In this busy lifestyle putting up fresh and nutritious meals every day for your family can become challenging sometimes. But if you know a few tips and do some planning, it can save much fuss and anxiety. I bring to you some kitchen tips and tricks that I have learned over the years of experience in the kitchen. I can't help but say I wish I had known some of these tricks before, could have saved much time and effort. But it’s better late than never!

Here are some super creative ways you can use to hack your kitchen!

1. Always soak basmati rice at least 30 minutes prior to cooking, to get fluffy long grain and aroma.
2. Add a tsp. of ajwain (carom seed) and kalonji (nigella seed) to paratha dough. This will enhance the taste as well as help in digestion.
3. If your paratha turns chewy, add little milk while kneading the dough. Paratha will remain soft even after getting cold.
4. To make hung curd, add a little salt in curd, then hang in a muslin cloth. Salt will help in extracting excess moisture from curd.
5. To store green chilies break off the stem, wash and dry. Then wrap the chilies in a dry paper towel and store in a deli container or ziplock. Believe me, it will last longer than a month.
6.  Add a tsp. of butter or ghee while cooking spinach. It enhances the flavor.
7. Do not cover the pan while cooking greens as it helps to retain the green color. It also causes the volatile acid present in it to escape.
8. Try to soak pulses or legumes before cooking as it helps in the assimilation of nutrients and breakdown of antinutrients like phytic acid. It also saves a lot of the cooking time.
9. Always leave chapatti dough for 30 minutes after kneading as it helps to form gluten resulting in softer chapati.
10. If the curry or stew turns out to be super spicy, just add some roasted chickpea flour. It will help to reduce the heat without compromising the taste.
11. Are you gluten allergic? Don’t worry rice flour makes an excellent substitute for plain flour, in fact, it gives much crispier texture to the fries, chicken tenders etc.
12. Have leftover daal? Add whole wheat flour, veggies of your choice and make paratha. You have an excellent nutritious breakfast ready!!
13. Leftover rice works best for making fried rice as it is less sticky.
14. Apply some oil to hands before chopping chilies as it prevents from absorbing the chili oil.

Share these kitchen hacks with your friends. Let us know what other life hacks you use to make your kitchen time smoother.