How to cook during coronavirus quarantine with batch cooking

If you don’t normally have a lot of time to cook every day and these days because of coronavirus containment measures your company has sent you to telecommute at home, don’t think you’ll have any more time to spare. As with any change, teleworking is something that takes some getting used to and the first few days can be a bit chaotic.

To begin with, not all of us have our apartment prepared with a space for teleworking, more than one may have to improvise the office in the kitchen table or dining room. From experience I tell you that the best option is the table that you do not use to eat, so you do not have to disassemble everything several times a day.

Batch cooking can be your salvation

And so that at lunchtime you do not have to invest large amounts of time cooking, batch cooking can be your salvation. It consists of getting a day that tengmos free in the kitchen and cook everything that we can keep in the fridge or freeze to be consuming it throughout the week.

This, apart from saving time, has other advantages:

It is easier to eat healthy, since we can plan the menus with a cool head and a full stomach. This way, when it’s time to eat and we’re hungry we’ll have a ration of healthy food already prepared waiting for us that will help us avoid the temptation to order junk food or prepare something less healthy. It will also be easier for us to consume suitably sized portions, avoiding overeating when there is a little left over and we end up eating it without hunger for not throwing it away. The daily cleaning of the kitchen will be reduced to a minimum, since we will only have to heat or, at most, cook something ultra-simple like cooking pasta. We will save energy, as less energy is spent cooking many portions at once and then heating them than if we cook many times a few portions.

How to carry out batch cooking

Obviously, the first thing to do is to make a list of the recipes you want to prepare and make sure you have everything you need to prepare them. The ideal is to choose recipes that allow us to take advantage of the food we already have at home.

What you can and should bring forward the day before cooking

The day before your cooking day, remember to soak the legumes you are going to prepare. You should also put to desalinate with enough time meat or fish such as ham that you are going to add to a broth or cod that you are going to prepare in sauce. If you are going to prepare recipes that require a previous marinade or marinade you will also have to leave it ready with enough time in advance.

In the two days prior to batch cooking you can use any time you have to perform tasks such as, for example, peel potatoes and leave them in water in the fridge, leave a container with peeled and chopped onions, or Vegetable Recipes such as chard, kale or spinach already well washed, drained and ready to use.

Organize the containers where you will keep the food portions

You can also use the day before to prepare the containers in which you will keep the cooked food, making sure they are clean and the right size. It is advisable to use containers that fit exactly one portion without leaving air holes, as they will take up unnecessary space in the freezer.

Identify the common steps that the recipes have, as some of the recipes you choose will have common steps, for example, you will need to make a sauce for some meatballs that will also serve as a base for other recipes such as a chicken in sauce, the filling of an empanada or a beef stew. These common steps do not have to be done in duplicate, simply make all the sofrito you need and, when it is ready, separate it to continue each recipe separately.

Make the most of everything you have in the kitchen

Use all the means at your disposal. As long as the power of the electrical installation of your house allows it, use simultaneously all the appliances that can help you when cooking, Crock-Pot type slow cooker, Monsieir Cuisine type food processor, oven, etc.

For example, while in the slow cooker you prepare a good fabada, in the food processor you can use several heights for cooking, for example, you can cook in the glass some lentils or green beans with potatoes while in the steamer you cook some hard boiled eggs -which keep great in the fridge for a lot of days- and also take the opportunity to curdle some flans, you can also prepare some ribs in pressure cooker.

On the stove you can prepare a chicken noodle soup in the meantime. In the oven you can leave a lasagna cooking and you can use the microwave to prepare a very easy croquette dough that when you want to eat them you just have to fry them in a moment.

Some easy recipes that freeze well

For you to use as an idea and have a choice, we have prepared a list of recipes of all kinds that are easy to prepare and keep very well in portions. All of them will serve you to organize weekly menus in which at lunchtime, in the most extreme case, at most you will have to cook a little pasta, some potato or some white rice, although the latter also keeps well in the fridge for a few days.

Meatballs lasagna Fresh sausage lasagna Falsa vegetable lasagna Classic meat lasagna Meat enchiladas Tuna cannelloni Tuna and eggplant light cannelloni Piquillo peppers stuffed with hake and prawns Hake and prawns lasagna. Meatballs with peas Meatballs Ikea style Meatballs in orange sauce Meatballs with tomato Curry Tikka Masala Guinness Stew Veal stew with red wine and chocolate Easy veal stew Pork ossobuco in sauce Pulled pork Lamb curry