Healthy & Easy Asian Meal Prep (20 meals!)

Are you tired of having the same old meal prep that's been sitting in your fridge for days? Hold on tight to your spatulas because this is my ultimate guide on how to meal prep delicious and healthy Asian food. Chop chop! So why is Asian food good for meal prepping? Number one, sauce. Sauce is just a great way to add a lot of flavor without adding too many calories, and it saves so much time. Basically, it's almost like a cheat code because somebody else did all the work, and it's using time as a flavoring agent, and that is just too OP. Number two, it incorporates a lot of veggies, and eating a lot of vegetables is great for your health and also for pooping. It's really great for your gut health and adds an extra source of fiber. This is how I like to attack it. One, carbs. Two, fruit and veg. Three, protein. And last but not least, soups. For carbs, I usually go with this. Rice, noodles, bread, and dumplings because I love dumplings. Who doesn't? I like to buy fruit and veg based on colors because it's the best indication of all the nutrients you need in your life. It's called phytonutrients, but that's the fancy term for it. Anyways, colors. Red, yellow and orange, white and brown, blue and purple. Yeah. Oh, and obviously green. Duh. Red peppers. Canned tomatoes because it's easy. Kimchi. Yellow bell pepper. Canned corn. Carrots. Salads. Celery. Ibs. Green onion. Cabbage. Garlic. Onions. Eggplant. For protein, these are my staple items that I usually go for. Eggs, chicken, minced pork, tofu, canned tuna, chicken stock. Homemade is best, but if you have bouillon, that works just fine too. And now onto my favorite part, sauce. These are some of my kitchen staple Asian condiments. Soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, gochujang, tahini or sesame paste, peanut butter, oyster sauce, Japanese curry blocks, mayonnaise, sesame oil, chili oil, bulldog sauce, and optionally MSG. I know it's controversial for a lot of people, but trust me, a little pinch goes a long way to really create that restaurant quality food. And if it helps you eat healthier, I say go for it. As for equipment, make sure you're stacked up on Tupperware. Personally, I love these plastic ones because you can get it at any kitchen utensil store, and they're cheap, they're sturdy, and they're dishwasher friendly, and it seals airtight. However, if you want to heat it up in the microwave just right away, these glass ones, also airtight, is really, really great. Let's plan out what we're going to eat this week. I know, this looks like a lot, but trust me, it's a lot of the same ingredients, just in a slight new twist so it doesn't feel repetitive. And just like you would with a recipe, I like to make a prep list of what I'm going to do in order. Having this plan is going to help you not panic and stay calm and stick to the schedule. Now that we have everything ready, what are we waiting for? Let's get prepping. You should know how to make rice at this point, but if you're new here, let me show you how things work around this block. I'm cooking around 4 cups or 800 grams of rice this week, and as a general rule of thumb, a typical serving size of raw rice is around 90 grams per person. So calculate how much you need and rinse your rice thoroughly and repeat the process for another 6 times. At this point, the water should run pretty clear, and we're going to cook it in a pressure cooker. If you're cooking white rice in a pressure cooker, it's a 1 to 0.9 ratio pot. You want to do it at 1 to 1 ratio because there's more evaporation, whereas a pressure cooker is kind of like hermetically sealed. And once the steam starts coming out of the pressure cooker, you want to reduce the heat down to the lowest setting possible to really cook all the kernels nice and fluffy. Just for you, you little cutie. And after 15 minutes, turn off the heat and let it rest for 10 minutes so that the residual heat can steam the rice. And in 3, 2, 1... Get yourself someone who looks at you like I look at rice. Girl, I'mma teach you rice. Wet your paddle. I don't know why that sounded wrong, but really wet your rice paddle or use a silicone spatula to fluff up the rice. And one of the most commonly asked questions is how I store my rice, and the answer is freezing half of the batch. I like to line a baking tray with parchment paper, spread the rice to cool down excess steam, divide and cover it before popping it in the freezer until it becomes frozen like this. This way it's super easy to defrost and microwave to get rice that feels freshly cooked. And with the other half, since I'm going to be eating it in the next three days, I like to put it in small airtight containers and make sure you put a label on because knowledge is king. To minimize the risk of cross-contamination, you always want to work in the order of fruit and veg, then to protein. That way you don't have to do as many dishes and that means your future self is going to thank you. Do you think you just fell out of a coconut tree? I like to cut my watermelon by first cutting off the either ends and making it into a rectangular prism. Is it the perfect shape? No, but neither is the back of your head, but your mom still raised you, so please don't body shame my watermelon slices. Cut it into forkable pieces and put it in an airtight container until it looks like this. And with the rest