Plan my cook day

Curry for the freezer, sized for your family

It’s 6pm, the kids are hungry, and tonight’s dinner is already made. You cooked the chickpea curry and katsu chicken in big batches and froze them 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 1098 kcal
Plan my cook day

One afternoon of batch cooking, weeks of dinners.

Curry

How to make it

Make it all ahead for the freezer.

Chickpea curry

Make ahead and freeze

Or katsu curry sauce , korma sauce , ruby curry sauce or tikka Masala Sauce

Ingredients for 8 portions

Method

Prep

  1. Dice onions into 1 cm pieces.
  2. Crush garlic clove and peel and grate ginger.
  3. Drain tinned chickpeas.

Curry

  1. Heat vegetable oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Fry the onion for 8 minutes until soft and golden.
  2. Add the garlic, ginger and chilli flakes and fry for 1 minute.
  3. Stir in ground coriander, ground cumin, garam masala and tomato puree and fry for 2 minutes until fragrant, stirring so the spices don't catch.
  4. Add the chickpeas, chopped tomatoes and salt. Simmer for 5 minutes until slightly reduced.
  5. Crumble in creamed coconut, add water and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring until the coconut melts into the sauce.
  6. Stir in spinach and cook for 2 minutes until wilted.
Add to stash: Chickpea curry Always in: Chickpea curry

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Katsu chicken

Make ahead and freeze

Or aubergine katsu , diced chicken for curry or fried paneer

Ingredients for 8 portions

Method

Coat the chicken

  1. Preheat the oven to 220°C (200°C fan) and line a large baking tray with baking paper.
  2. Put chicken breast between 2 sheets of baking paper and bash with a rolling pin to an even 1.5 cm thick.
  3. Put plain flour and salt on a plate, beat medium egg in a shallow bowl and tip panko breadcrumbs onto a second plate.
  4. Coat each breast in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs, pressing the crumbs on firmly. Lay on the tray.

Bake

  1. Drizzle the chicken with vegetable oil.

To eat now

  1. Bake for 20 minutes, turning halfway, until golden and cooked through.
  2. Poultry (such as chicken, turkey, duck, and game birds) and pork can have bacteria all the way through the meat. This means that these meats need to be cooked all the way through., says the Food Standards Agency.
  3. Rest for 2 minutes, then slice 1 cm thick.
Add to stash: Katsu chicken Always in: Katsu chicken

Made some already? Add it to your stash. Mark it always in and Nomstash tells you when you’re running low.

Nutrition

Per portion, chickpea curry and katsu chicken
Energy
1098 kcal
Fat
48.9g
Carbohydrate
72g
Protein
84.5g
Nutrition details
Energy
1098 kcal
Fat
48.9g
of which saturates
23.2g
Carbohydrate
72g
of which sugars
11.8g
Fibre
20.7g
Protein
84.5g
Salt
3.31g

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

Curry with chickpea curry and katsu chicken Chickpea curry, made ahead and frozen; Katsu chicken, made ahead and frozen. Chickpeacurry Katsu chicken
Make ahead and freeze

How it comes together

Ready for the freezer

  1. Make the chickpea curry

  2. Make the katsu chicken

  3. Let everything cool.

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

  4. Chickpea curry. Pour into your containers, one meal to each, and seal.

  5. Katsu chicken. Spread them out on a lined tray and freeze until firm, then pack into your container.

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

No special kit. The chickpea curry works best in freezer bags and the katsu chicken works best in freezer bags. Any freezer-safe container does the job too.

Ready to eat

  1. The night before, move the chickpea curry and katsu chicken to the fridge.

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

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

  3. Katsu chicken. Heat it in the oven until it’s steaming hot all the way through and crisp, turning halfway.

    “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 curry your first batch.

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

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