As promised, here’s my recipe for the burger patties I used at our beach bbq. They are the most delicious blend of potatoes and smoked paprika.
The burgers once more!!
Ingredients
3 large potatoes
1/2 red onion
1 tbsp roasted garlic powder
1 1/2 tbsp smoked paprika powder
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
8 oz cheese block
salt as required
Method
Cut the potatoes in quarters and boil in a large pot with water.
Pull out when fork tender and immediately dunk in cold water to stop the cooking
While potatoes cook, finely chop the onion
Mash potatoes and add all ingredients
Mix well and divide into 8 equal parts. I like thinner patties, so I made 8. You can divide the mixture according to your choosing!
Cut the cheese block into 8 equal pieces
Oil your hands and press one part of the mix into a flat disc
Put a piece of cheese in the middle and enclose completely with the potato mix
Shape into round patties and freeze till needed or use immediately!
This recipe originated completely by accident. Usually we’d buy frozen patties when grilling, but some of our friends are vegetarian. The frozen vegetarian patties taste like cardboard and thus, I tried these patties. After much trial and error, I finally made some that did not break on the grill.
Make sure you oil the grill before putting these on. It is also necessary to watch the potatoes and make sure they don’t over cook. Over cooked potatoes will make the mixture wet and the patties will fall apart on the grill.
Since the patties are extremely dry, I like to brush mine with sauces like sriracha or a spicy Bbq sauce. Just brush some on while grilling and the patty will turn moist! I also add a single slice of low fat cheese on the patty while it’s grilling so it melts before adding it all on a bun…
That’s it for this recipe. Do try it out and let me know how it turned out!!
These are our favorite burgers ever. I was a bit skeptical about trying beetroot burgers with prunes added, but these were amazing! The earthy and sweet taste from the beetroot gave the burgers a great depth of flavor. The other additions added texture and flavor as well.
The toppings added can be customized according to everyone’s taste. I added lettuce and grilled onions to mine! Coleslaw also works in these burgers…
The best part about the burgers is that they can be frozen. Just make patties in the required sizes and freeze them individually. Grill them on a hot pan for a few minutes or till the edges almost burn. I also added cheese on the top and melted it!
I know, I know… There’s a LOT of cheese here! I happen to like cheese a lot and hence, I use low fat cheese! Grocery outlet usually has a version of low fat pepper jack cheese slices. Kraft also makes a decent 2% cheddar!
So make these burgers and freeze them for those weeknights when you really don’t want to cook! 🙂
This post is majorly about freezing Indian food, but a quick general note first. When I started meal prepping, the first thing I did was research what can be frozen and what cannot be frozen. I found a guide by Lauren Greutman (her handle: @iamthatlady) that is amazingly detailed. Here’s the link: https://www.laurengreutman.com/83-foods-to-freeze-or-foods-not-to-freeze/
I love
having Indian home food every other night. Finding complete guides to freezing
Indian foods is quite hard. It took some experimentation, but here’s a list!
Chutneys:
Most chutneys freeze pretty well. I always make big batches and use them when needed. Coconut based chutneys are the only exception. I found the texture changes on thawing and it isn’t very appetizing. While not a chutney, a mix for pani puri water freezes very well. Just blend it like you normally would and freeze it. When needed, you can dilute it with water and add salt, cumin powder and chat masala. Sometimes when I’m running low on herbs, I just add some chutney I froze. So, that’s another advantage of freezing these.
Gravies:
This recipe contains a lot of dairy and will need to be eaten in two weeks. The portion is single serve!
My cousin freezes large batches of cooked gravies and adds vegetables or paneer to it at the time of eating. I prefer adding everything in and freezing single serve portions.
One
thing you should never freeze in gravies is seafood. When I froze a batch of
Shrimp Vindaloo, the shrimp turned leathery after thawing. The same seems to be
true for all seafood, according to the internet.
There
are many opinions on whether we should freeze dairy. I find freezing gravies
with dairy in it is fine as long as the food is eaten in two to three weeks.
The same holds true for gravies with paneer in them. The other gravies can be
frozen for three months.
Bread
Indian
breads are another thing that freeze well. They can be frozen uncooked, half
cooked or completely cooked. The last time my mom visited, she froze around a
100 phulkas for me. I just microwaved them when needed. I will be adding a post
about freezing phulkas, parathas etc. and a quick way to roll them as well
soon. Till then, you can follow this link: (add link). I would not recommend
freezing raw dough. It does not thaw well and the resultant bread will not be
as soft as the ones made with fresh dough.
