A few days ago we talked about batch cooking, a cooking technique that consists of preparing in a few hours a Family lunch and dinner menu for the whole week. This way of cooking has multiple advantages, the most notable being time saving and healthy eating.
In today's post we continue with recommendations to implement the batch cooking, with ideas of dishes that we can prepare and how we should preserve them. Do you dare to put it into practice?
What dishes can we cook with the batch cooking technique?
Before we start cooking we must take into account the conservation technique that we will use:
- It can be short term, that is, stored in a refrigerator
- Or long term, freezing
In Babies and moreBatch cooking: keys to cooking in a few hours for the whole week (and save a lot of time to be with your children)Store in a refrigerator
As we discussed in the previous article with the keys to cooking following the technique of batch cooking, the preservation of food in the refrigerator should not exceed three days (some more if the container is vacuum packed).
So taking this recommendation into account, any dish could be cooked for later storage in a refrigerator.
Store in the freezer
But if we are going to choose to freeze the dishes we prepare, we must take into account what recipes we should make, because not everything can be frozen. In this sense, we have to choose dishes whose properties (both nutritional, taste and texture) are not altered by freezing and thawing them later.
Some examples that I advise you are:
- Traditional stews of chicken or turkey, beef stew, vegetable stew or fish stew.
- Potajes or legumes, such as Asturian fabada or traditional lentils with chorizo.
- Roast recipes such as meat, fish and roasted vegetables.
- Creams of vegetables and broths.
- Doughs to prepare other recipes, such as dough to make croquettes, cookies or biscuits, pancakes, homemade pizzas, breads ...
Live to the Palate17 foods you might not know can be frozen 
On the other hand, there are a number of food and food preparations that I consider essential to always have frozen, because they allow us to save a lot of time in the kitchen elaborating, in a few minutes, a rich and healthy dish saving us part of its preparation:
- Homemade sauces, such as tomato sauce, Bolognese, seafood or seafood sauce, ratatouille, vegetable stir-fry ... Always having this type of sauces in our freezer, we can use them to complete our freshly made dishes.
For example: we cook a pasta at the time, and then add a homemade sauce that we have previously made and thawed. The result can be a rich plate of Bolognese pasta in just over five minutes.
- Chicken, fish or vegetable broths They are also a fantastic resource to have frozen, since not only will it allow us to prepare a delicious soup at any given time, but also to use them as a base in many stews, saving us time in their preparation.
For example: With the fish soup already prepared and thawed, we can make a rich monkfish fideuá in just a few minutes, also avoiding the consumption of the classic brick of packed broth, which we often tend to resort to due to lack of time.
- Steamed, roasted or steamed vegetables They are never missing in my freezer, as they are a very healthy accompaniment or the basis of any improvised dish.
For example: We can use the peppers that we have roasted and thawed previously, to prepare delicious salads and healthy dishes in a few minutes.
- Fresh vegetables and fruits, which I freeze under vacuum and in individual bags.
For example: always having a bag with onion, leek, garlic and / or celery hash allows you to save a lot of time when preparing a stir-fry. I also find it very useful to freeze fresh fruit to make slushies or sorbets quickly, or a mix of fruit and vegetables to prepare smoothies.
And how do I cook everything in just a few hours?
The batch cooking is based on taking advantage of all the resources we have available in our kitchen to cook as many dishes as possible in the shortest time.Perhaps the idea seems complicated to you, but nothing is further from reality if we put to work at the same time the four fires, the oven, the microwave and the kitchen robot (if you had it).
In the fire or hob We can cook four dishes at the same time, such as legumes, pasta or rice, vegetables and a traditional stew.
In the oven We can prepare a tray of roasted vegetables and another of fish or meat. And when we're done we'll take the opportunity to cook a homemade cake.
In the microwave We can prepare several dishes quickly and healthily, although steamed vegetables are my favorite to freeze or refrigerate later.
In VitónicaThe microwave does not cause food to lose more nutrients, but quite the opposite- And if you also have a kitchen robot, surely you know a lot of recipes that you can prepare with the help of this appliance.
But batch cooking it is not based exclusively on cooking to refrigerate or freeze afterwards, but it is a Help technique in the kitchen and time saving. Thus, while the fires and the oven work, we can also prepare certain fresh foods ready to consume in the next few days, such as:
Grated carrots for later incorporation into salads.
Vegetable crudités to consume with hummus.
Grated cheese to gratin certain dishes, or diced to incorporate into salads.
Vegetables cut in julienne to add to soups or stews.
Cooked eggs to prepare toast / sandwiches or salads.
Iceberg lettuce cut into pieces ready to wash and consume.
Minced or grated ham to incorporate into salads, cold soups or salmorejos.
Certain fruits such as watermelon or melon already cut into pieces and properly stored in tuppers.
