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Suzanne Mulholland once declared she “hated” Christmas Day – she was the person who ended up organising the entire event, from presents, to decorations and, of course, the food.
“When the kids were little, I actually didn’t like Christmas. I didn’t feel it was my day. I felt like it was everybody else’s day,” the 49-year-old says. “I look back on it now and think I really did miss some key moments where I would have loved being the one sitting just helping build Lego, or whatever it was, but I felt tied to the kitchen.”
To make a busy life with children easier, Mulholland started batch cooking, and after sharing videos on YouTube and Instagram, “The Batch Lady” Instagram account was born. With it, the mum-of-two was able to transform Christmas so she wasn’t cooking all day.
“I started to change gradually. I would make sure my roast potatoes were done, but I always felt like there was quite a lot that maybe I couldn’t do in advance. And then over the years, I’ve actually managed to do it all in advance. Everything.
“If you happen to have a Friday morning or a Tuesday evening in November where you’re not doing anything, you can think, actually, I might get four recipes done for Christmas.”
November is the perfect time to start, she says, and buying a lot of your Christmas food in November can help spread the cost.
“You can do it all in November, when you don’t have every other activity going on, like the Christmas fete at school, your kids’ carol concert and your work night out. December becomes really busy for us.”
So, getting ahead for the festive period isn’t just about prepping the Christmas Day meal; Mulholland also batch cooks plenty of one-pot meals to freeze and reheat during December.
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Suzanne Mulholland’s new book ‘The Batch Lady Saves Christmas’ is packed with prep-ahead festive hacks (Ebury Press)
Mulholland has two types of recipes – “Either you ‘cook ahead’, which means cooking it and putting it in the freezer, or ‘grab and cook’, which means you’re making it up raw, and then you’re putting it in the freezer,” she explains.
Here’s how to make it work for you this Christmas.
‘Cook ahead’: What to cook, freeze and reheat on the day
Mulholland says accompaniments like bread sauce and cranberry sauce, as well as sides like roast potatoes and Brussel sprouts, can be fully cooked and frozen – far in advance. “I do a lovely shredded Brussels sprout with pancetta, and you actually make that in advance, because it shreds, it lasts.”
Homemade Yorkshire puddings can be made well in advance and frozen, or try Mulholland’s recipe for mulled wine red cabbage. While the method works well for starters, too, think parsnip and apple soup, or desserts like panettone bread and butter pudding.
“The whole point of freezer cooking is that you use recipes that are meant to be frozen. Those recipes are specifically created to make sure that they’re going to be delicious.”
And freezing doesn’t take away from the flavour. “People would be so surprised to know that in the absolute top-end restaurants, chefs prep in advance. A lot of that will come out of freezers and fridges that have been prepped in advance. A lot of things actually taste better if you’ve cooked them in advance.”
‘Grab and cook’: What to prepare ahead, freeze but cook on the day
While some parts of Christmas can be completely made and frozen, her methods aren’t about doing that for the entire meal. “We’re still cooking Christmas dinner. We’re just not prepping everything from scratch,” explains Mulholland.
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Mulholland transformed her own chaotic Christmases by batch cooking – now she’s helping others do the same (Andrew Hayes-Watkins)
“Prepping ahead is really that you’re getting it ready, but you’re not necessarily cooking it. You’re just getting all the ingredients ready together,” she says, for example, mixing the stuffing ingredients and putting into balls, before freezing uncooked, or wrapping the bacon around sausages for pigs in blankets.
“In November, I will make the herby butter [to use under the turkey skin] and wrap it up. I’ll get the pack of streaky bacon and put it beside the herby butter. I’ll make my stuffing mix. Then I’ll get my frozen turkey from the shops and I’ll put it next to it. So I’ve really created this meal prep kit that when I bring it out, it’s defrosting, and I know that everything’s there.
“Roast veg – you parboil them, cover them in oil, put your lovely seasoning over it, and then you flash freeze it [putting it in the freezer for two hours]. You’ve part-cooked them. You haven’t cooked them to the end and then re-cooked. It’s about prepping everything so it’s ready to come out and be cooked from frozen, but it is being cooked on the day.”
