Our Favourite Freezer-Friendly Batch Cooking Recipes

There's nothing worse than needing a super-speedy weeknight dinner and discovering you've got nothing left in the fridge, especially when you're craving something hearty and filling for tea. But there's a way to avoid this heartache, and all it involves is a few batch cooking recipes. From Slow Cooker Bolognese to Broccoli & Stilton Soup and Sweet Potato & Chickpea Curry, there's plenty of easy, fuss-free recipes you can batch cook and then freeze for the week ahead. For 53 of our favourite batch cooking recipes, keep sliding...

Moussaka's perfect if you're after something relatively easy, but incredibly tasty to cook up at the weekend. Not to mention, it's an instant crowd pleaser!

Get the Moussaka recipe.

Delightfully rich and hearty, with the perfect balance of tomato and smoky paprika as the base. You can’t get more classic than a sausage casserole, and this really is it done properly.

Get the Sausage Casserole recipe.

One of the best ways to ensure you get lots of flavour in your soup is to cook the onion, celery and carrot slowly until they begin to caramelise. This is called a soffritto, and is the base for most sauces and stews in Italian cooking.

Get the Minestrone Soup recipe.

Dumplings are super simple to make and taste amazing in a stew – especially when they’re super stodgy and soggy.

Get the Beef Stew with Dumplings recipe.

When you're craving cheese and carbs, there's really nothing better than cannelloni. Popular stuffings include spinach and ricotta or beef mince, but we've switched our recipe up to use turkey mince and butternut squash (the end result is crazy-delicious).

Get the Turkey, Tomato & Butternut Squash Cannelloni recipe.

Rich and tasty, this shepherd’s pie is a guaranteed crowd pleaser.

Get the Shepherd's Pie recipe.

We’ve kept this recipe super simple, and have packed it with pearl barley and potatoes, meaning that if you like, this can be a dreamy one-pot.

Get the Lamb Casserole recipe.

This chicken and sweet potato curry is absolute comfort food goals. Thanks to the spices, it's gorgeously fragrant, and the addition of coconut milk makes it creamy.

Get the Chicken and Sweet Potato Curry recipe.

The key to a brilliant chicken balti is marinating the chicken pieces in yoghurt, spices and lime juice the chicken gets tenderised, if you want to get ahead you could do this the night before!

Get the Chicken Balti recipe.

This delicious broccoli and stilton soup is a classic for a reason. The flavour of creamy broccoli works perfectly with tangy and savoury Stilton. You could also use a different cheese such as cheddar on the toasts, if you prefer.

Get the Broccoli & Stilton Soup recipe.

If you've got a well stocked cupboard, you should have all these ingredients already in stock. This curry is seriously worth the TLC.

Get the Sweet Potato & Chickpea Curry recipe.

This chicken tagine recipe is super tasty and is perfect for a midweek meal, OR your next dinner party.

Get the Chicken Tagine recipe.

Cottage pie is essentially a shepherd's pie but with beef. It's a meat pie, filled with beef and topped with cheesy mashed potatoes.

Get the Cottage Pie recipe.

The trick is to cook those leeks and potatoes properly! Cut them small, and allow them to sweat in all that butter for about 20 mins altogether.

Get the Leek & Potato Soup recipe.

This Mediterranean-style fish stew is really easy, really flavourful, and most of all - super healthy. We left out traditional ingredients like saffron to make it cheaper, and mussels because it was just getting a bit too complicated. We kept it simple with cod and prawns, and it's delicious.

Get the Healthy Fish Stew recipe.

This pork casserole is comfort food to the max. The honey-glazed apples add a delicious fruity sweetness to this rich and hearty pork and ale casserole. Feel free to use any soft herbs you like in the mash.

Get the Pork & Ale Casserole With Honey-Glazed Apples recipe.

Pork stroganoff is such an easy, flavourful dinner to make. Using pork fillet is perfect because it's such a tender cut, and really easy to cook with. Load your stroganoff up with mushrooms, mustard and sherry for the most delicious meal.

