How To Meal Prep Weekly For Indian Cooking!

Everyday racking your brains to think “what to make for a meal” is rather annoying. And shopping for it is even worse. Well, we have you covered in shopping and planning for the week! Meal prepping is key to having quick meals cooked and being nutritious. Although a rather foreign concept, meal prepping for Indian cooking is quite easy. 

Steps are as follows:

Ingredients That Are Common

Making sure you invest in ingredients that are common for most dishes, helps in saving time, energy, and money. Spices that go in most dishes are a great option. Vegetables, legumes, and proteins which can be overlapped in different recipes are great as well.

Invest In A Meal Planner/Planner

Investing in a meal planner or even a planner which gives you space to write down your list, is good. It helps you be accountable for your food and above all helps you see which ingredients and spices are overlapping, which in turn helps you plan more efficiently.

Cook Curry Bases

Always make sure you cook your curry bases well and thoroughly. Since most Indian cooking calls for tomatoes, onions, and ginger-garlic-chili paste, make a big batch of this and freeze it properly. Yes, summers are extremely relentless in India, thus making you worry what if the paste goes bad. The key to this is to make a batch and freeze it in smaller bags, as per the requirement of the recipe and use it up in the first 3 days of the week.

Have More Protein And Fiber

It’s no secret that protein and fiber keeps you full for longer. Always put protein in every meal, as far as possible. Keep a balance of more protein, fiber and carbs. Choosing a source of protein for every meal is difficult, at times. Choose chickpeas, black chickpeas, and sprouts, which can be made in bulk and used in salads, main course and even as a snack.

Buy In Bulk

Buying in bulk helps in being within the budget and at the same time helps you have more options. In the event, you must cook something other than the planned meals, you have supplies at hand to do so. Spices are particularly expensive, if bought in smaller quantities.

Organize

Before you start to cook, always organize your timings. Set aside a day and see which takes the longest time to cook and work your way towards the least cooking time. This will help you manage your time; energy and you won’t be overwhelmed. Also throw in some meals that don’t require any cooking at all. Salads, sandwiches, smoothie bowls. Most importantly, spread out the cooking, based on use of appliances.

Storage Containers

Knowing which storage container works best in terms of storage space and freezer friendly, is extremely important. Organizing space in your fridge and freezer should be taken into account when you start so you know how many days worth of food you can store, without it being spoiled.

Have Fun

Whatever you do, have fun with it! Don’t think of meal planning as a chore, rather think of it as spending some quality time with yourself (if you stay alone) or your loved ones (if you stay with your partner/family). Meal planning can seem daunting when you first start out, but once you have done it a few times, you will be better prepared.

As they say ‘practice makes perfect‘.