Do this for starters and nibbles too, like pork and stilton sausage rolls, and cheese and chutney straws.
Cold starters, such as chicken liver pate or mushroom and tarragon pate, make easy freezer items too.
Batch cook some additional ‘December dinners’
Make December extra easy by making and freezing some nutritious meals you can take out of the freezer whenever life gets a bit busy. Think pork, parsnip and mustard traybake, Cajun-spiced chicken, or coconut and butternut squash curry.
“If you know ‘I’ve got a fish pie in the freezer, and I’m going to put it in the oven tonight’ – that is the easiest thing ever, because you can make a fish pie in three minutes. But if you haven’t done that, your headspace is, ‘I don’t know what I’ve got in the house, I don’t know who’s in or who wants to eat. I’ll stop at the shops, I’ll grab whatever, or I’ll grab a takeaway’.
“It’s automatically going to cost you more money – and that’s a normal work day. So you take that tenfold into the busiest December, and you are racking up a lot of money and a lot of stress.”
Festive Camembert puff pie
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Mulholland’s Camembert puff pie makes an impressive centrepiece that can be frozen weeks in advance (Andrew Hayes-Watkins)
“A glorious centrepiece!” says Mulholland. “This is a ‘cook ahead’ recipe and some elements are cooked before freezing, but it will need further cooking once out of the fridge/freezer.”
Serves: 6
Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
500g frozen butternut squash chunks
2 tbsp olive oil
1 red onion, diced
1 tsp frozen chopped garlic
300g chestnut mushrooms, sliced
1 x 500g block of puff pastry
Plain flour, for dusting
150g Camembert cheese, cut into slices
2 tbsp cranberry sauce
1 egg, beaten
Method (if making ahead for the fridge or freezer):
To cook in an oven:
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan. Drizzle the squash with olive oil and season well, then roast on a baking tray for 20-25 minutes until golden.
2. Fry the onion and garlic in the remaining oil until soft, add the mushrooms and cook for 5-6 minutes.
3. Combine the cooked mushrooms and squash in a bowl and leave to cool.
4. Cut the pastry in half and roll out both pieces on a lightly floured surface to a £1 coin thickness. Cut a 23cm circle from one (use a plate as a template) and a 28cm circle from the other.
5. Place the smaller circle onto a parchment-lined baking tray. Add the mushroom and squash, leaving a 2.5cm gap at the edges. Top with the Camembert and the cranberry sauce.
6. Brush the pastry edges with beaten egg, then lay the larger pastry circle on top. Press around the edges with a fork. Brush all over with egg and decorate with leftover pastry, cut into shapes.
7. Flash-freeze on the baking tray then place the pie in a freezer bag.
To make in an air fryer:
1. Preheat the air fryer to 180C. Drizzle the squash with olive oil and season well, then place in the basket and cook for 18-20 minutes, shaking halfway.
2. Fry the onion and garlic in the remaining oil until soft, add the mushrooms and cook for 5-6 minutes.
3. Combine the cooked mushrooms and squash in a bowl and leave to cool.
4. Cut the pastry in half and roll out both pieces on a lightly floured surface to a £1 coin thickness. Cut a 23cm circle from one (use a plate as a template) and a 28cm circle from the other.
5. Place the smaller pastry circle onto a parchment-lined baking tray. Add the mushroom and squash, leaving a 2.5cm gap at the edges. Top with the Camembert and the cranberry sauce.
6. Brush the pastry edges with beaten egg, then lay the larger pastry circle on top. Press around the edges with a fork. Brush all over with egg and decorate with leftover pastry, cut into shapes.
7. Flash-freeze on the baking tray then place the pie in a freezer bag.
To reheat:
Oven: Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan. Place the frozen pie on a lined baking tray and cook for 45-55 minutes, covering with foil if it’s browning too quickly.
Air fryer: Preheat the air fryer to 170C and line the basket with baking parchment. Cook the frozen pie for 40-45 minutes, covering with foil if it’s browning too quickly.
If cooking now:
Follow the method in the “making ahead” section up until the end of step 6.
To cook in an oven: Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan. Cook on a lined baking tray for 35-40 minutes until golden, covering with foil if it’s browning too quickly.
