Our Favourite Freezer-Friendly Batch Cooking Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What is good to batch cook and freeze? ›

Batch cooking is a great option if you want healthy, homemade meals in no time at all, or if you know that you've got a busy few weeks coming up. It basically means cooking in bulk and storing meals in the freezer. You can then either microwave them from frozen or allow them to defrost before reheating.

Choose from dozens of delicious freezer meals including casseroles, baked pasta dishes, gumbo, pot roast, slow-cooker soups and stews, and more. You guests will never guess that you just popped that Turkey-Noodle-Poppy Seed Casserole out of the freezer.

If you're looking for a healthier, quicker and slightly cheaper way of enjoying delicious home-cooked food, then batch cooking for the freezer could be for you. It involves cooking larger batches of meals and then freezing some for later, ideally in separate portions. Buying ingredients in bulk is invariably cheaper.

One of the biggest and most known disadvantages of cooking frozen foods is that it has the potential to remove much of the flavor obtained when consuming the fresh version. In addition, many foods lose nutrients and vitamins once they have been frozen.

By preparing a week's worth of meals in one go, batch cooking helps you save time and money, while ensuring that you have nutritious, home-cooked meals on hand. Batch cooking is a meal prep method that requires you to pre-cook large quantities of food at once for consumption over the next few days.

The labels will help you keep track of what needs using up next – most will need to be eaten within three months. To avoid meals getting forgotten at the back of the freezer, it can be useful to put your newest portions at the back and in turn bring your older items to the front.

Batch cooked food left in the fridge will need to be eaten within a few days and meals that are frozen usually need to be eaten within three months. If you already have batch cooked food in the freezer, put newer food behind it to ensure you don't eat that first.

Do mashed potatoes freeze well? ›

Schmidt tells us that, for best results, you can keep mashed potatoes in "a freezer set to 0°F or colder" for "up to one year." At this temperature and for this length of time, frozen mashed potatoes can be thawed and reheated without losing texture or flavor (and without risking the transmission of foodborne bacteria) ...

Yes. It is safe to reheat frozen leftovers without thawing, either in a saucepan or microwave (in the case of a soup or stew) or in the oven or microwave (for example, casseroles and combination meals). Reheating will take longer than if the food is thawed first, but it is safe to do when time is short.

Chicken is a firm favourite in households across the UK thanks to its versatility, cost, flavour and health benefits. If you have leftover chicken or are preparing meals for the week ahead, freezing cooked chicken is a great way to get your protein fix without scrimping on taste.

If you're planning on serving rice several nights a week anyway, batch cooking your rice means that you'll spend about 35 minutes ONE TIME versus 35 minutes every single night you plan on serving it.

Can You Freeze Anything for Meal Prep? The short answer is that pretty much any food can be frozen. The US Department of Agriculture explains that you can freeze almost any food, except eggs in their shell and canned products. However, you may not want to eat every food after it has been frozen.

Either cook it and then freeze it or freeze it raw. It doesn't matter which. I prefer to freeze raw, that way I'm not stuck with a specific meal when I thaw it out, and can choose what to cook when I thaw it out. Well, I've done both.

Like with any recipe you plan to batch cook, make sure you let it cool completely before refrigerating or freezing in a suitable container.