Do you know batch cooking?

The objective of batch cooking is power to take advantage of to the max our time, optimizing the moment of cooking and minimizing the dedication after the food preparation.

Although it is a "new concept", it becomes the name or the explanation of what may have been done in some houses for a long time. weekly to organize meals trying to make the most of the time. It is about choosing certain times of the week to cook what is going to be consumed in the following days. It is true that with a good organization we can obtain advantages both in terms of time and nutrition.

Advantages of batch cooking

• We save time: we have to spend an initial time thinking about what we are going to eat the rest of the week, but once the menu is organized and the necessary ingredients are purchased, we can start cook various things at the same time, saving time and greatly reducing the dedication to food in the following days.
• We save energy: the fact of cooking several things at the same time also saves energy, especially if what we do is cook in the oven and we can bake several things at once, or one thing after another taking advantage of the residual heat from the first cooking to start the second.
• We make it easy to follow a good diet: having dedicated time one day a week to think about what we are going to consume will make it easier for us to assess whether we are following a weekly varied and healthy diet. We will try to stock up on different vegetables, whole grains and protein sources to prepare the meals of the different days following a procedure.In addition, a good organization and adequate intakes can also help us to stop snacking, if it is simply due to satisfying the desire to eat. eat something when we get home and we have nothing prepared.
• We avoid food waste: the fact of having thought, organized and prepared the food rations for the week, if we properly manage the quantities we buy and cook, will prevent that.

Steps to follow for batch cooking

We must choose the most appropriate weekly time to organize meals, when are we going to buy and when to cook, what are we going to cook, what do we need, if we are going to keep it refrigerated or frozen, etc.

What's more, each week we must provide ourselves with the necessary food to consume during the following days, acquiring the fresh products and making sure we have enough kitchen basics (cereals, legumes ...).

Fresh products:

• Tomato, cucumber and other raw vegetables for salad.
• Vegetables to cook: broccoli, green beans, zucchini, artichokes, pumpkin ...
• Farinaceous products: potato, sweet potato, fresh pasta ...
• Dairy: milk, plain yogurt, fresh cheese ... We may not use them for cooking, it depends on our habits and planning for the week.
• Fish and / or meat: we may buy it fresh or, especially fish, it is common to buy it already frozen.

Kitchen basics: There are products that should always be part of our pantry, they are staple foods that are preserved for a long time and that can help us a lot both in the weekly organization of meals and in a hurry when we have to prepare lunch or dinner without having anything planned, that is, what happens if we do not carry out the batch cooking.

• Cooked vegetables: they can be purchased in bulk on the market or packaged.
• Whole grains in the form of pasta, semolina, rice, etc. to cook.
• Bags of frozen chopped vegetables.
• Vegetables or vegetables slightly perishable: garlic, onions, potatoes ...
• Eggs.
• Canned fish: salted cod, sardines in oil ...
• Nuts: walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, rolled almonds, pistachios ...
• Spices and herbs aromatic: paprika, oregano, rosemary, turmeric ...
• Canned crushed tomato: I'm not talking about fried tomato or sauces that usually contain sugar, salt, etc. but simply crushed tomato that is usually sold canned.
• Textured soybeans: it is a dry product that has a long shelf life and can help us to complement a vegetable and cereal stew very well, for example. It should only be rehydrated and incorporated as part of cooking.
• Nut creams: in this case we will make sure that they do not contain added sugars or fats. They must be crushed nuts, no more.

We must organize ourselves by preparing a pot to boil cereals or legumes, another to steam vegetables, and a small saucepan to cook some eggs ... We can also sauté other vegetables in a pan, cook vegetables in the oven and then a fish, taking advantage of the heat of the oven. already hot, or even doing it at the same time if the fish does not give off much aroma, or we prepare it at ... And then we combine ingredients for the preparations of the following days, being able to leave the rest separately, to mix the day that it we are going to consume.

Food preservation

These preparations can be Store in a refrigerator that is between 4 and 8ºC and maintain the temperature (not open very regularly) to consume within 48 hours or even 72 hours if it is a legume or a cooked cereal, or sauteed vegetables, that they are properly packaged.

If we want to have planned for more days, beyond 72 hours, we must opt ​​for cooked legumes, canned fish, salad vegetables that we prepare at the moment, or in preparations that we can prepare on the day of cooking, but that we must freeze. They can elaborate quantities They can also be used for dinners, complementing them with salads or creams. So we can cook more one day and freeze or make preparations for three or four days, twice a week.

• With the batch cooking we can save time and energy, in addition to planning a good diet for the whole week.
• We avoid improvising with food and falling, therefore, into monotony or eating in a less healthy way.
• We must program when we buy, when we cook and how we preserve it, ensuring a healthy and varied diet.

Bachelor of Food Science and Technology Diploma in Human Nutrition and Dietetics