Get the Pork Stroganoff recipe.

This twist on a shepherds pie has a deliciously addictive crispy and cheesy Hasselback topping. Serve with steamed greens and you've got yourself a winning dinner.

Get the Cheesy Hasselback Shepherd's Pie recipe.

Bolognese is one of our favourite recipes to make during the winter: It instantly warms you up and makes you feel sooo cosy.

Get the Slow Cooker Bolognese recipe.

This slow cooker chicken stew is comfort food at its best. We have cooked this one with salty and slightly smoky pancetta and added whole shallots which break down over the cooking time.

Get the Slow Cooker Chicken Casserole recipe.

Slow Cooker Mac & Cheese. Everything—including the pasta!—cooks in a slow cooker. And in the end you have just ONE DISH to clean.

Get the Slow Cooker Mac & Cheese recipe.

Turkey curry is hands down one of our favourite leftover meals. Plus, 45 minutes and it's on the table, packed full of spices and other store-cupboard staples.

Get the Turkey Curry recipe.

The sauce is rich in flavour and the beef falls apart beautifully. The main ingredients of a Massaman curry include your meat, along with coconut milk, onion, peanuts, potatoes, palm sugar, tamarind sauce and a range of spices.

Get the Beef Massaman Curry recipe.

This recipe makes amazing leftovers. And yes, you can make it ahead! Cook all the way through step 6, then cool the stew to room temperature before refrigerating in a resealable container. Before serving, reheat in a large pot over medium-low heat.

Get the Beef Stew recipe.

Bolognese is so much more than just a meat sauce. It’s the ultimate way to transform a package of minced beef into something show-stopping. When the temperature starts to drop, what sounds better than pasta smothered in rich, hearty, umami-bomb bolognese?

Get the Bolognese Sauce recipe.

In this baked pasta recipe, there is no boiling. The tortellini magically bakes in the bolognese until it's perfectly cooked! Oh, you'll have your doubts for sure (as we did once).

Get the Bolognese Baked Tortellini recipe.

Is there anything quite as satisfying when it's cold outside than a huge bowl of steaming soup, served alongside a buttered crusty roll? And this butternut squash and sweet potato version is SO healthy, and incredibly easy to make.

Get the Butternut Squash And Sweet Potato Soup recipe.

Mashed potatoes are high in carbs so we replaced the potatoes with cauliflower for a low-carb swap everyone will love. Still creamy and buttery, you'll barely miss the potatoes.

Get the Cauliflower Shepherd's Pie recipe.

Chicken biryani is such an easy and delicious dinner idea. Loaded with gorgeous chicken, onions and spices, we love the addition of raisins and almonds, too. YUM!

Get the Chicken Biryani recipe.

We love Cumberland pie, it's carby, meaty, cheesy and crispy all in one big dish. But there are some misconceptions with a Cumberland pie. Some people think it's basically the same as cottage pie (beef mince and mashed potato), but it's so much more than that.

Get the Cumberland Pie recipe.

A nostalgic classic for many, chicken Marbella is briny, piquant, and incredibly flavourful. The chicken is tenderised (and flavoured by) a marinade dotted with prunes, olives, capers, and herbs.

Get the Chicken Marbella recipe.

Homemade chicken noodle soup is already easy to whip up, but tossing all of your ingredients in a slow cooker makes it even easier.

Get the Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup recipe.

Lamb biryani is such a gorgeous, and fragrant Indian dish filled with tender bits of lamb, fluffy rice and spices. This great one-pot version is from The Hungerpots Cookbook, and although it's not strictly traditional, it's absolutely the easiest one we've ever made.

Get the Lamb Biryani recipe.

This ragù is perfect for making a big batch on Sunday night and freezing any leftovers for when your pasta craving hits—which I'm sure will be soon!

Get the Lamb Ragu recipe.

