Batch cooking

Cooking at least two meals at once is both efficient and reassuring. You can either cook extra and eat the left-overs for lunch the next day or freeze meals for another week. So many of the Cooking Good recipes can be doubled or tripled up. The sorts of foods that freeze particularly well are casseroles, soups, curries, cottage pies, bolognese and vegetable pasta sauces. Other recipes such as the mini omelettes, salmon balls and pork and apple burgers can be made and stored in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Equipment that makes batch cooking easier is a large casserole pot, freezer and ovenproof containers, labels and a freezer. Children love being involved with vegetable preparation and are a great help when working with large quantities of ingredients. Cooking Good recommends the plastic children’s cooking knives used in many of our practical workshops. They are available to purchase from Amazon with a 5 pack for £7.99.

Storage containers are a batch cooks best friend. Recycled ice-cream tubs work well for freezing (though not ovenproof) as do plastic containers from takeaway food, milk cartons with lids and freezer zip bags. Jam jars are perfect too for short-term fridge storage too! Tin foil containers that are suitable from freezer to oven can be purchased from Amazon and are around £7.99 for 50. 

Try batch cooking the following Cooking Good recipes:

• Leek & potato soup

• Cosy cottage pie

• Beef & lentil pie with sweet potato topping

• Sunshine soup

• Speedy fish pie

• Chicken goujons

• Nut-free pesto sauce

Please note: remember frozen meat and fish cannot be defrosted and refrozen.