In its most basic form, batch cooking is about preparing a large quantity of something at a time that you are time rich and saving time at a later time when you are time poor.

It’s a great way to ensure you know what is in the food you are eating too. Epsecially important if you have food allergies and intolerances.

It’s a great way to cook for a crowd and have leftovers, but also to cook once and have options.

If you are planning a party it will enable you to prepare ahead of the day and spend more time with your guests on the day.

It is great for those who are planners, but also for those who are more spontaneous as it will give you something in the freezer for those unexpected occasions. Initially it may seem somewhat daunting, but it’s the exact kind of planning that allows for spontaneity.

Just as a batch of cookies works for a party, a batch of a favourite dessert might make a good gift or a convenient treat to pair with coffee if someone drops in unexpectedly. Learning the basics of batch cooking gives you options and the comfort of something home cooked—for yourself and for others. If you are thinking of sweet treats or indulgences, batch cooking will allow you to freeze and thaw just enough for one sitting so you don’t have the temptation of the treat sat in the fridge or storage tin on the side calling to you when you are pursuing either a healthy nutritional or weight loss programme.

You need to consider time spent batch cooking as an investment in you. And who is the most important person to you… yes YOU. If you are running ragged all the time looking after everyone else and not coming up for air you will soon burn out one way or another Remember you cannot serve others if you are burnt out.

There is an old saying cook once and eat twice. Batch cooking saves you money and, down the line, time. Spend a weekend afternoon making a big batch of meat sauce and portioning it into containers for your freezer, for example, and you’ve got a solid option to pull out for several dinners during the week. Also, useful if all the family members don’t eat at the same time. Now I know this isn’t ideal BUT life isn’t always ideal. Shift workers living with non-shift workers often find their mealtimes are at odds with each other, for example.

Is batch cooking right for You?

There are several reasons that you may be considering batch cooking. The most likely is that you simply want to make your midweek meals easier. There is nothing worse than unexpectedly working late, arriving home and being faced with a meal to cook for yourself or family from scratch. This is a time when we make poor nutritional decisions and takeaway becomes and easy, calorific, fat filled expensive option… expensive not only to your wallet but to your health in the longer term too.

If you know you have a busy schedule always, it helps you to plan your weekly nutrition. It will also give you variations rather than eating the same thing day in and out for a week. Even batch cooking a sauce can give you the option of adding different protein options or vegetable mixes.

Batch cooking is a great technique that can save you time and money. Spending an afternoon in the kitchen might seem like an investment of your time at the expense of family time but, you can get the whole family involved.

When I embark on a batch cooking session, I love to get some tunes lined up that keep my mood upbeat. Whilst I am waiting for things to come to temperature or the kettle to boil I jig around (dancing is too elegant a description), getting my activity levels up too.

Preparation.

Take a look at the week or month ahead and work out how many days you are likely to be busy and not have sufficient time for cooking from fresh. From your own past recipes or from inspiration derived from family favourites, recipe books, TV chefs and previous nutritional diet programmes select something you fancy or know is on the programme you are following. If you are following a programme, there may be several recipes that lend themselves to batch cooking and if you are able to devote several hours to preparing several meals on one day and DON’T FORGET you need the appropriate space in your freezer. If this means eating up a few odds and ends or using ingredients from here to make space this may decide which recipes you go for.

Before you run out to the shops check your store cupboard for any essentials or ingredients you may already have. Check your recipes and make a list of missing ingredients. Usually if the recipe serves 4 or 6 you can double the quantities but be careful with spices and especially chilli. Always err on the side of caution when adding the spices and condiments. Taste and allow the flavours to mature a bit before you decide to add more to a batch… this avoids expensive mistakes.

Equipment for batch cooking

You don’t need any special equipment for batch cooking. Some find a slow cooker or soup maker helpful, but they are not essential. Just check you have pans large enough for the quantity of recipe you plan to cook to fit into. One large pan will give you better power economy rather than using two smaller pans.

Slow cookers are great for saucy recipes or cheaper cuts of meat that respond better to a long slow cooking process. Also if you do have a slow cooker, preparing this meal first means that the cooker hob is available for your next recipe. Utilising your time well if you’re preparing lots of meals at once.

You don’t need a huge amount of space either. It is possible if you utilise your cooking space effectively to cook two or three variations at the same time. If you cover and protect delicate surfaces you can use dining tables and side boards for dishing the end results into freezer friendly containers in the desired sizes, idividual or family sized portions.

Tips for Successful (easy) Batch Cooking?