Dessert
Indian
desserts come in a large variety. Some of these can be frozen very well. The best
desserts to freeze are all kinds of halwas
like carrot, moong etc. Other desserts which can be frozen includes barfis
(except coconut based), ladoos etc. Basically,
any dessert without a dairy base can be frozen. Just remember to eat them
within the month. Needless to say, these guidelines do not apply to
traditionally frozen desserts like kulfis.
Dry curries
While
these can be frozen, I do not recommend it. The texture is too watery to
qualify as a dry curry. This is especially true for potato. Never freeze
potatoes, boiled or otherwise. Many guides recommend it, but my experience has
been quite bad. When I prep for dry curries, I make sure to eat them within the
first three days. They can stay fresh in the fridge for that long.
Lentils
All
lentils freeze well. I freeze large batches of my favorites like dal makhana,
rajma, moong, dal khichdi, moong etc. They can stay good for three to four months.
You can freeze lentils cooked with salt and finish the dish later as well. I
prefer to freeze mine in single serve portions so I don’t have to do anything
before eating except chuck it in the microwave.
Fried Stuff
Homemade kachoris. Who wouldn’t want to freeze these?
I have frozen kachoris, samosas etc. multiple times. I usually do this when I get packages from India. They do not thaw well or reheat well. They become quite soft and lose the crispiness. However, if it means I can eat kachoris over an extended period of time without the effort, I will do it.
Batters and mixes
This last section is my favorite. Even before I started meal prepping, I used to freeze dosa and idli batters. It is extremely easy to make them and they are delicious any time of the day. Here’s my mother’s recipe for the batter https://everything-nothing.home.blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/dosa_idli-batter.docx. The batter can be defrosted in the microwave. The recipe is for idli batter, but can be converted into dosa batter on adding more water. Hebbars kitchen has a good video about this (https://youtu.be/iT4YJV2tx1w). This recipe has other additions. You can use my recipe and watch the video for guidance!
I also freeze mixes for things like dhokla, biryani masala, samosa masala etc. They last longer this way and you can use them whenever you want. They do not need to be thawed as well! This last month we got a huge shipment of white dhokla flour and it is in our freezer now. I am not sure how long they last, but the samosa masala my mom made in May 2018 is still good.
I will
keep adding to this list as I explore more. I have some tips and recipes for
freezing other cuisines as well. Keep an eye out for my next post!!
I recently
started meal prepping for the week. I was a little hesitant at first because of
two things. The first being my aversion to frozen food and the second being
that all videos, blogs etc. I saw prepped for two recipes for the week. That
meant I would be eating the same food every day of the week. That was not
something I was okay with. However, when I looked at recipes and methods of
freezing, I found that most cooked things could be frozen for at least three
months. I also realized that my aversion to frozen food comes from the fact
that I enjoy hot food. If I stick to food that can be heated, I should be fine.
Since I have a handle on the whole process now, I am writing a sort of guide to meal prep. Now, this is not a full-fledged meal prep blog and this is not a full-fledged guide. It’s something that can help you start and guide you to better resources. For this post, I am focusing on planning the meal prep itself.
First things first, you need to have the right equipment to meal prep. While some people use disposable containers, I prefer using things I can wash and reuse. It is also always better to have multiple boxes so you can freeze portioned meals. I would also suggest buying labels for the containers. Here’s a picture of the containers I use.
My meal prep boxes are a combination of Walmart 2 partition containers, Tupperware my mom sent and (believe it or not) restaurant delivery containers.
Other staple equipment includes usual material like aluminum foil, plastic wrap etc. We also own a 3.5 L Chefman air fryer, which is extremely handy in multi-tasking and produces healthy food! We got ours during Black Friday at Best Buy, but it is available on Amazon too.
Another important thing is to prep with the quantity, quality and diversity of the meals in mind. The key to this is planning the week ahead of time. I have a template that I use to list the menu for each week, list recipe ingredients and then create a shopping list from it. This link: https://everything-nothing.home.blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/mealplantemplate.docx has the format I use in Microsoft word. You are welcome to use it. Please let me know if it works for you! I usually fill it in every Saturday morning. If we are planning to go somewhere on a weekend, I prep for that week the week before.
Here’s an example of a week.
Recipe vise Ingredient List
Cauliflower
curry: cauliflower (1 medium floret), onion
You might notice my ingredient list does not include weekend recipes. This is because I include the weekend in next week’s prep. Another thing you might notice is that I have written check in front of some ingredients. This is because I want to check if I have them before buying more.
Make sure you set aside at least 4 hours each weekend for prepping excluding grocery runs and menu planning. This reminds me that meal prep is an excellent activity to do with your partner. More people working means less work for one person and you get to spend time together!
Everything and Nothing 