The Most Versatile Ingredients For Meal Prepping

If you're in the meal prepping game, you know it's all a bit of a puzzle figuring out how long each dish keeps and how to prevent pitfalls like sogginess. There are a lot of meal prep top tips out there, but putting it all together takes a little practice. One thing that will easily bring you to the next level? Learning to utilise versatile ingredients. Ingredients that fall under this category can be easily added to two, three, or even more of the meals you have planned for the week, able to be used in different types of cuisine. This could include things like eggs, potatoes, onions, beans, and so on — but recently, expert and creator of Fit Men Cook Kevin Curry shared with Chowhound one of his favorite versatile ingredients that's easy to store, easy to cook, and useful in every season, and now we're sharing it with you: grains. "You can add it to a meal to boost the heartiness, or it can be a part of a recipe like a casserole," Curry says.

This could include rice, be it white rice, brown rice, or another type, but it also includes oats, quinoa, farro, and more. According to the USA Rice Foundation, white rice can keep almost indefinitely if properly stored, while brown rice can keep for up to six months in the pantry. Once cooked, both last about four to six days in the fridge, and can be added to meals in all number of ways while also adding fiber and nutrients to your diet.

So what does versatility look like in meal prep? For one thing, it means you can use the same ingredient for meals at different times of day. Colorful salmon avocado poke bowls with sushi rice or a sweet potato and brussels sprout sheet pan served alongside quinoa are great lunch or dinner options, but don't discount the ability of grains to factor into your regular breakfasts as well. "I grew up eating rice in the morning with sugar and milk," Kevin Curry says. "[Now] I don't do this precisely the same way, but I use leftover cooked rice occasionally and turn it into a 'rice pudding' using a combination of plant milk and yogurt. Quinoa pancakes, well-rounded loaded cereal, or any number of grain-based breakfast bowls similarly repurpose simple ingredients for a morning pick-me-up.

Even better, Curry reminded us that grains are readily available no matter the month. "They are good every season of the year, complementing seasonal dishes that we love," he says. He suggests a light poke bowl with jasmine rice in the spring, and chili with grains rather than cornbread when the weather gets cold. Being able to stock something that you can rely on without having to worry about it being out-of-season or unripe adds yet another layer to the ease that is always the main goal of meal prepping.

Crossover ingredients, or ingredients that can be used in more than one meal during the week you're planning for, can be prepared in two ways: Raw, or cooked. While sometimes meal prepping does entail cooking and then refrigerating or freezing an entire meal, other times it just means doing some of the grunt work (washing produce, chopping items, making a sauce) ahead of time to streamline the process of cooking a fresh meal on the day you plan to eat it. This is especially useful for crossover ingredients — but as Kevin Curry reminded us, it's important to take a moment to think through how exactly you want to incorporate the ingredient into your meals, and then prepare accordingly. "Let's say I have a bunch of bell peppers. I will prep them by slicing them [and] keep them in the raw state," Curry says. " This way I can use some in a soup or stir-fry or some in a salad."

Meanwhile, he says, rice is a cooked-state ingredient, which is nice to cook in bulk beforehand and then store in the fridge to be heated up when needed. "The most important thing is just to make sure your base ingredients are prepped to maximize their usability," Curry says. "Oh, and be sure you have airtight containers to store those ingredients in as well — you don't want them spoiling before you get a chance to use them."