Think olive oil, butter, nuts, avocado.

Acid brightens flavors and cuts through richness. Think lemon juice, vinegar, tomatoes.

When your food tastes flat or one-dimensional, it often needs one of these elements.

Heavy, rich food that feels too much? Add acid. A squeeze of lemon or splash of vinegar will balance it.

Food that tastes watery or lacks depth? It probably needs fat. A drizzle of good olive oil or a knob of butter might fix it.

I learned this by accident when I made a curry that tasted heavy and cloying. I added a squeeze of lime juice at the end, and suddenly all the flavors came alive.

Now I always think about acid and fat. Does this dish need brightness? Does it need richness?

Those two elements can transform adequate food into something really delicious.

7. Accept that you'll make mistakes

This is the most important tip of all.

When I started cooking, every mistake felt like a failure. I'd ruin a dish and feel so discouraged I'd order takeaway for the next week.

But making mistakes is how you learn. Every burnt meal teaches you something about heat. Every bland dish teaches you about seasoning. Every disaster teaches you what not to do next time.

The best cooks I know have made countless terrible meals. They just kept going and learned from each one.

My husband still reminds me about the time I made rice so salty it was inedible. Or when I burned garlic so badly the whole flat smelled for days. Or the curry that was so spicy even I couldn't eat it.

But I learned from each mistake. Now I know how much salt rice needs. I know that garlic burns quickly. I know to add chili gradually and taste as I go.

If you're afraid of making mistakes, you'll never really learn to cook. You'll stick to the safest, easiest options and never develop your skills.

Accept that you'll have failures. Laugh about them. Learn from them. And try again.

That resilience is what separates people who eventually become good cooks from people who give up and rely on takeaway forever.

Final thoughts

Learning to cook when no one taught you isn't easy.

There's so much information out there, and it's hard to know what's actually important versus what's just showing off.

But cooking doesn't have to be complicated. You don't need professional training or expensive equipment.

You just need these basic principles. Start simple. Taste as you go. Learn fundamental techniques like cooking onions properly. Season your food. Balance flavors with acid and fat. Use good ingredients simply.

And most importantly, keep trying even when you mess up.

I went from someone who could barely make toast to someone who cooks almost every meal from scratch. Not because I'm naturally talented or went to culinary school.

Just because I kept practicing and learned from my mistakes.

If I can do it, starting from absolute zero, you can too.

These seven tips would have saved me years of frustration if someone had told me them at the start. Hopefully they'll help you skip some of that struggle and get straight to making delicious food.