To cook in an air fryer: Preheat the air fryer to 170C and line the basket with baking parchment. Cook for 35-40 minutes until golden, covering with foil if it’s browning too quickly.
“This is a delicious stuffing mixture, perfect either for stuffing the turkey or for cooking separately,” says family cooking guru Suzanne Mulholland.
Sage, cheddar and chestnut stuffing
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Her sage, cheddar and chestnut stuffing proves that freezer-friendly doesn’t mean flavourless (Andrew Hayes-Watkins)
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients:
1 x 170g packet of dried sage and onion stuffing
2 tbsp orange juice
400g pork sausage meat
70g grated Cheddar
90g cooked chestnuts, finely diced
Method (if making ahead for the fridge or freezer):
1. Add the stuffing to a mixing bowl and pour over the amount of boiling water stated on the packet, along with the orange juice. Leave to stand according to the packet instructions.
2. Add the sausage meat, cheese and chestnuts and mix with your hands until they all come together.
3. Add to a large labelled freezer bag and freeze flat.
To cook in an oven: Remove from the freezer and leave to fully defrost. This can now be used to stuff your turkey or be cooked separately. To cook separately, preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan and line a 900g loaf tin with greaseproof paper. Press the stuffing mixture into the tin and cook for 25-30 minutes until cooked through.
To cook in an air fryer: Remove from the freezer and leave to fully defrost. This can now be used to stuff your turkey or be cooked separately. To cook separately, preheat the air fryer to 180C and line a 900g loaf tin with greaseproof paper. Press the stuffing mixture into the tin and cook for 20-25 minutes until cooked through.
If cooking now:
Follow the method in the “making ahead” section up until the end of step 2. This can now be used to stuff your turkey or be cooked separately.
To cook in an oven: To cook separately, preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan and line a 900g loaf tin with greaseproof paper. Press the stuffing mixture into the tin and cook for 25-30 minutes until cooked through.
To cook in an air fryer: To cook separately, preheat the air fryer to 180C and line a 900g loaf tin with greaseproof paper. Press the stuffing mixture into the tin and cook for 20-25 minutes until cooked through.
“Roast potatoes might be the best part of the meal!” says time-saving expert and cook Suzanne Mulholland. “These made-in-advance roasties cook straight from frozen and are one of my most popular recipes ever.”
Roast potatoes
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Crispy, golden and zero stress on the day – these roasties cook straight from frozen (Andrew Hayes-Watkins)
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients:
1kg Maris Piper potatoes
80g melted goose fat or 5 tbsp olive oil (use olive oil if cooking for vegetarians or vegans)
Salt and pepper
Method (if making ahead for the fridge or freezer):
1. Slice the potatoes into quarters and add to a saucepan, cover with water and bring to the boil over a high heat. Cook for 6-7 minutes, then drain and return the potatoes to the saucepan to allow to steam dry.
2 Add the melted goose fat or olive oil to a tray, then tip in the hot potatoes. Turn to coat them well in the oil and season with salt and pepper.
3. Flash-freeze the tray of potatoes for 1 hour to allow them to get hard, then transfer them to a large labelled freezer bag and freeze flat.
To cook in an oven: Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan. Place a baking tray in the oven for 3 minutes to heat. Carefully remove from the oven and add the frozen potatoes to the hot tray. Cook for 40-50 minutes until roasted and delicious.
To cook in an air fryer: Preheat the air fryer to 190C. Add the frozen potatoes to the air fryer basket and cook for 30-35 minutes, shaking them every 10 minutes.
If cooking now:
Follow the method in the “making ahead” section up until the end of step 2.
To cook in an oven: Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan. Place a baking tray in the oven for 3 minutes to heat up. Carefully remove from the oven and add the oiled potatoes to the hot tray. Cook for 35 minutes until roasted and delicious.
To cook in an air fryer: Preheat the air fryer to 190C. Add the oiled potatoes to the air fryer basket and cook for 20-25 minutes, shaking them every 10 minutes.
‘The Batch Lady Saves Christmas’ by Suzanne Mulholland (Ebury Press, £25).
Dining and Cooking