Ramadan always seems to come around so quickly, and one thing I like to do beforehand is prepare a selection of homemade snacks for the freezer.
In our home, we often enjoy samosas, spring rolls and kebabs as starters when we break our fast, so preparing them in advance makes life so much easier during Ramadan. Instead of spending ages in the kitchen every evening, I can simply take out what we need from the freezer.
For this Ramadan meal prep, I made a huge batch including around 60 homemade samosas, 60 spring rolls and plenty of kebabs.
I made:
- Keema & aloo samosas with homemade samosa pastry
- Chapli kebabs
- Chicken & mozzarella stuffed kebabs
- Chicken & potato spring rolls
- Sardine & vegetable spring rolls
It was definitely a lot of work, especially making the samosa pastry from scratch, but seeing the freezer stocked at the end made it worthwhile!
Keema & Aloo Samosas
I started with probably the biggest job of the day – homemade keema and potato samosas.
I actually like to make my samosa pastry from scratch. You could make things much easier by using ready-made pastry sheets or even tortilla wraps, but I really enjoy the taste and texture of homemade samosas.
Ingredients
For the keema & aloo filling:
- 1.5kg potatoes
- 2kg lamb mince
- 4 medium onions, diced
- 3 tbsp garlic & ginger paste
- 3 tbsp salt
- ¼ cup sunflower oil
- 4 tbsp tamarind sauce
- 2 tbsp garam masala
- 2 tbsp ground cumin
- 1 tbsp ground coriander
- 1 tbsp red chilli powder
- 1 tbsp ground turmeric
- 1 tbsp cumin seeds
- 1 tbsp fennel seeds
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp tomato puree
For the homemade samosa dough:
- 8 cups plain flour
- 1 cup sunflower oil
- 3 cups water
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp coarse black pepper
Method
Cook the lamb mince in a large pan until browned and the excess water has evaporated. You can drain away the excess liquid if necessary.
Add the diced onions and cook for a few minutes until they begin to soften.
Add the garlic & ginger paste, salt, spices, lemon juice, tomato puree and tamarind sauce. Mix everything together thoroughly.
Add the cooked potatoes and combine with the keema mixture. Set aside while you prepare the samosa pastry.
For the dough, combine the flour, oil, water, salt and pepper and knead until you have a lovely smooth, soft dough. I used the dough hooks on my hand mixer to help with this.
Allow the dough to rest for around 30 minutes.
Divide and roll the dough in a similar way to making chapatis. Try to roll each piece as thinly as possible without tearing it.
Lightly part-cook each piece and place it onto a plate, keeping the stack covered as you work so that the pastry doesn’t dry out.
Cut each piece in half, shape into a samosa, add the keema and potato filling and seal. I use a simple flour-and-water paste to stick the edges together and then press the edge with a fork.
This batch made approximately 60 fairly large samosas.
Chapli Kebabs
Kebabs are another favourite in our house for iftar, so naturally I had to prepare a big batch for the freezer.
I use a little shortcut when shaping large batches of kebabs which makes the process much quicker.
Ingredients
- 2kg lamb mince
- 3 medium onions
- 2 tomatoes
- 2 finger chillies
- 1 tbsp pomegranate seeds
- 2 tbsp garlic & ginger paste
- 2 eggs
- 1½ tbsp salt
- 1 tbsp red chilli flakes
- 1 cup gram flour (besan)
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- 1 tbsp garam masala
- 1 tbsp ground coriander
Method
Blitz the onions, tomatoes and finger chillies in a food processor or chopper.
Add the mixture to the lamb mince along with the pomegranate seeds, garlic & ginger paste, eggs, salt, spices and gram flour.
Mix everything together thoroughly.
You can shape the kebabs individually, but when I’m making a large quantity I find it much quicker to place some of the mixture onto greaseproof paper.
Place another sheet of greaseproof paper over the top and use a rolling pin to flatten the mixture evenly.
Remove the top sheet and use a large round cookie cutter to cut out the kebabs. Remove the excess mixture from around them, cut the greaseproof paper around the individual kebabs and stack them ready for freezing.
Repeat until you’ve used all the mixture.
