Prepared or Chopped Veggies

Keeping washed, ready-to-eat veggies, like sliced cucumber, peppers, celery, onion, kale, arugula, and spinach, in your fridge is the best way to eat those items more often, be able to throw them into dishes as extras, or reach for them instead of the chips next time you need a snack. That said, for many home chefs, vegetable chopping is one of the more onerous, tedious, and time-consuming tasks, and having to do it is the main complaint I hear from meat-and-potato-cookers who are taking an interest in plant-forward foods. The more items you keep ready in your kitchen—from jars of different sauces to baked tofu and seitan or cut and prepped veggies and spice mixes—the more improvisation you can do and the easier it will be to focus on more elaborate techniques and compositions.