The Sunday hour that makes the whole week easier

I do not do meal prep in the boxes-of-identical-lunches sense. I tried it for a year and stopped, because by Wednesday I resented the food and by Thursday I bought a sandwich.

What I do instead takes about an hour and commits me to nothing.

The five jobs

1. Cook a grain. A big pot of rice, farro, orzo, whatever. Cool it, bag it flat, fridge. This alone removes twenty minutes from three dinners.
2. Roast a tray of vegetables. Whatever was cheap. Hard heat, so the edges catch. They become salads, bowls, a side, or lunch on toast.
3. Make a jar of dressing. Oil, acid, mustard, salt, shake. It lasts two weeks and it is the difference between leaves and a salad.
4. Make a jar of pickles. Fifteen minutes of work. Sharpness on demand for three weeks.
5. Wash and cut everything. Herbs washed and dried, salad spun, carrots peeled. Friction on a Wednesday is almost never cooking. It is preparation.

Why this beats making five dinners

Because you have not decided anything yet. On Wednesday you can want a grain bowl or a salad or eggs on toast with pickles, and all three are twenty minutes away.

Five identical boxes decide Wednesday for you on Sunday, which is a decision made by somebody who was not tired yet and does not know what Wednesday will be like.

Do not season the base

Keep the grain and the vegetables fairly plain. Salt, acid and herbs fade in the fridge, so a fully seasoned base tastes flat by day three while a plain one takes seasoning happily on the night.

Finish each portion as you eat it. Lemon, herbs, good oil, a spoon of yoghurt, some pickle. Ten seconds.

The bit that is not cooking

Two minutes, and it is the highest value part of the hour:

• Look in the freezer and pull one thing down to the fridge for Tuesday.
• Write the six dinners loosely on a scrap of paper. Not a schedule, just a list so nobody has to think at six o'clock.

Deciding what to eat is most of the daily effort. Removing that is worth more than any amount of chopping.

If you only do one

The dressing. It takes ninety seconds, lasts two weeks, and it is the single thing most likely to make you eat a vegetable on a night you would otherwise not have bothered.

Questions

What should I prep on Sunday?

A cooked grain, a tray of roast vegetables, a jar of dressing, a jar of quick pickles, and everything washed and cut. Components rather than finished meals, so you have not decided any dinner in advance.

Is meal prep worth it?

Prepping components is. Cooking five identical meals often is not, because most people stop eating them by midweek. Components give you the time saving without the boredom.

How long does prepped food last in the fridge?

Cooked grains and roast vegetables three to four days, dressing about two weeks, quick pickles about three weeks. Anything you want beyond that should be frozen flat on the day you make it.

More: batch cooking that lasts and quick pickles.