1. Before you start a batch session, be sure you have enough space to store your efforts. Clear out your freezer in preparation. Use up as much as you can the week before you plan to batch cook. This may mean different odds and ends are eaten by different members of the family in one sitting. This will get random things eaten up rather than sent to the bottom of the freezer to suffer freezer burn and becoming an unknown lucky dip at a later time.
2. Be sure you have enough of the appropriate containers in which to store your efforts. In our house takeaway trays seem to breed lids! I think in other houses the reverse is true. Zip lock bags are a good alternative to plastic boxes.
3. Maximise the space you do have. If you have no lids use a rectangular / square container to freeze the batch lined with Zip lock or reusable freezer bags so you have a uniform shape to make effective use of the space in the freezer. (If you google ‘Dump Recipes’ you will find ideas to store in bags).You can then remove the bag and the frozen food keeps its shape. Some like to freeze saucy things flat in bags but we are not that careful in our household, so we have to be sure to defrost such things on a large dish or container.
4. Be sure you know how long certain foods keep in a freezer. Under 3 months is a good rule to have.
5. Freeze in several portion sizes for different family members and also for different mealtimes. Lunch might be a smaller portion than an evening meal. A meal to take to work smaller than a weekend meal or v-a-v. A portion to accompany 4 veg may be different than a portion to top a jacket potato.
6. Keep track of what you have in your freezer the really organised amongst you may even keep a written record, especially if like us you have 2 freezers. We have a chest and upright freezer with batch cooking in mind.
7. Clearly label your efforts. There would be nothing worst than presenting a meat stew to a vegetarian or a gluten containing offering to someone who is intolerant.
8. Batch cooking enables you to make the most of supermarket reductions and offers. BUT don’t let them dupe you into spending money on something you won’t use.
9. Batch cooking enables you to preserve fresh ingredients. We often buy reduced fresh herbs and chop and dry them then put into jars. (I know not exactly batch cooking but if a large quantity is involved it is a form of batch processing). Fresh basil is great to make your own pesto but you could also use other green herbs that you like.
10. ALWAYS make a shopping list when you are intending to batch cook. There is nothing worse than getting part way through and realising you are missing something.
11. Keep it economical. Look for the best place to do your shop. Don’t be fooled into the idea that bigger packs are cheaper… this isn’t ALWAYS the case. Also often (I have especially noticed this on coffee offers) the special offer may not be cheaper than a different size per 100g!
12. This may go without saying for the experienced cooks amongst you, but preparation is key to making the process easy. Peeling, weighing, measuring, and chopping your ingredients first, will make cooking much easier once you start.
13. Clear your workspace, and allow yourself plenty of time to get organised before you turn on the hob.
14. Clear away and clean up as you go. A cluttered work space may lead to confusion and mistakes especially if you are doing two recipes at the same time.
15. Unless you are very good at doing two things at once, don’t take a long phone call whilst you are cooking, you don’t want a large quantity of burnt offerings.
16. TOP TIP… to reduce costs you can always increase the quantity of veg in a recipe and not double the meat content to bulk the portion sizes out. Another great filler is lentils, or beans which generally take well to freezing and re heating.
17. Made too much – not got enough room… share your overages with friends and neighbours or a community fridge scheme.

Ideas for Batch Cooking

Cook things you know you like. This is important to avoid expensive mistakes.

Favourites like an Italian tomato-based sauce with beef or vegetable foundation is a good option because you can vary its presentation… bolognaise, lasagne, pasta bake, cannelloni… many options. By personal experience I wouldn’t freeze Gluten free precooked pasta unless it is al-dente. Overcooked you may know it goes very gloopy. The fiddly sauce is done and you only have to cook the pasta fresh reducing preparation time.

Casseroles are great, slow cooked pulled meats, things that are wrapped, rolled or stuffed are also great options to consider. I have a favourite basic… chicken pieces, lemon, olive oil, garlic base that I batch cook and add either a simple gravy, ginger, a curry sauce or coconut based creamy sauce to.

Don’t forget about deserts too though. Even cakes and cut them into singly wrapped portion slices. Tray bakes and brownies freeze well… you do need to eat them the day they are defrosted though as I find they get a bit dry more quickly than fresh baked. A plain cake can be defrosted and served with multiple topping options or served as a pudding for a winter warmer with custard, drizzle or sauce.

A word of caution…

Whilst cooking for a party for example at Christmas or for a birthday is a good idea, complicated dishes can prove an expensive mistake if it is the first time you have attempted it so do a trial run before bulking up the recipe size. Don’t precook steak unless it is sliced into a stir fry type dish. KEEP IT SIMPLE wherever you can.

Here are a Few Ideas

Lemon and Garlic Chicken ‘Dump’ Recipe

• 3 medium sized chicken breasts
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice (or the juice of 1/2 lemon if you have fresh lemons)
• 2 teaspoons crushed garlic
• 1 tablespoon parsley (dried is fine)

You can just add your chicken breasts to your zip-lock bags and then add the rest of the ingredients (Put the bag inside a large container like a bowl to make it easier and less messy). When everything is in the bag, give it a good squish to mix them together, let them marinade for a while and then pop in the freezer.

(Or… chop the chicken breast and cook once marinated, then portion up and freeze. This reduces meal-time cooking times.)

When you’re ready to cook the meal, let the bag thaw in the fridge overnight and then transfer to an ovenproof dish or the slow cooker – if you’re cooking the chicken in the oven, you want to cook them at around 180 c for between 25 and 35 minutes whereas cooking them in the slow cooker will take around 6 hours. Make sure the chicken is cooked through and not pink before you eat it!

Additional ideas

• Gammon steaks / chicken / pork steaks with barbecue sauce.
• Slices of cooked meat in gravy leftovers – these meals would just need defrosting and popping on a plate to heat in the microwave.
• Chicken wrapped in Parma ham with homemade tomato sauce.
• Chicken with honey and mustard marinade.
• Gammon with a small tin of pineapple chunks and the juice from the tin.(Be careful with this one if you are watching your sugar content).
• The sauce for tuna pasta bake. Just cook and add the pasta.
• Casserole beef with frozen vegetables.
• Have bags of veg in the fridge / freezer already portioned to just the right size to add to a casserole.
• Mince, onion and veg.
• Mince with homemade tomato sauce, onion and herbs to make up spaghetti bolognaise as mentioned before.
• Mince with chilli beans, chilli and onion and homemade tomato sauce.