to think batch cooking is a bit soulless?

To some people, batch cooking = cooking extra chilli to have another time

To other, batch cooking = spend one day per month cooking everything you'll eat for 28 days

We don't "batch cook". That does sound a bit soulless. We just cook tasty meals that we fancy eating, but cook more than we need and freeze what's left. Making enough bolognese or chilli or curry or stew for 3-4 meals takes barely more effort than cooking for one meal, and these things only improve when made ahead so the flavours can meld.

I absolutely agree that the plastic boxes aren't appealing, but they're not the meal, they're a storage medium. The packaging food comes in in the first place is no better. Nobody ever looked at a heat sealed plastic tray of chicken breasts with its little absorbent pad and thought "Mmm, tasty"!

At the risk of stating the obvious, you have to take the frozen food out of the box and serve it as you would have served the original meal, with freshly cooked rice or pasta, a sprinkle of cheese, a scattering of fresh herbs, or whatever floats your boat. And don't eat the same dull food repeatedly. We never eat the same thing more than once a week. Meals will keep perfectly well in the freezer for a few months.

I see freezing meals as a way of showing love to your future self. Perhaps they're having a shitty day and will really benefit from a nice warm nutritious meal.

The opposite of soulless IMO.
You're creating the option to have a day out of cooking, to focus on your own interests, deal with a crisis or have a family outing and STILL put a good meal on the table.
Even better, somebody else can put it on the table!

Batch cooking gives me the boak.

For starters, I am not spending my weekend cooking piles and pile of food, fuck that. And I hate* knowing in advance what I’m going to eat, and quite often can’t face it if I’ve known all day.
But mostly the actual act of batch cooking just seems tragic to me.*

Blimey that sounds a bit dramatic!

I can honestly say ive never spent a weekend cooking piles of food!

Why would I know in advance what I was going to eat, well to be fair most people who have a young family have an idea what they are going to eat that evening but the point of the batch cooking ( to me) is you have options. I can look on the freezer and see ive got a lasagna, chilli, strew, stroganoffs, soups, etc and see what everyone fancies.

Im not sure why its more tragic to pull a meal ive made myself out of a freezer and have it it defrosting while I'm at work than cutting up onions , making a bolognaise or whatever and washing pots and pans afterwards when I'm shattered.
If i don't want to know what i. Having g for tea, I'll pull something out of the freezer when I het home.

Anyway things that you buy frozen are batch cooked!

Batch cooking gives me the boak.

For starters, I am not spending my weekend cooking piles and pile of food, fuck that. And I hate knowing in advance what I’m going to eat, and quite often can’t face it if I’ve known all day.

But mostly the actual act of batch cooking just seems tragic to me.

I don’t batch cook as such but will happily freeze a portion of leftovers or a couple of extra portions of soup. Mostly I take it into work for lunch so it tends to be a brighter part of the day. But a freezer full of spag Bol etc on rotation wouldn’t fill me with joy.

What do you do with your leftovers then or are you making a one portion lasagne?

I don’t find it limits me as it’s all frozen so I take it out in the morning, if I don’t fancy it at night it’s fine the next day

Thanks so much I’m going to try this!

I love batch cooking. I hate cooking so it allows me to cook much less frequently.

I mean... just don't do it, then?

Batch cooking is absolutely not for me. I like to be more spontaneous. If I fancy, eg, lasagne one night, I want to make and eat a lasagne, not heat up a portion of curry simply because that's what I decided to make three days previously. If I fancy going out for dinner instead of cooking, I do that - I wouldn't stay in just because I'd batch cooked and I only have a tiny freezer because I can't be arsed to defrost things before I eat them either.

But that's just me. I don't have kids, I don't really plan much ahead in any area of my life, and I love food and cooking and eating. I'm also very good at working out the calorie content for meals as I make them, and I rarely use recipes. So batch cooking doesn't suit me.

However, I don't see why it would be soulless or sad for someone whose lifestyle and preferences are well suited to it?

I love my batch cooked meals for the days when I am just not in a state to cook.
But I make them nice looking and veg is not soggy because I account for freezing and reheating.
I do agree I've seen some not so appetising looking batch prep on Insta though.

But each to their own. Some people are fine with frozen, some are not. Neither is wrong

Good Food website has a great chicken and chorizo ragu recipe that I make in batches for the freezer.

