aspirateOkay, a recipe that you can eat all week long is a godsend because it’s so versatile. “I’m going to roast a bunch of tomatoes to make tomato sauce,” says Jess Elliott Dennison, author of Midweek Recipes. “There’s something special about the taste of fresh, and it already feels like forever until the heritage tomatoes return next summer.” Portion them and store them and they’ll be a starting point for a variety of dinners, from pasta sauce to risotto and chickpea curry. Who wants to eat the same food three days in a row?
Alastair Jeje, author of Socafro, uses a similar tactic. He blends scotch bonnet chili, vinegar, salt and coriander into a sauce, then adds it to Caribbean brown stew chicken, Nigerian pepper soup (“It helps clear the sinuses”) or jerk chicken curry. “You can also freeze whole scotch bonnets in a sealed bag and use them whenever you need them.”
Soups are a definite “make now and freeze later” option, and once fall arrives, squash/pumpkin is a no-brainer. Elliott Dennison tosses the onions, zucchini and potatoes in oil and salt, then does most of the heavy lifting out of the oven. “If you don’t feel like cutting up the pumpkin, roast it whole, scoop out the seeds, and mash it.” Place the vegetables in a large pan with the toasted hazelnuts, boiling water, and wine and simmer for a few minutes, then stir gently. It’s worth making a big batch since the oven is already on, but Dennison avoids it becoming too bland by serving the soup topped with fried mushrooms and crunchy sage or with tagliatelle. “It’s a lovely fall base.”
“I’m not really a fan of the freezer,” says Chetna Makan, author of Easy Indian Vegetarian, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t like batch cooking. She often roasts large trays of cauliflower with salt, pepper, chili powder and oil to see her through the week. “I tend to add harissa as well. The uses are endless.” And she’s not kidding. Toss roasted cauli into curries, pastas or salads, add it to wraps with yogurt or coriander chutney, or spoon it over store-bought hummuff. “But for dinner I usually have it with onion and pea pilau and a dollop of yogurt on top. It’s really delicious.”
Batch cooking isn’t just about dinner. It’s natural to have a stash of emergency cookies in the freezer, and the same goes for Tupperware filled with fruit. Kate Humble, author of Home Made: Recipes from the Countryside, freezes or cooks individual blackberry and apple slices into a compote to top granola with. It’s based on the crumble (or Humble’s “childhood favorite”), which involves layering meringue on top of candied fruit in a pie plate. “Bake the meringue in a low oven until it’s crispy. If you smile the wrong way, it will go up your nose. That’s the queen of puddings.”
Lastly, nothing gets you in the mood for the game better than a custom cake. For Dennison, that means brown butter apple cake. Melt the butter with rosemary sprigs until it turns golden, filter and mix the flavored butter in a bowl with flour, baking powder, sugar, eggs and a drop of rum. Pour half of the batter into a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, sprinkle sliced apples on top, cover with the remaining cake mix and bake. “You can freeze it whole or in pieces. have “I’m going to eat it all at once like we do!”