Plan my cook day

Bolognese for the freezer, sized for your family

It’s 6pm, the kids are hungry, and tonight’s dinner is already made. You cooked the beef bolognese in one big batch and froze it in containers, one dinner to each. Move a container to the fridge the night before, and that’s dinner.

Makes
8 portions
On the night
Nothing to cook
A portion
About 310 kcal
Plan my cook day

One afternoon of batch cooking, weeks of dinners.

A plate of spaghetti bolognese

How to make it

Make it all ahead for the freezer.

Beef bolognese

Make ahead and freeze

Or lentil bolognese

Ingredients for 8 portions

Method

Prep

  1. Boil the kettle.
  2. Peel onions and carrot and dice them small, about 5 mm.
  3. Trim celery stick and dice it the same size.
  4. Crush garlic clove.

Sauce

  1. Dissolve beef stock cube in water from the kettle in a jug.
  2. Heat olive oil in your biggest pan (at least 5 litres) over a medium heat. Fry the onion, carrot and celery for 10 minutes until soft.
  3. Stir in the garlic for 1 minute.
  4. Turn the heat up, add mince beef and fry for 8 minutes until browned all over, breaking it up with a wooden spoon as it goes.
  5. Stir in tomato puree and dried oregano and cook for 1 minute.
  6. Tip in chopped tomatoes and the stock, then add dried bay leaf and black pepper.
  7. Bubble it uncovered for 40 minutes until thick, stirring now and then so it doesn't catch. It looks thin at first but cooks down.
  8. Any meat that has been minced or skewered all the way through should be cooked thoroughly., says the Food Standards Agency.
  9. Take it off the heat and fish out the bay leaves.
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Nutrition

Per portion, beef bolognese
Energy
310 kcal
Fat
17.1g
Carbohydrate
11g
Protein
27.6g
Nutrition details
Energy
310 kcal
Fat
17.1g
of which saturates
6g
Carbohydrate
11g
of which sugars
9.4g
Fibre
3.3g
Protein
27.6g
Salt
0.89g

Estimated from ingredient data.

How we’d cook it, not advice. We don’t check recipes for allergens, and ingredients vary by brand, so check the label on everything you use. Prepare and cook food the way the Food Standards Agency says. Allergens and food safety

Bolognese with beef bolognese Beef bolognese, made ahead and frozen. Beefbolognese
Make ahead and freeze

How it comes together

Ready for the freezer

  1. Make the beef bolognese

  2. Let it cool.

    “cool any warm dishes before putting them in your freezer”, says the Food Standards Agency.

  3. Beef bolognese. Pour into your containers, one meal to each, and seal.

  4. Label each container with the dish and the date.

No special kit. The beef bolognese works best in freezer bags. Any freezer-safe container does the job too.

Ready to eat

  1. The night before, move the beef bolognese to the fridge.

    “the safest way to defrost food is in the fridge overnight”, says the Food Standards Agency.

  2. Beef bolognese. Tip it into a pan and heat it, stirring, until it’s steaming hot all the way through.

    “it is important that food is cooked to steaming hot throughout, rather than warmed”, says the Food Standards Agency.

Nomstash plans the rest

  • Everything from one shop

    The food and the freezer bags on one shopping list, with an estimated cost before you go.

  • Sized for your family

    Say who’s eating and every container holds the right amount, growing as the children do.

  • No more UFOs

    Unidentified Frozen Objects, as the Food Standards Agency calls them. Each container says what’s inside and the day you made it.

  • A reminder the night before

    Nomstash tells you which container to move to the fridge for tomorrow’s dinner.

Plan my cook day

  • Already keep a freezer spreadsheet?

    Paste it in from Excel or Google Sheets, or choose a CSV file, and Nomstash reads it into your stash.

    Bring in my freezer list

Make it a cook day

Add two or three more dishes to the same afternoon, and one shop covers the lot.

Batch cooking: cook once, eat all month

Freezing and defrosting safely

The rest of the Food Standards Agency’s advice, in their words, is in our freezing and defrosting guide.

Sources

  1. Food Standards Agency How to chill, freeze and defrost food safely gov.uk
  2. Food Standards Agency Cooking your food gov.uk

Last checked . Each quotation on this page was read against the page it links to.

Make bolognese your first batch.

Nomstash plans the shop, sizes every container and reminds you the night before. Nomstash is in beta.

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