Six tips and tricks to get you out of a batch cooking rut

Preparing meals in bulk can cut both grocery and energy bills, but what if you’re fed up by day three?

With some clever planning, batch cooking can be the thrifty answer to midweek meals
With some clever planning, batch cooking can be the thrifty answer to midweek meals Credit: Clara Molden

One day, I am going to be a Batch Cooking Person. My Sundays will be reserved for meal prepping; my freezer drawers perfectly stacked with portioned up, nutritious, varied meals. There will be ice cube trays filled with homemade curry pastes and freezer bags bulging with stocks and soups. My Tupperware drawer will be a thing of beauty (not the seventh circle of hell that it currently is); my packed lunches the envy of my colleagues. 

I suspect most of that won’t really happen, but with food inflation at record levels and prices in all the usual lunchtime high street failsafes soaring, I am resolved to give cooking in bulk a go. I certainly find I am less and less inclined to spend £10 a day in Pret, Pure or M&S. And while I always used to be in the “I’ll just pick up some bits on the way home” camp when it came to dinner, these days I’d rather forage in my own store cupboard and freezer than buy more perishable food every day. 

There are some nights though when, even with the best will in the world, the end of a bag of frozen peas, some brown rice and a tin of chickpeas really doesn’t look an awful lot like it’ll make a satisfying dinner. This is where batch cooking comes in. Having portions of curry (or even just the delicious, homemade base for one) already in the freezer, or a batch of tomato sauce in the fridge could, with a bit of planning, be the thrifty answer to my midweek meals. 

'There is just something so reassuring about a cast iron pan filled with ingredients you know are going to taste good,' says Eleanor Steafel
'There is just something so reassuring about a cast iron pan filled with ingredients you know are going to taste good,' says Eleanor Steafel Credit: Clara Molden

I am reassured to find that I’m not the only one striving to be better at batch cooking. At the start of the year, a third of us had intentions to make cheaper and healthier meals by spending a Sunday cooking for the week ahead. A Barclays survey showed 65 per cent of us were aiming to reduce the amount we spend on groceries. Now, sales of Tupperware and large pans are up. Dunelm reports batch cooking has become increasingly important to its customers, with a spike in demand for big pots and clever storage. We are, it seems, in the era of the batch cook. 

It always sounds like an eminently sensible solution, and if you are anything like me, the idea of spending a Sunday afternoon cooking is a genuinely blissful prospect. I love nothing more than pottering about my kitchen; the scent of a pan of bolognese blipping away on the hob has the power to make me feel inordinately peaceful. There is just something so reassuring about a cast iron pan filled with ingredients you know are going to taste good; the sort of hearty dish that requires little attention, just a low heat, the occasional stir, and lots of time.  

“This will see me through the week,” I think, proudly ladling my efforts into containers. The problem? However nice whatever I’ve made is, I find I am bored with it by day three. I’m not very good at actually making my way through the same meal multiple days on the trot. If you too suffer from batch cook boredom, these tips and tricks could help get you out of a rut. 

Sprinkly bits will save your soups

'A wedge of lemon, a few seeds and a splodge of sriracha, and I can have what feels like an entirely new meal in seconds'
'A wedge of lemon, a few seeds and a splodge of sriracha, and I can have what feels like an entirely new meal in seconds' Credit: Getty

I have never been a great one for a kitchen “hack” – freezing bags of stale breadcrumbs for crunchy pasta toppings is about as organised as I get. But one thing I know will help to extend the life of a batch of soup, beans or stew, and keep me interested days after it was first made, is to have a good number of what I like to call “sprinkly bits” on hand. 

Say you have made a pan of tomato soup. On day one it tastes lovely. On day two you’re feeling smug about what feels like a bonus meal. By day three you’re bored and by four you never want to see a bowl of tomato soup again. This is where sprinkly bits come in. 

It’s amazing what a couple of added extras can do. Things like seasoned natural yoghurt, a dollop of harissa, some crumbled feta or toasted pumpkin seeds (even better: toss them in a little olive oil, salt and some sort of warm spice and crisp them up on a baking sheet in the oven). 

The formula I go by is to always have as many of the following things in stock as possible to add to leftovers: something creamy (yogurt, crème fraîche, sour cream), something salty (feta, parmesan, crispy chilli oil), something fresh (citrus, soft herbs, pickles), something to bring texture (seeds, nuts, crispy fried onions), and finally something spicy (my fridge is roughly 45 per cent chilli sauce). 

A wedge of lemon, a few seeds and a splodge of sriracha, and I can have what feels like an entirely new meal in seconds.

Give one-pot braises a second life

 A meaty braise can be transformed into all manner of fresh creations
A meaty braise can be transformed into all manner of fresh creations Credit: getty

Just because something started life as an old-fashioned Irish stew or a pan of bolognese, it’s worth remembering that it doesn’t have to stay that way. A meaty braise can be born again as a kind of tagine with a few spices, a handful of dried apricots, and a tin of chickpeas. A pan of mince could become a chilli; a ratatouille could be eked out by adding chopped tomatoes for a pasta sauce. 

For food writer Claire Thomson, pulses are among the most versatile ingredients for batch cooking, helping to make things last and keep them interesting. “Using leftover meat is key and adding pulses stretches things in a nicely parsimonious way,” she says. 