Chicken & Mozzarella Stuffed Kebabs
I also wanted to make something a little different, so I made chicken kebabs with a cheesy mozzarella centre.
Ingredients
- 1kg chicken mince
- 2 small onions
- 1 finger chilli
- 1 tbsp garlic & ginger paste
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- ½ tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 egg
- ½ cup gram flour
- 1 tsp coarse black pepper
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- Grated mozzarella
Method
Blitz the onions and chilli until finely minced.
Add the chicken mince to a large bowl along with the onion mixture, garlic & ginger paste, tomato puree, salt, spices, egg, gram flour and lime juice.
Mix thoroughly and place in the fridge for around 30 minutes to an hour. Chilling the mixture makes the chicken mince much easier to shape.
Take a portion of the mixture and shape it into a kebab. Flatten it slightly and make a small well in the centre.
Add some grated mozzarella and carefully bring the chicken mixture around the cheese to completely enclose it.
Flatten and shape again before stacking the kebabs ready for the freezer.
When cooked, you should have a tasty chicken kebab with that lovely cheesy mozzarella hiding in the middle.
Chicken & Potato Spring Rolls
These are always popular with the kids because the filling is fairly simple and doesn’t have overly complicated flavours.
Ingredients
- 1kg chicken mince
- 750g potatoes
- 1 tbsp garlic & ginger paste
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground white pepper
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp red chilli flakes
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 4 tbsp sweetcorn
- 3 spring onions
- Spring roll pastry sheets
Method
Add the chicken mince to a pan and cook until it has turned white and released its liquid. Drain any excess liquid if necessary.
Add the remaining filling ingredients, including the cooked potatoes, sweetcorn and spring onions.
Once everything is combined, I like to use a potato masher to break the mixture down slightly. This gives you a smoother filling without large pieces of potato.
Allow the mixture to cool before using it to fill your spring roll pastry.
Roll and seal the spring rolls and prepare them for freezing.
Sardine & Vegetable Spring Rolls
For my second spring roll filling, I made something a little different using sardines and vegetables.
Sardines already have plenty of flavour, so I kept the seasonings very simple.
Ingredients
- 4 x 125g tins sardines in olive oil (90g drained weight each)
- 2 cups frozen mixed vegetables
- 100g spinach
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp garlic granules
- 1 tsp onion granules
- Spring roll pastry sheets
Method
Add the frozen mixed vegetables to a pan and cook until defrosted and softened.
Add the spinach and cook until it has wilted down.
Add the drained sardines, salt, garlic granules and onion granules.
Mix everything together and allow the filling to cool before filling the spring roll pastry.
I made most of my 60 spring rolls with the chicken and potato mixture and used the sardine and vegetable filling for the remainder.
Bulk Ramadan Preparation
And that was my big Ramadan freezer preparation finished, Alhamdulillah!
Making such large quantities in one go can be tiring. The homemade samosas in particular take quite a bit of time when you’re making the dough, rolling and part-cooking the pastry, preparing the filling and then shaping around 60 individual samosas.
But this is one of those jobs where I really appreciate the effort later.
Having homemade samosas, spring rolls and kebabs already prepared means there’s much less work to do when it comes to iftar. I can concentrate on the main meal and simply take out however many snacks we need.
You also don’t have to make everything in one day. If you’re preparing for Ramadan, you could spread the work out and have a samosa day, spring roll day and kebab day instead.
And, of course, you don’t need to make the quantities I do! I’m preparing food for a large family, so you can easily reduce the recipes to suit your household.
More Ramadan Meal Prep Ideas
This type of Ramadan preparation has become something of a yearly tradition in our home. Over the years I’ve prepared lots of different freezer-friendly foods, including samosas, spring rolls, kebabs and other easy iftar snacks.
The aim isn’t to spend Ramadan thinking about food all day – quite the opposite. For me, doing some of the work beforehand means I can hopefully spend less time preparing food during Ramadan and make those busy evenings a little easier.
I hope these recipes give you some inspiration for your own Ramadan preparation.
May Allah allow us to reach Ramadan, accept our fasting and worship, and make it a blessed and productive month for us all. Ameen.
What foods do you prepare for the freezer before Ramadan?