I can't afford to buy extras so literally cook what we need that day. If I make a cottage pie, for example, I use two small packs of mince for the six of us. When I go shopping, I just buy the two packs of mince.

Plus, couldn't freeze it due to no space in freezer.

I also never spend hours cooking anything...if it cant be prepared in 20 mins tops on a weekday, it doesnt get cooked!

"Soulless" is a really weird criticism. DP loves cooking and I don't, but I do like spending a Sunday afternoon in the kitchen with him with a glass or two of wine doing the sous-cheffy jobs I can actually do, putting tunes on, chatting while he does the work that actually requires skill. It's really nice bonding time and results in delicious food.

As much as he loves cooking, he doesn't love cramming it into 20 minutes when he's knackered from a working day so much. Rushing to get a "quick weekday meal" on the table just for fuel is what's soulless, not taking your time and putting love into a big vat of chilli or bolognese or multiple curries or a pie or a lasagne or a tart.

And for all of those things it doesn't make any sense to just cook what you need for one meal. Stews and curries are absolutely made for batch-cooking.

I don't get bored eating the same meal a few days in a row when it's as delicious as DP's cooking, really.

Make buttered onion soup rice ( I think it has a more appetising name, but that name is what it is), put it in the little plastic pots in the freezer and see how long they last.. ditto lasagne, or lime chicken curry or meatballs

Or stuff that only one of us likes, like kedgeree (no, I didn't think it would freeze well, but it was fine!) so I'd have to eat 3 days in a row if I didn't freeze the rest for treats later.

To be fair, I have a 15 year old boy in the house as well.

If it's good, tasty food then the little plastic pots in the freezer fill me with joy, because there it is, just for want of a quick zap in the microwave. Rather than having to set to and make it all before we can eat it.

This!! Surely that's the point, you're already cooking for dinner so just make more than you need, not spending a whole Sunday batch cooking or making a big pot and then eating the same thing all week.

Why would you do this? I just make extra if I'm already planning a freezable meal, we're having chilli tonight so I'll make more than we need and freeze the additional portions, I made pulled pork over the weekend enough for 9 because I used a pork shoulder, there are 3 of us. We ate dinner and I froze two other family sized portions. I'm not going to spend a day in the kitchen filling the freezer with 5 different batches meals as a specific task, that's not time saving!

I also challenge anyone to make a casserole, Bolognese, curry etc and only make exactly the amount you need for dinner that night unless you have a very large family.

I think some people misunderstand the point.

i don’t want a sandwich at 6pm or 11pm

You are right @iCod. It's never the same reheated.

All hot food does yes. Especially in a small work kitchen. Ever heard of making a sandwich.

I love batch cooking! It’s like a gift to my future self. A couple of hours spent in the kitchen listening to music means that a few weeks later, when I’m crazy busy, I can come home to a delicious home cooked meal. It’s also really good way of incorporating a wider range of vegetables into our diets. Also of getting maximum out of our food - chicken carcass etc.

I feel so much happier if I know I have several different home made meals in the freezer.

I think the simplest way to batch cook is to just make too much when you're cooking anyway. So it doesn't take hours. It takes pretty much the same length of time to make one serving of homemade pasta sauce as it does to make ten servings. I wouldn't want to spend hours on any day cooking.

It's the opposite for me. There's something so lovely about sitting down to a homemade, healthy meal that takes absolutely zero effort cos I already put the effort in days ago! I love it.

I like and understand rhe concept, however it's something that just doesn't not work for me.

1. I dont have the freezer space so couldn't do it even if I wanted.

2. Id rather spend twenty mins or so on the evening cooking something simple while the kids are having some chill time after school than spend hours on our day off when we could be doing something fun together.

We only eat relatively simple meals though on a weekday - baked potatoes, pasta & sauce, cottage pie made with frozen mash, fish pie made with frozen mash, the odd stew or casserole which is done in the slow cooker, nuggets and chips one night and so on.

You don't eat it out of the box!!! Food pre-cooked and frozen or chilled is then reheated and served on a plate as normal, and if prepared well, shouldn't be distinguishable from freshly cooked. If you have the time and inclination to cook from scratch every day, good for you. I usually cook from scratch once a week, and cook enough for the week's meals, sometimes with some spare for the freezer. One morning prepping and cooking, an hour or so portioning and cleaning up, then easy home-cooked meals all week, just fresh greens to do on the day, so I have time to do stuff I enjoy more than food prep.