Blog: Meal Prepping

There's a good reason we design Broth Bomb for large one pot recipes. In our experience, even for a single person, cooking a big batch is an easier way to manage the kitchen. By that we mean when buying, storing, and preparing the ingredients we end up with less wasted food when cooking larger recipes and storing the leftovers in meal prep containers in the fridge and freezer for later.

 

When cooking, you already have the ingredients out. Rather than only using half the onion leaving it to rot in the fridge, we recommend just adding the whole thing to the pot. This style of cooking is also known as “kitchen sink” recipes, where you just add everything from your fridge before it expires or before going shopping for the next week. We design our recipes to help peoplelearn to cook without as much food waste. If you have limited time or energy to dedicate to cooking, we recommend this method. We also design the recipes so you can use canned and frozen to reduce time/energy chopping produce.

Many of our Broth Bomb™ recipes were inspired by random dishes like this, which turned out to be amazing. The Drops of Jupiter recipe was one of these random creations, which we were eating when the “moment of genius” for Broth Bomb™ occurred. Andrew had been using baking soda to tenderize the beans and Renee suggested the idea of forming the seasonings to give as gifts.

People sometimes still ask for smaller Broth Bomb but handmaking smaller ones isn't economical either. We highly recommend trying our meal prep methods first. Here’s more helpful tips:

Preparations

When cooking with a Broth Bomb, it's not important to be exact this the volume of each ingredient, just fill up at least a 4-qt pot (5-qt preferred) with plenty of beans and veggies. We often swap out or add extra ingredients depending on what’s in the fridge and freezer... have some shredded carrots that need to be used? Throw it in the pot too. 

How much water should you add?

The amount of water prior to heating should be slightly below the volume of the food. The water level will rise as the food releases into the broth. When you're about to add the Broth Bomb, once the food is all hot and ready, there should be a thin layer of steamy water/broth covering the top of the food. Too little and it will fizz slow, too much and it will fizz fast. Adding cold water just before, will also cause it to fizz slower.

What level heat?

With all the food (except Broth Bomb™) in the pot, bring to a boil on a high heat or medium high. The best fizz, for maximum ASMR fun, is achieved when the pot of food has been boiling for 8 minutes. At that point, turn off the heat for a minute or two; just as it stops boiling, drop the Broth Bomb™ and enjoy stirring/playing. Then, turn the heat to low and let cook for an hour. Return to a boil at the end or heat to 160F… this helps cook off the citrate and release more of the minerals (like calcium) from the food into the broth.

You can shorten the cook time and increase the heat level. After adding the Broth Bomb™, you could also transfer to a crock-pot or use a low setting for 4-8 hours and get a ‘souper’ tenderized stew.

Reheating

When storing Broth Bomb recipes in the fridge, they continue to marry the flavors… especially after a second quick cook. We’ve always enjoyed the left-overs even more. The 24 ounce deli containers make for perfect dinner portions, they freeze well, and are easy in the microwave. In the microwave, heat for 3 minutes, stir, and then heat another 3 minutes. On the stove top, in a small pot, heat on medium for 5 minutes, stir, and then heat another 5 minutes.

Leftover Shelf life

The fizzy ingredients act as a great natural preservative. We have enjoyed them up to three weeks later, stored only in the fridge. But this will vary based on factors unique to each kitchen and fridge; so we can't recommend more than 10 days. In the freezer, if store immedietly, they should be good for a year. Thaw them in the fridge the day before use and use withing 3 days. 

Trust us, you will love having so many options in the freezer and fridge after a long day. As a single person, if you make two recipes a week, after two months you will stockpile a great variety of meal prep that you will be able to enjoy with little effort for half the year.

Need a good pot? We recommend these: