Let me let you know why “soup prep” ought to be changing “meal prep” in your vocabulary this winter.
Meal prep and I’ve not gotten alongside previously. I would spend Sundays within the kitchen with the perfect intentions of checking out my lunches for the week, whether or not it was with a giant stunning vat of black bean soup, a gluten-free rooster noodle soup, or a spicy turkey chili. However by Wednesday, I would be hitting takeout for lunch once more. The lovingly crafted soup can be left to slowly spoil in my fridge, as a result of nothing tastes good the fourth day in a row. As we bought into this yr’s soup season, I knew I would should prioritize selection. All of it clicked into place as soon as I began doling out particular person servings into Souper Cubes freezer trays. These silicon molds separate, freeze and manage any batched meal you possibly can match into them. Now my freezer is a treasure chest filled with single serving sized frozen blocks of noodle soups, bean soups, and beef stews. I really stay up for my weekly meal prep realizing I am not sentencing myself to the identical soup each single day. I am merely including extra selection into my properly stocked freezer, so I can choose whichever soup or stew I am within the temper for every lunch. However the higher freezer group was simply the beginning of my soup-maxing season. This is all of the instruments I take advantage of to make my freezer filled with soups the most well liked (coldest?) restaurant on the town.
Simply Organized Freezer Storage
Nothing turns the glee of a well-stocked freezer into the dread of leftovers like a gallon sized frost-bitten brick of soup. I’ve tried to resolve this by freezing smaller parts with the mish-mash of smaller meals containers in my home, nevertheless it’s laborious to maintain organized, and my stash of pint sized deli containers run out fairly rapidly after they’re all stuffed and confined to long run storage within the freezer.
What I like about Souper Cubes is that their trays stack neatly within the freezer, after which as soon as all the person servings are strong, I can pop them out into these reusable meals storage baggage from W&P. So now my freezer has a bag filled with beef stew blocks, and one other bag filled with rooster inventory cubes, one other with single servings of Spicy Pork and Mustard Inexperienced Soup. The emptied Souper Dice trays are prepared for no matter my subsequent batch of freezer pleasant meals are. The meals grade silicone will be stuffed up scorching or chilly, retains bizarre smells at bay, and is microwave and dishwasher protected.
Souper Dice One Cup Freezer Trays (with Lid)
W&P Reusable Bag Starter Set
A Stress Cooker/Gradual Cooker Combo
I give my strain cooker numerous credit score for enhancing the standard of my kitchen life. A strain cooker not solely cooks stews and braises quicker on my meal prep day; I additionally depend on it for making my very own inventory, which I discover to be tastier, extra nutritious and cheaper than retailer purchased rooster broth in any soup recipe. However a strain cooker could be a little intimidating, which is why I just like the cheerful trying and person pleasant Our Place Dream Cooker. The management panel is intuitive, and its engaging design makes for a tool I do not thoughts maintaining out on the countertop (which suggests I really use it, as a substitute of forgetting it exists at the back of a cabinet.) Bonus: It may possibly sear, saute, gradual prepare dinner and preserve meals heat.
A Meals Processor With Stamina
Meal prep means an entire lot of veggies to cut, and that’s the reason I say, “Hand this one over to the robots.” The Breville Sous Chef 12-Cup Meals Processor has a 1,000-watt motor and may match as much as 12 cups of no matter you need diced, grated, or pureed. And it would not even cry once I make it cube my onions. If you wish to save slightly cash and do not fairly want that type of horsepower, we advocate the 12-cup Hamilton Seashore Massive Mouth Duo as a budget-friendly possibility.
Breville Sous Chef 12 Meals Processor
Hamilton Seashore 12-Cup Massive Mouth® Duo Plus Meals Processor
A Range-To-Oven Pot
If you have not been blessed with a classic (née “historic”) Dutch oven from a household elder, you are going to desire a high quality stove-to-oven pot. We’re break up on a choice between Staub or Le Creuset, (I’ll weigh in to say my Le Creuset has served me faithfully for practically a decade) however both approach, these pots will rapidly turn into your favourite all goal kitchen workhorse, able to something you want from on prime of the oven or within the range, with loads of room for a lot of soup servings.
Staub Enameled Forged Iron Spherical Dutch Oven 7-Qt.
Le Creuset Enameled Forged Iron Signature Spherical Dutch Oven, 5.5-Qt.
A No-Nonsense Blender
For silky soups and creamy purees, nothing beats a Vitamix. And sure, I am speaking about chilly climate cooking right now, however I might be remiss to not shout out my Vitamix for cranking out excellent piña coladas in the summertime time.
However I sometimes do not wish to fastidiously tip a steaming pot of scorching and chunky lava straight into the countertop blender’s carafe. So I usually simply dunk an immersion blender proper right into a pot of softened veggies and carbohydrates and rework them into luscious liquid like a magical wand (whose solely spells are “emulsion” and “puree,” however nonetheless—fairly magical).
Vitamix Immersion Blender
Spices and Condiments
Whether or not it is for a Mexican tortilla soup recipe or Italian ribolitta, if you cannot keep in mind if you final stocked the spices in your pantry, you would possibly as properly be seasoning with sawdust. Deal with your self to some vibrant recent spices from Burlap & Barrel and see for your self how a lot their powdered purple stripe garlic and dried flowering hyssop thyme can invigorate the aromas in your meal prep headquarters.
Burlap & Barrel Fundamentals Assortment
An Anti-fatigue Mat
When you scoff at our suggestion to let a meals processor chop your onions or enable a gradual cooker to do the work whilst you’re not residence, then please allow us to advocate some aid in your ft with an anti-fatigue mat. A meal prep day spent standing within the kitchen doesn’t have to imply an evening of charley horses. I’m so grateful for my squishy ergonomic mat once I’m slicing and stirring on my ft for hours.
