How to Blue Apron: Jen’s Tips from Sabbatical

Note: I received no compensation from Blue Apron for this post. (I mean, if they offered, I might take it. But they didn’t.)

One of the biggest drawbacks of sabbatical was losing access to my school’s wonderful dining hall. Would I ever eat a vegetable again? I certainly did not know how to cook any.

Enter Blue Apron. My friends at work laugh because they don’t think this is really “learning how to cook.” That’s unfair. As you can see, these are not ready-made kits. You are sent raw grocery ingredients, along with instructions on how to prepare them. That’s cooking! Blue Apron does have its peccadillos, though. Here’s how I’ve learned to best “Blue Apron” your kitchen:

Buy a big thing of quality olive oil and keep it next to you at all times. Don’t worry too much about measuring oil for your pan, like the instructions say. Learn to eyeball it.
Keep kosher salt in a bowl for easy seasoning—you’ll do it a lot. I also recommend a good pepper grinder.
The box of food comes once a week, but don’t worry about sorting through it right away. Just throw it all into one of the bottom drawers of your fridge, and keep it separate. (If you use Blue Apron, you will be buying less food at the store. You’ll find the room.)
Use your dishwasher to clean all those prep bowls and plates, especially if it has a quick cycle. Treat yourself.

Blue Apron’s instructions show every ingredient in its own cute little bowl. Well, dishwasher or no, that’s a lot of waste. Read down the instructions and find out what’s going to be thrown into the pot together, and combine them now. You can see the comparison between Blue Apron’s prep bowls and mine for the same dish (above). Because the ginger and rhubarb were going to be cooked together, I let them start together. Same with the celery, garlic, and scallion bottoms. Why not?

You will be peeling a lot of vegetables. (Mr. Hallock and I are not vegetarians, but Blue Apron does excel at vegetable-rich dishes.) Get comfortable with a selection of peelers and knives to take the skin off everything from radishes to large squash.
Deseeding lemons? No, thank you. Look at the instructions, see how the juice will be used, pre-squeeze it, and fish out the seeds.

Those are just a few easy tips for making cooking manageable with Blue Apron. I’ll be back in the dining hall soon, but I will be keeping a lot of the recipe cards for my own “sabbatical cookbook.” And this from a woman who had to be taught how to boil water in college. You can teach a dog new tricks!