5 Batch Cooking Tips You Need to Know | Tefal Blog | Food & Cooking (2024)

• If you’re trying to hibernate until spring, one of the key things you need to remember is to get enough food in to cut down on trips to the shop. This is easier said than done in a lot of cases, after all, not all food lasts that long.

  Rather than buying in all your veggies and hoping they stay fresh for as long as possible – although you’ll probably end up having to throw a fair few of them away – order or pick up what you need to batch cook some meals.

  Batch cooking is a great option if you want healthy, homemade meals in no time at all, or if you know that you’ve got a busy few weeks coming up. It basically means cooking in bulk and storing meals in the freezer. You can then either microwave them from frozen or allow them to defrost before reheating.

  However, there are a few things you need to know before you start cooking up enough curry to feed an army, so here are our top tips on how to do batch cooking right:

• Plan your recipes

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• To start with, you need to know what you’re cooking, after all, there’s no point in starting to cook 20 portions of casserole if you don’t have all the ingredients, enough storage space or if it isn’t suitable for freezing.

  Plan out what you’re going to cook and how much of each recipe you’re going to whip up. This will mean you can buy all your ingredients and double check that everything is okay to be frozen.

  Have a look and see if any of the recipes you want to batch cook can be combined to start with, such as the meat and sauce for spag bol and lasagne. This will make life a lot easier and reduce cooking time and washing up – just make sure you have a big enough pan!

• See Also

  Freezing Cooked Food for Future Meals: Freezer Bag TipsHow many freezer meals should you make before baby? - FreezerFitMake-ahead freezer meals to cook now and eat laterBest Pasta Recipes for Batch Cooking - Pinch Of Nom Slimming Recipes

  Have your containers ready

  

  There’s no point in doing all the cooking if you’ve got nothing to put your food in. Before you start cooking, get all your containers ready so you know how many portions you can make. You want containers that are freezer-proof, easy to clean, have the right sized lids and can easily be stacked in order to make the most of the space you have.

  Plastic takeaway-style containers are best, especially as they don’t take up a lot of cupboard room when not in use. The best part is, these containers are microwave-proof, so you can just take a meal out of the freezer and reheat it straight away. You could even eat it out of the pot if you’re feeling really lazy.

  Freezer bags are another good option and are ideal for soup, casseroles or anything with a lot of sauce, especially as they can be frozen flat to save on space.

• Cheat where you can

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• So your recipe calls for 12 onions, 15 bell peppers and 8 cloves of garlic? First off, what kind of crazy recipe are you making? Secondly, that’s a lot of chopping to do before you even get anywhere near the cooker.

  If you need to cut up everything you need by hand, you’ll probably swear off batch cooking for the rest of your life, meaning you miss out on all its benefits. Instead, make life easier by using a food processor to prepare everything quickly and easily. This means you can just tip your meat and veggies into the pan and get on with it.

  You may also want to save time and effort by getting pre-prepared ingredients, like lazy garlic or chilli. They may not be quite as good as fresh, but if it makes life easier, they’re okay with us.

• Undercook your veggies

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• If you’re making stew or soup for your freezer, you definitely want to undercook your vegetables a little bit. They may be perfect when you portion your meal out ready for the freezer, but they’ll cook more during the reheating process so you’ll end up with a soggy mess that is far from appetising.

  Keep them crispier than you would normally serve them so they don’t break down too much in the freezer and are perfect when you reheat them. This will ensure your meals are just as delicious when you end up eating them as they are when you freeze them in the first place.

• Label them up

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• What many people forget to do when they batch cook is label their containers. You might not think this is needed but it’s actually pretty important. Not only do you need to know what is in each container – there’s nothing more disappointing than thinking you’re going to enjoy a curry but it’s actually bolognese – you also need to keep track of when things were frozen.

  Certain foods should only be frozen for a certain amount of time, so putting the dates on will help you ensure you follow these guidelines, as well as see if anything should go in the bin rather than on the dining table.

  You can also pop reheating instructions on each container so others know what needs to be done with each meal to avoid illness and maintain the quality of the food. It is a good idea to put how many portions a container holds on the label too so you can ensure everyone gets fed.

  Now you know how to batch cook, you just need to get on with it.

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