This one-pan lemony chicken is a total winner.

Get the Chicken Piccata recipe.

All of the comfort with none of the work.

Get the Chicken Stew recipe.

Don't write off making a tagine if you don't own a tagine pot. We made ours in a Dutch oven and it comes out perfectly! The lamb simmers until it is completely tender, while making your kitchen smell like a fancy Moroccan restaurant.

Get the Moroccan Lamb Tagine recipe.

You can't get much more comforting than a gorgeous Lancashire hotpot. The traditional British stew, hailing from the North West of England consists of chunks of lamb, topped with sliced potatoes (and we've thrown in cheese for good measure).

Get the Lancashire Hotpot recipe.

If you're looking for a new Indian dish to perfect at home, you've got to try our chicken tikka recipe. The traditional dish consists of small pieces of marinated chicken, threaded onto skewers and grilled. Unlike a chicken tikka masala, this tikka dish is more like a tandoori - so no sauce!

Get the Chicken Tikka recipe.

This quick and easy coconut curry might be a bit untraditional, but trust us, it's delicious. Don't forget to whip up some rice to soak up all that saucy goodness. Check out our step-to-step guide on how to cook rice for the fluffiest rice ever. (Catch ya later, dry takeaway rice!)

Get the Coconut Chicken Curry recipe.

A hearty bolognese doesn't have to include any meat. This vegetarian bolognese is full of lentils that makes it every bit as filling. Serve it over your favourite pasta and enjoy a dinner worth dreaming of.

Get the Lentil Bolognese recipe.

This lentil lasagne recipe is packed with protein, carbohydrates, fibre, folate and magnesium, helping to fill you up. Full with yummy ingredients including porcini mushrooms, baby spinach and lots of lentils, this might just become a fierce favourite of yours.

Get the Lentil Lasagne recipe.

When dinner is this good you'll actually want to cook for yourself. This skillet chicken is easy to make and comes together quickly. You'll have a sauce so delicious you'll want to drink it straight from the pan.

Get the Creamy Tuscan Chicken recipe.

The trick to this is patience, and a seriously good paste. Don't scrimp on the paste ingredients and you won't regret it, and remember it's all about low and slow, so just keep stirring occasionally and keeping an eye on that curry and you won't be disappointed.

Get the Lamb Rogan Josh recipe.

Our classic beef chilli is already quick enough to make on a weeknight, but this slow cooker recipe is even easier.

Get the Slow Cooker Chilli recipe.

A good, hearty soup is one of our favourite ways to warm up in the colder months. And this Slow Cooker Sausage and White Bean Soup will do that perfectly.

Get the Slow Cooker Sausage and White Bean Soup recipe.

Thai green curry is a variety of curry from Thailand using coconut milk and fresh green chillies. This recipe in particular is for those who are after something super simple, a quick to throw together meal - and this bad boy takes just over half an hour to get on the table.

Get the Thai Green Curry recipe.

Add some freshness to the beefy classic with this insanely delish slow cooker dinner.

Get the Slow Cooker Spring Beef Bourguignon recipe.

If you're after a healthy soup recipe, look no further than this gorgeous sweet potato and carrot version. Packed full of veggies, it's quick to make, and super filling.

Get the Sweet Potato And Carrot Soup recipe.

Packed with all the good stuff: peppers, chillies, lemongrass, aubergine and green beans, this recipe is beyond delicious.

Get the Thai Red Curry recipe.

Hearty and healthy.

Get the Vegan Chilli recipe.

With no meat to get in the way this lasagne isn't messing around. Here are our top tips for getting it perfect every time.

Get the Vegetarian Lasagne recipe.

When we're craving something hearty and healthy, this chicken chilli immediately jumps to mind. The white beans make it SO much more satisfying than chicken noodle soup, the green chillies and jalapeño add just the right amount of spice, and the sour cream adds a tangy creaminess that single cream could never bring.

Get the White Chicken Chilli recipe.