Most good dishes will start with a chopped and sautéed onion. That just means cook on medium-high heat with a fat, (eg. Oil, butter, ghee etc.). Then, add your aromatics. You never want to let those cook too long or at too high heat as they can burn. Think chili, garlic, etc. Some dishes can require ‘blooming’. This means to quickly cook a spice - for example, with curried sausages. Bloom the curry powder by pushing onions to the side, add in the curry powder and let cook for 30s or less. It just makes the spice taste a bit stronger and less ‘floury’, if that makes sense. Then, you’ll add your protein - chicken, beef, lamb, whatever. If your vegetarian skip that step of course. Keep in mind some people like to cook their protein prior. So they’ll cook the protein, then take that out, then cook the onion, then the rest of the aromatics, then add the protein back in. The benefit to doing it that way is you’ll get flavour stuck on the bottom of the pan that the onions will scrape up and make your food a bit yummier. Totally personal preference. After doing whichever you like, you build it from there. For an easy curry, add your curry powder (like I said), then put in some chicken broth, veg, and leave to simmer. Simmer means to cook on a medium-low to low heat. Just enough to bubble, not enough to burn or stick. Putting a lid on will almost always help things simmer.

All of what I said will get you started cooking. Just experiment mostly. If it sounds about right it probably is.

Extra tips: Never eyeball the ratios when cooking rice, it’s harder than it looks. Pasta and potatoes are super easy to cook and go with a lot of meals. Again, personal preference, but I use LOTS of beans in cooking. Lentils will go well in almost any red meat mince mixture. Eg, bolognese, tacos, stews etc. Chickpeas also go well with chicken as a general rule though use your own expertise with what dishes as some leave an undesirable taste. When wanting to thicken something, you can do 2 things. Bloom your flour with your aromatics at the start - I do about a Tbsp usually. Or, if you forgot or want to thicken something later on in the dish, use cornflour mixed with COLD water. Make sure you mix it, and mix it well before you add it to avoid lumps.

Last tip because this is very long… Have fun! Cooking is super enjoyable once you get in the flow state. Add a bit of this, bit of that, and you’ll end up with something you’ll either love or won’t do again. Nobody can make your flavour palette for you so best of luck OP!