It’s also not a bad idea to start with a pan of cooked beans or lentils, Thomson says, as they provide the perfect base for a hundred other dishes. “[Take] some really nicely cooked borlotti beans: on the first day you can have them with whatever your [main] protein is, then the next day you can have them on garlic rubbed toast as a bruschetta with all those lovely condiments that you can jazz things up with. 

“On the third day you could do them with pasta and lots of parmesan. Or you could braise the meat for your Sunday lunch with the pulses, then the next day you’re eating the [leftover] beans and the day after you can whizz them up and make a purée to go with flatbreads for your lunchbox – so completely reimagined.” 

The power of a roast chicken

Leftover roast chicken works well in a heart risotto
Leftover roast chicken works well in a heart risotto Credit: David Hansom

It surely has to be at the top of the list of most useful things you can cook. The leftovers from a roast chicken can form the base of so many other dishes. Even if you’re not left with much meat, make a pan of stock from the carcass and you’ve given yourself the gift of everything from lunchtime soups to risottos, beans and pastas. I like to see the stock as a base to which I can add store cupboard essentials and odds and ends from the fridge. 

For a quick, comforting supper, you can cook a few sheets of dried lasagne directly in a saucepan of well seasoned chicken stock, serving it with little more than some good olive oil and plenty of parmesan and chilli flakes. 

Any leftover meat could find its way into a risotto, perhaps with some dried mushrooms (another handy thing to have in your store cupboard).  “Just making sure you’ve got enough of something for three days is a great thing,” says Thomson. “Just having that continuum of cooking is lovely. You’ve got your roast chicken on Sunday, chicken stock, then you’ve got a noodle broth, then you’ve got risotto.” 

If you can, I find it’s best to get the stock on straight after you’ve finished your roast or you’ll never make it. It can happily sit simmering away gently while you clear up and go about the rest of your Sunday evening. Then come Monday, all you need to do is ladle some into a microwavable container, add a handful of greens (spinach, cavolo nero, kale, whatever you like), a nest of quick-cook noodles, a splash of soy sauce, a star anise or a chunk of root ginger, and you’ve got an instant noodle soup.

Make friends with leafy greens

Leave out leafy greens when it comes to batch cooking; adding them later on keeps them fresh and vibrant
Leave out leafy greens when it comes to batch cooking; adding later on keeps them fresh and vibrant Credit: Getty

Speaking of greens, one of the things I find turns me off about returning to a dish on day three or four is when any of the softer veg or herbs I added at the cooking stage have since become floppy and flavourless. To avoid this, I’ll hold back things like spinach or coriander from a curry, and avoid adding softer veg like sweetheart cabbage, cavolo or kale to a soup, instead introducing them each time I reheat a portion, along with an extra pinch of salt. 

Soft herbs are also possibly the fastest route to injecting life into a dish you have grown tired of, though those little packets of supermarket herbs have a maddeningly short shelf life. Try blitzing them with oil and salt (garlic too, if you like, and a squeeze of lemon) for a herby relish that will keep under oil in the fridge for a good few days and can be added to portions in great green dollops. 

Pre-cooked carbs are a batch cook’s best friend

Pre-cooked potatoes make an ideal Spanish omelette filling
Pre-cooked potatoes make an ideal Spanish omelette filling Credit: Alamy

I am always reassured when I know that I have a bowl of plain pre-cooked rice, noodles or potatoes in my fridge. In fact, I tend to cook too many carbs precisely so that I will have leftovers to refry or add to things. Try cooking noodles on a Sunday and popping them into containers with a spoonful of miso paste, greens, lime and chillies. All you need to do is pour over boiling water and add seasoning for an instant noodle soup. Potatoes, meanwhile, could have a second life in a Spanish omelette, and there are few things more comforting than egg-fried rice.

Eggs and bread can be lifesavers

'Anything slightly saucy and tomato-based can become a delicious brunch or breakfast dinner with the addition of an egg'
'Anything slightly saucy and tomato-based can become a delicious brunch or breakfast dinner with the addition of an egg' Credit: Getty

The power of an egg to revitalise a batch cook knows no bounds. I find almost anything slightly saucy and tomato-based can become a delicious brunch or breakfast dinner with the addition of an egg. Even something like meatballs in tomato sauce can have a new life: simmer in a wide, shallow pan with a cinnamon stick, the juice of a lemon, and a little harissa; make wells between the meatballs and crack in as many eggs as there are people eating. Pop a lid on and serve when the whites have cooked through (with a sprinkling of feta and parsley on top). 

Bread is equally helpful – I like to blitz ends into crumbs, and add hunks of stale sourdough to brothy vegetable soups to stretch them out. 

Thomson also encourages people to think of bread as the ultimate batch cook in its own right. “Bread is a really good thing to invest in. Make [or buy] a really good loaf and it’s going to last you. As it deteriorates in age you have other uses for it. You have it fresh on the first day, then you’ve got bruschetta or pangrattato. It’s good, thrifty, mindful cooking.”


‘The Art of Friday Night Dinner’ by Eleanor Steafel (RRP £26). Buy now for £19.99 at books.telegraph.co.uk or call 0844 871 1514

License this content