Pots for Meal Prep
Pots are an essential stove top cooking ware. They are meant for cooking liquids and sauces, perfect for boiling, steaming, and simmering ingredients. Available in many sizes, pots have subtle design differences for different purposes.
You’ll need a pot of some sort if you plan on incorporating ingredients like rice and beans into your meal prep. Rice, beans, and other grains like oats and barley are packed with nutrients and calories making them perfect for meal prep.
Pots can do more than just boil ingredients though. They’re essential for developing soups with rich flavors and deep broths. Making your own stock is one advantage of meal prep that will blow you away.
Saucepan
Saucepans are stove top pots that feature a handle. They’re generally smaller in nature for reducing ingredients to create robust sauces. However, they also come in larger sizes to cook pantry staples like rice.
Many will include lids that have special designs in them to either trap or release steam. This can be helpful when steaming rice, helping control the temperature so that it doesn’t get mushy or clumpy. Some pots take this a step further with grates put into the side of the lids for additional venting options.
Saucepans, if big enough, are also great for steaming vegetables. Their smaller size will ensure that water boils quickly while still being large enough to hold a good portion of raw vegetables. This can be especially helpful for meal preppers looking to avoid strong flavors.
Soup Pot
Soup pots are large pots made for holding significant ingredients and liquid. Once brought to a boil. They are slow to calm down, requiring frequent attention. Their size is perfect for creating a soup large enough for weekly meal prep.
Soup isn’t the only thing that you can cook in a soup pot either. They are perfect for jambalaya and chilis too, cooking enough to feed a family or just yourself for a week. They’re easy to cook inside of too before simmering, acting like any regular skillet just with exceptionally high sides.
The only real caveat you’ll need when picking out a soup pot is whether or not it can fit on your stove and if your spoon is large enough for it. You’ll be doing a lot of stirring.
Stockpot
Stock pots are large pots, similar to soup pots but larger. They typically feature a metal insert that allows cooks to remove simmering ingredients from the stock once it is finished cooking, making transfer much easier and safer.
Creating a stock is easy, but it requires attention and a large quantity of bulky ingredients. So it can be difficult to create stocks effectively in smaller pots unless you find the perfect ration.
Making your own stock has a myriad of benefits. First, homemade stock is exceptionally flavorful. Second, you can make it just by collecting leftover produce and bones. Third, you can use it to make new soups that add to your skill as a home chef.