Planning Ramadan meals for 30 days straight while fasting is like committing to an exhausting full-time job that never ends. But we’re here to tell you, you can still prepare a delicious and well-prepared Iftar meal for your whole family without completely running out of fuel. Here are some great tips to prepare a fast, smooth, and easy Iftar gathering for the whole family.
1. Create a ‘Mise en Place’
French for “putting in place”, Mise en Place is about preparing and laying out ingredients, utensils, and measurements before attempting a recipe. A trick used in professional kitchens, mise en place will make your cooking process faster and will enable you to move through the recipe steps faster and spot the missing ingredients.
2. Go for pre-sliced ingredients
Slicing and dicing vegetables is the nitty-gritty prep work that consumes a lot of time and energy when preparing a Ramadan meal. Opting for pre-sliced ingredients like frozen veggies, diced onions, and peeled garlic cloves will shorten your cooking process and save you energy to focus on what comes next on your menu. You can peel your ingredients and store them in a covered container when needed.
3. Try oven-ready meals
Ready-to-heat frozen meals are lifesavers especially on your busiest days when you have too little time to spend in the kitchen or planning last-minute Iftar gatherings. Apps like Breadfast have a ‘Frozen Ready Meals’ category that delivers fresh, delicious, frozen meals to your doorstep in a few clicks. Just throw them in the oven and savor a delicious meal that’s warm and ready to serve. Boasting a wide variety of delicious, oven-ready meals like meat tajins, béchamel moussaka, muammar rice with chicken, and side dishes like vine leaves, sambousek, cannelloni, and potatoes croquettes, you’ll have a perfect Iftar table with food that tastes just as delicious as you would cook it at home.
4. Cook in batches
The batch-cooking method is a saving grace; however, it requires a lot of time and effort dedicated to creating entire meals from scratch in advance and storing them for weeks, even months. Meatballs, burger patties, sauce-based dishes, soups, stews, and cooked vegetables can all be batch-cooked and frozen. But not all food maintains its taste and quality when frozen for long periods. Dishes like salads, cream-based products, soft cheeses, fried foods, cooked pasta, and egg-based sauces won’t last long and will lose their quality when stored in a freezer.
5. Stock up on pantry ingredients
Planning for a meal is more mentally overwhelming than cooking it! Save yourself the mental headache that comes with deciding what to cook day after day by stocking up on pantry products that speed your cooking process. Canned tomatoes are excellent for creating quick red-sauce based dishes, canned corn, beans, and salad dressings can make quick and easy salads, canned fish and pasta can also create delicious pasta salads that are not too time-consuming and the whole family can enjoy.
6. Shop for overlapping ingredients
A golden rule to fast forward your cooking-ahead plan is to constantly stock up on basic ingredients that can overlap and be used in many recipes. Minimal ingredients and multiple Iftar dishes; is the perfect strategy to save you time and effort this Ramadan. Ingredients like minced meat and chicken can be used to create plenty of delicious Iftar dishes like hawashi, kofta, fried or grilled chicken, and many more. Try out this method and your one menu will become six.
7. Plan meals ahead
Planning your meals ahead relieves mealtime stress! Before you start cooking, take a few minutes to think through the steps and exact order of cooking and preparing you need to do. That way you can ensure you have a good game plan, decide on what dishes can be cooked first, while others are being prepared to avoid delays in your cooking process.
With these tips, you will be more than ready to take on the world of meal prep and brace yourself for any surprise Iftar hosting parties that may come your way. Need more help? Breadfast is here to the rescue. We got you covered with all your Ramadan essentials from oven-ready meals, all the way to desserts, Ramadan drinks, and many more.
