Cooking mistakes that ruin your food

Adding too much salt to your dish doesn’t only make you want to chug a glass of water, it’s also really unhealthy. Add a little sprinkle of salt as you cook your food and taste it to know when you’ve added the right amount. Overdoing the salt is just one of the things you’re doing in the kitchen that professional chefs wouldn’t.

If you don’t sift your flour when cooking it can lead to lumps. People often run into this problem when making gravies and sauces. If your sauce has a lot of lumps, throw it in a blender to smooth it out.

Nothing ruins a dish like mushy pasta. If you let the water boil for a little too long run your pasta under cold water for a few minutes to stop the cooking process and contract the starch. When you add tomato sauce it will make the pasta warm again. If your mushy pasta is beyond repair, add it to a batch of minestrone or chicken noodle soup.

Adding too much water to your rice when cooking can make it turn out soggy. But don’t worry; your meal isn’t completely ruined. Add some cooked prawns or meat to it, for little balls, and fry them or wrap them in wontons and steam them.

If you forget to stir your stew – or whatever dish you’re cooking on the stove – the bottom of the pan can burn and become completely black. You can save your stew by transferring the part that isn’t burnt to a new pan. Make sure to do this as soon as you notice some has burned, though, because it could ruin the taste of the whole dish.

Forgetting to grease the cake pan before pouring the batter in can lead to a crumbly mess when you take it out of the oven. It won’t be able to easily slide out of the pan and onto the drying rack. If you’re crafty you can try “gluing” the pieces of the cake back together with frosting.

Putting your cookies directly on the pan instead of using parchment paper is slightly easier, but if you want whole cookies, use parchment paper. Without parchment paper, the cookies will get stuck to the pan and break apart. If this happens, try using them as a cookie crumble to top a cake or add to an ice cream sundae.

Check out these 11 mistakes everyone makes with their air fryer.

If you accidentally overcook your vegetables it can make them dry and bland. Cool them in ice water and then reheat briefly in hot stock to make them edible again.

If you add too much sugar when cooking it can make your dessert extremely unhealthy. If you have a sweet tooth, try satisfying it with fruit-centric desserts.

Choosing the low-fat option to cook with isn’t very healthy; there is such a thing as good fat. In fact, not adding enough fat when cooking is a mistake. Fat is an important energy source and helps your body with the absorption of vitamins.