Great Tip: Precook a Week's Worth of Vegetables

Chef and food writer Tamar Alder has just published an unusual, mostly prose-style cookbook called An Everlasting Meal. I'm in the middle of reading it and have so far found it quite enjoyable and helpful. One tip I'm very happy to have learned also actually surprised me, because it's somewhat counter intuitive: cook up all your produce when you arrive home from the market, store them in jars in your refrigerator and make your meals from this bounty throughout the week. I decided to give it a try last week and this is what happened.

I found Ms. Adler's suggestion to cook up all my vegetables right away surprising because the reason we get fresh vegetables is exactly because of that freshness. Pre-cooked is what we're avoiding, right? Well, not really. If we home cook our vegetables (mostly by roasting them, which really concentrates their flavors) we then have a large palette to choose from while building our meals throughout the week. This is especially helpful if you need to get your meals on the table quickly, when the idea of roasting beets or carrots every time you need them may actually prevent you from using them.

So I gave this a try and roasted up some carrots, turnips, cauliflower and beets. I wilted a few bunches of greens and blanched some broccoli. All this went into containers in the refrigerator, where they sat like jewels, just waiting for my hunger and imagination. Throughout the week I made sandwiches and salads, rice bowls and soups and last-minute stews. I topped pizzas and made pastas and heated up little mixed medley side dishes.

It was really wonderful to reach into my refrigerator and pull out a few beet slices to tuck into a sandwich, for example. If the beets were't pre-cooked, I would have never done this. I think I ate better because my vegetables were so handy and for the first time in a long time, I didn't guiltily throw something away because I didn't get around to cooking it. Things did run a bit low towards the end of the week and so I may adopt this as a twice a week project from now on. Thanks, Tamar!

• For more information about Tamar Alder and to see her videos on this very subject (How to Stride Ahead, parts I & II), visit her website.

(Image: Dana Velden)

Comments (16)

Did you try anything with spinach, and if so how did it turn out? I usually buy a large amount from the farmers market, but then every time I want to incorporate it into dinner I have to wilt it first...wondering if I could do this one time instead of five, and keep the leftovers in the fridge?

becca0727: I haven't tried spinach yet (only kale) but I can't imagine why it wouldn't work. It's worth a try!

I am very interested to know if the author did nutritional analysis after using pre-cooked vegetables for a week. And were the numbers run through a nutritional calculator or samples submitted to a lab? I would be surprised if there were not significant losses.

fabricwench: I don't think she did, or at least she didn't speak to that in the book.

becca 0727, I've done spinach (and other leafy greens too) with great success. I usually sauté a bit of garlic, toss in the greens with a smidge of water, let them start to wilt and then add salt, pepper, and sometimes red pepper flakes. The seasoning goes a long way to making sure whatever you use the greens in isn't bland.
They keep wonderfully for about a week and are great in omelette, frittata, quiche, pizza, all kinds of sauces, spanakopita, lasagne, or just as a side to something more substantial.

Because of our schedules this term, I started doing this on weekends, so dinner was an easy fix during the week. I've done all kinds of greens and they all work well. I've also blanched things like broccoli to finish when we are ready to eat it, roasted all kinds of veggies, and made smashed potatoes to be reheated later in the week. This pre-cooking has turned a term where I was afraid we would end up eating more takeout due to time constraints into one where we are actually eating out even less (used to be a couple of times a week--now it's less than once a week on average).

This sounds so convenient! Did you have anything go bad over the course of a week? Any storage tips?

alicelost: Nothing went bad, but my stash really didn't last a whole seven days. More like five. I used clear glass and plastic containers so I could see what I had and be inspired by that. (I'm an 'out of sight, out of mind' kind of person.) Tight fitting lids are important for freshness.

I have been doing this with all the greens from my CSA box. Not only am I more likely to eat the steamed kale, mizuna, etc., they take up much less space.

I like this idea. A few weeks ago, in an effort to help my husband shed a few lbs, I began poaching a few chicken breasts at a time on Sunday mornings so that he has some healthy protein to eat all week. Never thought of doing the same for veggies. Thank you!

"I am very interested to know if the author did nutritional analysis after using pre-cooked vegetables for a week. And were the numbers run through a nutritional calculator or samples submitted to a lab?"

I'm not sure about this question -- how would the date on which you cooked the vegetables impact nutrition loss?...If I cook a squash today but eat it tomorrow, vs. cooking and eating it tomorrow, I don't imagine the day's difference would be that great, would it?

This is great- thanks for all the helpful comments. Looking forward to trying it.

I like to roast a big batch of sweet potato fries and use them over the next few days, either as a side on their own, or in smaller bites- they go into things like pilafs really well.

this is what I did over the summer with the veggies in my farm share that I didn't plan on eating raw-- being a single person, it was the only way that I didn't end up throwing a few away each week!

I do this often but I don't find all of the pre-cooked foods that appealing. Carrots, beats and winter squashes are fine a few days later... but with Spinach or Roasted cauliflower just isn't as good two days later (IMO) any tips for refreshing the veggies? Did you re-heat or eat them cold?

I recently received this book as a gift, and now I can't wait to read it.