What Is Batch Cooking?

The batch cooking is an Anglo – Saxon concept that has become fashionable and flooding social networks. It literally means “batch cook”, which means to cook on Sunday to have your menu ready for the whole week. Do you want to know more about it?

With this method you will be able to organize the weekly menu, preparing healthy food and reducing the time that you will need each day to prepare the dishes you intend to taste. It is a concept that saves time and improves health, when properly implemented.

How to design a batch cooking menu ?

We are going to teach you the secrets of this eating method that has been gaining so much popularity in recent years.

Planning

I recommend that you have a weekly template of your menu to be able to organize your meals. This way we will know what we are going to cook, what we have in the fridge and if we need to buy something. This also helps us to stick to the shopping list and not buy too much or buy ultra-processed products.

Healthy batch cooking

It is important that this menu, apart from saving you time to cook during the week, is also healthy. It is very useful to create our menu with the “Harvard Plate” as a reference, a plate created by nutrition experts from the Harvard School of Public Health, which is based on:

• Most of your meals have to be vegetables and fruits, these being half of the plate. With these foods you will provide quality vitamins and antioxidants. The latter have proven to be essential in the prevention of complex pathologies.
• Choose whole grains, occupying ¼ of your plate.
• High-quality protein, which should be the other quarter of the plate. These nutrients will ensure muscle function. According to research published in Nutrition Research , protein consumption and regular exercise reduce the risk of developing pathologies in lean tissue.
• The main fat that comes from healthy vegetable oils, such as extra virgin olive oil.

In short, keep in mind that your plate will have to have vegetables, protein and whole grains. Also, do not forget the detail of the distribution.

Ready preparations

This is one of the bases of batch cooking , having everything ready so that when we get home we just have to open the fridge and take out the food. Or, in case you have to eat at work, have your t- upper prepared.

• As we already know that the base of our menu has to be vegetables and fruits, we can have them already cut. For example, we can cut and refrigerate fruits such as melon and watermelon to enjoy mid-morning or as a summer snack.
• In the case of vegetables, make purees, broths and stir-fries that can be frozen and reused. Have gazpacho or salmorejo already prepared so that when you get home you will have it ready to consume.
• Having already cooked pasta, rice, quinoa, couscous, eggs, potatoes, etc. It is not necessary to cook huge quantities, because in general we will take them as an accompaniment.

Take advantage of kitchen tools

To have everything ready in an afternoon it is necessary to know how to take advantage of the time in the kitchen. And for that we have to take advantage of all the utensils and appliances that we have in the kitchen, such as the hob, oven, mixer and, if we have, a kitchen robot.

While in one we chop, in another we are roasting and in another making the sauce. In addition, we can take advantage of the heat of the oven and, after roasting the chicken on one tray and vegetables on others, we can gratin and bake bread or make a homemade sponge cake.

Refrigeration and freezing

It is important to know where to keep each food so that it can last us all week. There are certain types of foods that cannot be frozen due to their food structure; for example, salads, pasta, potatoes and eggs. Therefore, we will keep them refrigerated in the fridge.

It is very useful to freeze stews, legumes and broths, so they will last longer. To preserve food, it is advisable to use airtight glass, such as mason jars, since they will last longer than in a plastic container.

Example of batch booking menu

Finally, here we show you a menu idea from Monday to Friday so that you can start practicing batch cooking . Of course, this is just an example, you can vary it as long as you keep the concept of healthy eating. 

Lunches

• Monday: salmon al papillote with vegetables and baked potatoes.
• Tuesday: pasta salad with filleted chicken.
• Wednesday: spinach with chickpeas and a hard-boiled egg.
• Thursday: dressing of potatoes cooked with vegetables and octopus.
• Friday: sautéed vegetables with quinoa and turkey strips.

Dinners

• Monday: spinach salad with mozarrella cheese and nuts.
• Tuesday: glass of gazpacho and potato omelette.
• Wednesday: beef burger sandwich with vegetables.

• Thursday: vegetable ratatouille with grilled egg and rye crackers .
• Friday: carrot and cucumber crudités with chickpea hummus.

Implement batch cooking in your routines

Don’t have enough time to cook healthy? Then go ahead and try the batch cooking  method so that you have ready those dishes that help you take care of both your body and your health.