Cook once, eat-all-week recipes are a godsend, just so long as they’re versatile. “I would definitely roast a load of tomatoes to make tomato sauce,” says Jess Elliott Dennison, author of Midweek Recipes. “There’s something so special about that fresh flavour, plus it already feels like forever until heritage tomatoes will return next summer.” Store in portions and you’ve got the starting point for multiple dinners, from pasta sauce to risotto and chickpea curry, because who wants to eat the same thing three days in a row?
Alastair Jeje, author of Socafro, employs similar tactics. He grinds scotch bonnet chillies, vinegar, salt and coriander into a sauce, then adds that to Caribbean brown stew chicken, Nigerian pepper soup (“to help clear the sinuses”) or jerk chicken curry. “You can also freeze scotch bonnets whole in a sealed bag, ready for whenever you need them.”
Soup is the obvious “make now, freeze for later” option, with squash/pumpkin being a no-brainer come autumn. Elliott Dennison tosses onion, pumpkin and potatoes in oil and salt, then leaves the oven to do most of the heavy lifting. “If you can’t be bothered to chop the squash, just roast it whole and scoop out the seeds before blitzing.” Tip the veg into a large pan with toasted hazelnuts, boiling water and wine, simmer for a few minutes, then blend smooth. Seeing as you’ve got the oven on already, it’s worth making a big batch, too, but Dennison avoids things getting too samey by serving her soup topped with fried mushrooms and crisp sage or tossed through tagliatelle: “It’s a lovely, autumnal base.”
Chetna Makan, author of Easy Indian Vegetarian, meanwhile, is “not really a freezer person”, but that’s not to say she doesn’t appreciate a batch-cook. She often roasts big trays of cauliflower with salt, pepper, chilli powder and oil to see her through the week. “I tend to add harissa, too. Then there are endless uses for it.” And she’s not kidding: toss the roast cauli into curries, pastas or salads, add it to wraps with yoghurt or coriander chutney, or spoon on top of shop-bought hummup. “For dinner, though, I usually fold it through onion and pea pilau and dollop yoghurt on top – that’s delicious.”
Batch cooking doesn’t just mean dinners, either. A stash of emergency cookies in the freezer is plain good sense, as is Tupperware filled with fruit. Kate Humble, author of Home Made: Recipes from the Countryside, freezes blackberries and apple pieces individually, or cooks them down into a compote for topping granola, for the basis of a crumble – or, Humble’s “absolute childhood favourite”– piling meringue on to the compote in a pie dish. “Bake that in a low oven until the meringue is crisp, and it will go up your nose if you laugh at the wrong time. That’s the real queen of puddings.”
Finally, nothing makes you feel more on top of your game than an on-demand cake. For Dennison, that means brown butter apple cake: melt butter with rosemary sprigs until the butter turns golden, strain, then mix the flavoured butter into a bowl of flour, baking powder, sugar, eggs and maybe a drop of rum. Pour half the batter into a lined tin, scatter sliced apple on top, then cover with the remaining cake mix and bake. “You can freeze it whole or in slices, too, so you don’t have to eat the entire thing at once, like we do!”
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