Batch cooking ideas please

oldMcDonald

A good book for non-dairy (wheat, yeast and sugar as well!) is 'Cooking without'

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_w_h_/026-7334675-9977269?initialSearch=1&url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=cooking+without&Go.x=6&Go.y=15

Does have onions in some recipes, but you could always just ommit them.

eryn_kathleen

Thanks guys, these are really helpful suggestions! I've been a big fan of the OldStyle boards for a year or so now, and I knew you lot would come up with some helpful ideas.

:beer: :T :beer: :T :beer: :T

Oh, and I'm definitely thinking about getting a slow cooker. Now I'll just have to find that thread...

Ebenezer_Scrooge_2

I am intrested in your favourite batch freezing meals, as i am not that clued up when it comes to knowing what can and cannot be frozen easily.

So far i have batched up a large lot of curry and chilli con carne, put into tubs i have brought from the pound shop, this will help me to eat much healthier and stop wasting money on manky ready meals:p

What are your favourite meals to batch freeze?

Pink.

Hi Ebenezer,

There's an earlier thread with lots of ideas that should help so I'll add your thread to it to keep all the suggestions in one place.

Pink

BrumWookie

Hi everyone, my first post here. I found this place by acident the other day while surfing the web to try and find the "definitive" recipe for corned beef hash. (Un)Fortunately I found the corned beef hash thread here and found there are hundreds of recipes for corned beef hash. So, having borrowed a recipe from here, I thought I'd return the favour and post one of my favourite money saving recipes.
BrumWookie

Party Vegetarian Chilli
Serves 10-20
This is a recipe I have perfected over a number of years. I regularly cook this up to take to parties and barbecues. I wanted a recipe for a chilli which was suitable for the large number of vegetarian friends I have but which looked like proper chilli con carne and wasn't obviously vegetarian at first glance. You will need a large saucepan (or 2) to make this, this recipe makes about 8-10 pints of chilli sauce.

Ingredients

8oz Dried soya mince
2 Large onions
8oz beans
2 tins chopped tomatoes
1 Red Pepper
4oz Mushrooms (optional)
Small tin condensed tomato paste
2-3 bird's eye chillis
Hot chilli powder (to taste)
2 tsps Marmite or Yeast Extract (not Bovril)
3 tsps Sugar
Olive oil

Method

As I normally make this in advance of a party, I prefer to use freshly rehydrated beans, a 50:50 mix of Red Kidney beans and Haricot beans. Rehydrating the beans means soaking them in cold water for 12 hours, then boiling for 10 minutes and simmering for a further 30-40 minutes. Freshly rehydrated beans can be substituted by tinned beans or even baked beans.

To rehydrate the soya mince, stir the 2 teaspoons of Marmite and 2 teaspoons of the olive oil into 1.25 pints of boiling water, pour the mixture over the dried mince, stir in and leave for 15 minutes. The marmite gives the mince a "meatier" flavour but is still suitable for vegetarians.

After preparing your beans and mince, coarsely chop the onions, pepper and mushrooms and gently fry them in some olive oil in a large saucepan until the onions turn translucent. The mushrooms are optional because one of my vegetarian friends is allergic to mushrooms.

Add the reconstituted soya mince, beans, chopped tomatoes and tomato paste to the saucepan, stir to mix and add some boiling water so that all the ingredients are covered in liquid.

Finely chop the bird's eye chillis and stir them into the mix together with some of the hot chilli powder. Judging how much chilli powder to add is a matter of experience, you can always add more later, but it's very hard to remove if you add too much. Dried chilli flakes can be added as well depending on taste.

Simmer for at least 30 minutes with the lid on the saucepan to allow all the ingredients to absorb the chilli and tomato flavours. Taste for strength and add more chilli powder or flakes if needed. Finally add the sugar and simmer for a further 15 minutes. Adding sugar to chilli makes it so the "heat" of the chilli is felt at the back of the mouth and throat rather than burning the tongue.

Once finished cooking, if not being served immediately, the chilli can be frozen or will keep happily in a sealed plastic container for 24-48 hours and then reheated.

Serve hot with boiled rice, jacket potatoes & grated cheese or tacos, also goes well spread on burgers in buns.

The dried soya mince I use comes from Holland & Barratt, £1.39 for 375g which when reconstituted makes the equivalent of 1.5Kg (3lb 5oz) of mince. I once used an entire bag of the soya, 2 x 500g bags of the beans (£0.68 for the kidney and £0.98 the haricot from Tescos), 4 tins of tomatoes (21p Tesco) and 3 peppers (£1.38 Tesco), making chilli for about 35 people for £5.27.

Gingham_Ribbon

Hi Brum Wookie! Welcome to the board. Thanks for the recipe.

As it's a 'big' one with lots of portions, I've added it to the batch cooking thread. I hope you don't mind.

I'll pm you to make sure you can find it since you're new here.

BrumWookie

Hi Gingham

No problem with the message being moved if it fits in better somewhere else.

BrumWookie

Gingham_Ribbon

Good tip about the sugar. I didn't know that. I'll try that.

I like soured cream with my chillis, and if I'm feeling extravagant, some fresh coriander added at the end.

BrumWookie

I use the soya mince for a lot of recipes, the chilli above, curry and bolognese sauce are the main ones, but I have made burgers with it before as well.

BrumWookie

sassysez

I need to start bulk cooking to cut down on costs and would like some ideas of what to cook. I already do soup, bolognaise, lasagna, curry, chilli. But now i'm stuck.

Any suggestions would be really appreciated or even just what threads to look at for info would be helpful. Also is it cheaper to make your own bread than buy cheap loaves from the supermarket?

Thanks in advance:D

sassysez