Create new composer project using "--prefer-dist" option

Using PhpStorm, is there a way to create a new composer project using the "--prefer-dist" option?

I would like to reduce the memory footprint of composer project as well as download time.

Relevant composer documentation: https://getcomposer.org/doc/03-cli.md
Related stackoverflow question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15141940/size-of-symfony2-project-too-big-when-using-composer/


Thanks!