For many of us, cooking can feel like just another job at the end of a busy day.
Deciding what to make. Finding a recipe. Checking what you already have. Going to the shops. Buying ingredients you may only need a teaspoon of. And then trying to find that little jar of turmeric you know is hiding somewhere at the back of the cupboard.
By the time you actually get to the cooking, the enjoyable part can easily get lost in everything that came before it.
But what if you removed some of that work?
Because research suggests that cooking itself may offer benefits that go well beyond simply putting dinner on the table.
Cooking can build confidence and a sense of achievement
There's something deeply satisfying about turning a collection of ingredients into a meal.
You follow a series of steps, see and smell the food changing as you cook, and end up with something tangible that you've created yourself — something you can enjoy and share with other people.
A 2022 Australian study involving 657 adults looked at the effects of a seven-week cooking program in Western Australia. Participants in the program showed significant improvements in cooking confidence and satisfaction compared with a control group, as well as smaller improvements in self-reported mental and general health.
And there's something particularly appealing about the simplicity of the reward.
You start with ingredients.
You end with dinner.
You made that.
Cooking can help you focus on the here and now
Cooking demands our attention.
Chopping vegetables. Stirring a sauce. Tasting. Seasoning. Watching something transform in a pan.
For a little while, your attention is on what's happening in front of you rather than the emails you haven't answered, tomorrow's to-do list or everything else competing for space in your head.
That doesn't make cooking a treatment for stress or anxiety. But engaging in a practical, absorbing activity can provide a welcome change of focus.
A 2018 systematic review by researchers at the US National Institutes of Health examined 11 studies investigating the psychosocial effects of cooking interventions. While the researchers stressed that the available evidence was still limited, the studies reported positive findings across areas including mood, self-esteem, social interaction and quality of life.
Cooking can connect us with other people
Food has always been about much more than nutrition.
We cook for partners, children, family and friends. We teach each other recipes. We prepare meals together. And then we sit down and eat what we've made.
The NIH review found positive findings around social interaction in several of the cooking studies it examined. The researchers also pointed out an interesting limitation: because some of the interventions involved cooking in groups, it wasn't always possible to separate the benefits of cooking from the benefits of spending time with other people.
But perhaps that distinction doesn't always matter around the dinner table.
Cooking can be both a creative activity and a way of caring for and connecting with the people around us.
Take the hassle out of cooking
Of course, none of this means that everybody finds cooking relaxing.
When you're tired, short on time and faced with the daily question of “What's for dinner?”, cooking can feel like precisely the opposite.
But sometimes it isn't the cooking itself that's the problem.
It's everything surrounding it.
Thinking of something healthy and delicious to make. Finding a recipe. Working out what you already have. Buying the ingredients. Ending up with half-used packets and jars in the cupboard. And somehow finding the time to organise all of that several nights a week.
Remove some of those barriers, and cooking can become something quite different.
That's exactly what Just Add Vegan customer Aurel M. discovered. Aurel used to rely mainly on ready meals, but after trying our meal kits, he found that cooking could actually be an enjoyable way to unwind after work.
“The meal kits from Just Add Vegan are a game changer for someone like me who lacks the confidence and time to come up with recipes and think ahead of time about meal prep."
“There isn't a better way to unwind after work than preparing a delicious dinner, following clear instructions and having the right quantity (and amazing quality) of everything.”
Keep the cooking. Lose some of the work.
That's one of the reasons we love meal kits.
We do the planning, shopping and some of the preparation for you. We develop the recipes, source the ingredients, make the sauces, marinades and spice mixes, and deliver everything you need in the right quantities.
You still get to cook.
You still chop and stir. You still hear the sizzle when something hits the pan. You still smell dinner coming together. You still get to taste, assemble and serve something you've made.
And you still get that little moment at the end when you put dinner on the table and think:
I made that.
Just without quite so much of the work that normally comes before it.
Because sometimes making cooking manageable is all it takes to make cooking enjoyable again.
Or, as Aurel puts it, he's “discovered the fun of cooking through the Just Add Vegan meal kits.”
Sources
Rees J, Fu SC, Lo J, et al. (2022). How a 7-Week Food Literacy Cooking Program Affects Cooking Confidence and Mental Health: Findings of a Quasi-Experimental Controlled Intervention Trial. Frontiers in Nutrition.
Farmer N, Touchton-Leonard K, Ross A. (2018). Psychosocial Benefits of Cooking Interventions: A Systematic Review. Health Education & Behavior.