Interesting batch cooking ideas

[IndigoBluey]

I’ve a slow weekend coming up and with the weather turning I’m feeling a good cooking session coming on! I have never batch cooked, sometimes I’ll free a portion of leftover mince but I’m looking for some exciting or different meals to make and batch cook for the freezer. I eat anything and live alone

I have recently started batch cooking and freezing katsu sauce. On a day I am really time poor, I just make some pre-made tempura prawns in the air fryer, some rice in my microwave rice cooker and heat up a portion of sauce. Did it today - had a delicious and interesting dinner on the table in 15 mins!

(If not time poor, I quickly bread and fry some chicken or aubergines. Only adds another 10/15 mins but I didn’t have the extra time needed tonight.)

It’s my new favourite batch cook!

I just froze a couple of batches of the Madhur Jaffrey sweet red pepper sauce. It’s easy to make the paste in a food processor and you freeze it raw and cook from frozen.
It’s meant for chicken but also good with paneer and cauliflower.

It’s this one. I double all the spices except the cayenne. https://edibletcetera.com/2012/05/26/from-js-kitchen-indian-recipe-3-chicken-in-a-sweet-red-pepper-sauce/

I sometimes roast two trays of veg - one Mediterranean type , courgette, peppers, aubergine, onions, tomatoes and one root veg, carrots, swede, onions, parsnips, celeriac etc. These can form the basis of tray bakes, with added legumes, chickpeas, beans, halloumi, sausages or chicken legs etc. Or soups. I sometimes crumble feta on top. I prefer to decide what I fancy on the day and assemble a dish from prepped parts, rather than have it completely prepped.

I regularly make batches of cheese sauce and beef ragu. You can use the cheese sauce for macaroni, cauliflower, lasagna (with the ragu).

I also make compound butters e.g garlic butter, miso butter, honey and cayenne. Roll them into a sausage shape, wrap in long film and just take a slice off as needed to accompany veg, steak etc

You can also make biscuit dough and just cut a slice and bake when you want a biscuit.

Soup! I love home-made minestrone, tomato and bean, chicken and barley, spicy lentil etc

Thinking ahead: At Christmas look out for the cheap “8p offers” on leeks, shallots and potatoes so you can make leek & potato soup. I picked up some half-price cream in the post-Christmas eve sales and made some amazing soup.

Best for batch cooking is wet food- sauces, curries, soups and casseroles.

here are my regular freezer fillers:

Bolognese
Chilli
Basic or spicy tomato sauce
Keema
Butter chicken
Thai curry (red or green)
Minestrone
Roast butternut soup
Leek and potato soup
Lamb shawarma soup (on RecipeTinEats)
Lamb shoulder casserole
Beef short rib casserole
Moroccan chicken casserole

Not sure how interesting they are but here’s our freezer staples from batch cooking…

bored of lunch beef taco (just the beef!)
bolognaise
meat element of cottage pie
all sorts of curry (korma, tikka masala, panang, yellow beef)
beef stew
chicken stew
beef stroganoff
chilli

I’m doing leek and potato soup and chilli con carne this weekend. We will have the soup for lunch and the chilli for dinner, the rest will go in the freezer. I often cook more than I need and keep a freezer bursting at the seams well stocked with meals. There is veg curry & dal and a lot of chicken soup in there too.

These all sound fab! Going to make a note of them and get shopping tomorrow. Thanks

Samosa pie https://www.justinepattison.com/recipe/simple-samosa-pie/

Spanish chicken https://recipes.lidl.co.uk/recipes/spanish-chicken-stew

Enchiladas https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/chicken-and-bean-enchiladas

I used to do loads of batch cooking but they were mostly mince or chicken based and we have switched to a much more veggie diet and don't eat chicken, lamb or beef any more so I am really interested to pinch any veggie batch cooking recipes which pop up.

So far all I batch cook now is macaroni cheese with added peas and tomatoes, fish pie made with cream cheese instead of the white sauce and with sweet potato mash on top and the really nice veggie chilli recipe from the vegetarian society which is on BBC food.

Look up "The Batch Lady": 10 meals in 1 hour. Enjoy!

I batch cook a lot as I often can’t be bothered to cook when I get home from work. I make roast butternut squash curry (I’ve started using frozen butternut squash as I really hate peeling it), veggie chilli, lentil and veg bolognaise, chunky ragu and lots of soup. I’m making leek and potato and a carrot and coriander this weekend. I’m not a huge fan of cooking really so I put on a podcast or audiobook and cook loads in one day and I’m sorted for a couple of weeks at least