In Episode #46, co-hosts Bita and Beata provide strategies and tips to help with meal planning and prepping in anticipation of cooking during busy weeknights. Fall means back to school for many, back to work for some, and back to routines and getting more organized for most. Traditionally, cooking Persian food is a time and labor-intensive process taking hours and sometimes days. With today’s modern life-styles, we need to be able to put a well-balanced, healthy meal on the table in an hour or less.
Planning tools
- A weekly meal planner or calendar
- Daily notes
- Grocery list
Batch cooking - cooking a larger portion of a food category with the intent to use it in multiples ways and meals, spanning across a few days and up to a week
- Batch cooking meats
- Roasting vegetables
- Cleaning and trimming fresh herbs
Batch cooking around a well-balanced meal
- Lean proteins
- Ancient grains (in Persian cuisine it’s mainly rice!)
- Fruits and vegetables
Batch cooking with Persian recipes in mind
- Boiling eggs for Persian potato salad | Salad Olivier
- Cooking chicken
- Chopping vegetables
- Making koo koo
- Cooking eggplant
- Persian stews and khoresh
- Soups such as lentil soup, ab ghosht, ash reshteh
Ask the Beats!
The Beats ask each other, what is your biggest challenge around cooking Persian food on a busy week night?
- Finding the time
- Having all of the components of the meal ready at the same time and serving them still warm
- Chopping vegetables
Beats Cheats!
What are some additional shortcuts for putting together a Persian meal on a busy night?
- Using canned beans
- Buying pre-cooked beets
- Ordering Persian food take out for part of the meal, for example order kabab and make the rice
Resources and recipes from this episode:
All Modern Persian Food episodes can be found at: https://modernpersianfood.com/episodes/
Co-host Beata Nazem Kelley blog: https://beatseats.com
Co-host Bita Arabian blog: https://ovenhug.com
Link to episode with “Ask the Beats” about meal planning. Episode 33: Persian Cucumbers
Link to Episode 30: Tahchin
Persian Meal Planning Tips blog post
How to Make Boiled Eggs in an Instant Pot
Video for Roasting Whole Eggplant
Bita’s recipe for Koo Koo Sabzi
Beata’s recipe for Persian Frittata Koo Koo Sabzi
Bita’s recipe for Salad Olivier
Bita’s recipe for Tah Cheen
Bita’s recipe for Tahchin Bites
Beata’s recipe for Persian Jeweled Tahchin
Podcast Production by Alvarez Audio