45 of the best batch cook recipes to make when you're in a rut
Get ahead with our top batch cooking recipes!
We love batch cooking because it guarantees you'll always have delicious food in the house, and it'll help you stay on track if you're trying to eat a little bit healthier. Plus, it's cheaper than eating out, too. It involves preparing all of your meals for the week, or even the month, in one go. This means that you have healthy meals available to hand after a long day at work, rather than reaching for a supermarket ready-meal or a takeaway for you and your family.
Planning your food also means you waste less produce, since you use up all of the ingredients that you bought for a specific recipe, rather than odd ingredients here and there, bought for individual meals.
The use of the freezer is very helpful when batch cooking, in order to maintain variety in meals and enable as much forward planning as possible. Some recipes, like pies and lasagnes, can be taken up to the step before placing it in the oven, and then frozen, to be cooked through when needed. Other recipes, like curries and stews, should be cooked all the way through, cooled completely, and then frozen, to be re-heated when needed.
Cannellini Bean and Meatball Stew
You can use all beef mince in this dish if you prefer. If you’re only cooking for two, freeze half for another day.
Lime and Coriander Fish Cakes
These salmon and prawn fishcakes are zesty and fragrant in equal measure. You could swap the salmon for another meaty fish such as cod.
Recipe: Lime and Coriander Fish Cakes
Rösti-Topped Fish Pie
Use any sustainably sourced fish you fancy in this crispy golden pie.
Recipe: Rösti-Topped Fish Pie
Gnocchi-Topped Chicken Pie
Chicken pies can be quite a faff to bring together – not sure when the cheeses melt to make an unctuous sauce and you use pre-cooked chook. This one is so much easier!Easiest ever pie!
Recipe: Gnocchi-Topped Chicken Pie
Stromboli
The whole family will enjoy these rolled pizza breads, crammed full of flavour and oozing with cheesiness. If you’re cooking for veggies, omit the mortadella and pepperoni and make sure to use vegetarian mozzarella.
Recipe: Stromboli
Smokey Vegan Porcini 'Meatballs' and Creamy Mash
Flaxseed is the secret to these protein-packed black bean and mushroom 'meatballs' – it helps bind and keep them moist in the absence of meat, eggs or cheese.
Shepherd's Pie
This shepherd's pie recipe is a classic for good reason, it's cheap and tasty.
Recipe: Shepherd's Pie
Cock-a-leekie Pie
Cock-a-leekie soup traditionally has prunes in it, but leave them out if you’d prefer.
Recipe: Cock-a-leekie Pie
Mixed Bean Stew with Salsa Verde
This warming stew is packed full of flavour, with a hearty base and fresh salsa verde topping. If you can’t find mixed beans, use any other tinned or combination of tinned of beans you like.
Recipe: Mixed Bean Stew with Salsa Verde
Slow Cooker Spiced and Fruity Chicken Stew
Chicken thigh fillets are perfect for the slow cooker stew recipe.
Chicken Chasseur
Warm up cold days with this traditional chicken stew. If you aren’t a fan of mushrooms, swap them out for your favourite vegetable.
Recipe: Chicken Chasseur
Vegan Lasagne
This creamy lasagne will be loved by vegans and meat eaters alike! Use any meat-free mince that you fancy, though we found Quorn works particularly well here.
Recipe: Vegan Lasagne
Chicken Chilli Masala
For when nothing but a properly hot chicken curry will do! Serious spice lovers can eat the whole chillies along with the curry, but be warned it will be fiery! The curry leaves aren’t a garnish – frying them at the last minute with fresh spices adds an intense aromatic flavour that’s integral to the dish.
Recipe: Chicken Chilli Masala
Veggie Paneer Jalfrezi
Up the chilli if you fancy something a little spicier. If you are not a fan of chickpeas simply double the paneer.
Recipe: Veggie Paneer Jalfrezi
Slow Cooker Meatballs
If you want to add extra flavour, brown your meatballs in a hot pan before adding to the slow cooker at step 4.
Recipe: Slow Cooker Meatballs
Chicken Tikka Masala Pie
What’s even better than a curry? A pastry-topped one of course! This would also be great with turkey breast instead of chicken thighs, if you like.
Recipe: Chicken Tikka Masala Pie
Speedy Prawn Peanut Curry
This curry is ready in just 20min and you’ll have many of the ingredients in your store cupboard already. Any nut butter can replace the peanut butter in this recipe - we particularly like it with cashew butter.
Recipe: Speedy Prawn Peanut Curry
Pesto Chicken Stew
This stew can be enjoyed as is, or is great for batch cooking and freezing so you always have a home-cooked meal to hand. This stew is wonderful as the base for a mash- or pastry-topped pie or finished with homemade dumplings.
Recipe: Pesto Chicken Stew
Fragrant Lamb and Chickpea Stew with Spiced Flatbreads
If you like things a little more fiery, add a finely chopped red chilli to your stew along with the garlic and spices.
Recipe: Fragrant Lamb and Chickpea Stew with Spiced Flatbreads
Haddock and Tomato Casserole
This warming dish is full of bright and sunny flavours - perfect for banishing the first of the autumn chills.
Recipe: Haddock and Tomato Casserole
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
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