of the slices, we're gonna throw it away into the blender. Did you really think that I was just gonna throw it away because it was ugly? No, are you kidding me? This is a Doobie Dubop channel, we're not wasting anything. I like to make watermelon juice because it's going to be the most refreshing thing you'll ever taste in your life, and it is the only thing that I want to drink during the summer, and you can thank me later for this. I like to have the veg already pre-ready so that I can assemble a quick salad. The number one way to keep salad for a long time is to take it out of the bag. A lot of people will be buying these salad mixes, and so do I, but they go really really mushy really quick, and the reason behind it is because it gets too moist, and you want to create an ideal environment for the veggies to thrive in. You want to wet this paper towel, just squeezed some of the excess moisture out of it, and just line the bottom of the stainless steel. It's moist, but it's not too damp where the veggies are going to get soggy, and you always want to keep veg at the very bottom drawer of the refrigerator where you have to pull the drawer out the least cold, but also keeps that moisture much better. Now we're going to process all the veggies. I'm going to slice some onions. These are going to be used for our katsudon, and just very versatile to have some sliced onion. Now it's time for the green onion, and for the green onion make sure you have a wet paper towel lined underneath. That way it's going to preserve a lot longer. This is what I like to in Wonderland. I'm not going to end up using all of this for the tomato sauce, so half of it I'm going to reserve for juice. For the rest of the celery, I'm going to do a rough chop. It's going to get blitzed at the end, so don't worry about it. And same process with the eggplant. It doesn't have to be perfect. The reason why I like to put in a lot of vegetables and sauce is because it's a great way to consume a lot without, you know, too much vegetables. And the more vegetables I consume and the less it feels like it, the better it is for me. And plus if you have kids or something, it's a great way to kind of trick them into eating a lot of veg. Oh, it's a baby. Bell pepper, processed. So my favorite vegetable in the whole wide world, cabbage. So we're going to be using this whole cabbage. I'm going to be using the outer leaves for cabbage rolls, which freeze incredibly well. And you want to microwave it with a little bit of water for five minutes so that the cabbage leaves weld and it can be rollable. And the inner part, like the more soft, sweeter part, you know, the little cabbage salad that you get when you go to like a Japanese tonkatsu restaurant. That is exactly what we're going to be preparing. I love having fresh cabbage salad, especially with nutty sesame peanut dressing, just to make our salads a little more interesting. This is the hardest part about meal prepping. And if you're done processing all the veg, you're 80% done. The rest of it is where all the fun cooking stuff comes. So if you've made it this far, mom is proud of you. You're a good boy. So in a professional kitchen setting, you'd be calling this mise en place, which is getting things ready so that when you're cooking, you're not scrambling to cut an onion right now. You have everything ready. You can take a deep breath and it's just chill. And if you're somebody who likes fresh food and wants to be able to throw in like a very fast stir fry after work, if you have a little bit more time, this is perfect. Usually my fridge kind of looks like this instead of all pre-cooked meals, but for the sake of making life easier, especially for a lot of college students and people who are working and, you know, commuting long hours, I'm going to process it all. But this is really going to make your life so much easier to just throw in a bunch of stuff and boom, zing, bam, you got yourself dinner. So from here on, everything's going to move fast and we're going to make sauces, my favorite part. And we're going to be making five sauces, tomato, curry, kimchi, sweet soy salad dressing, and a creamy sesame dressing. We're going to start by roasting off our vegetables. We're roasting celery, bell pepper, eggplant, carrots, garlic, and onions. I forgot to add the onions in, but make sure you put that in. Toss it in some neutral oil and season with salt and pepper. This is going to be the base for our tomato, veggie sauce, and curry. Roast it at 200 degrees Celsius or 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 40 minutes, making sure to stir the vegetables halfway through. Next up, we're going to get some garlic ready. This isn't something that I usually do every week. I do it maybe around once a month and I was running low on my minced garlic supply. Today, I'm pulsing around 500 grams of garlic in a Transfer the minced garlic into a Ziploc bag, flatten the garlic, and remove the excess air from the bag. Portion it into little rectangles and lay the bag flat in the freezer. This is an OG Korean mom hack and you can just take out a cube of garlic at a time and it's going to save your nails from smelling like garlic every time you cook. And I'm going to use the same chopper because we're here to minimize the amount of dishes, not to maximize. Into the blender goes in soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, onion, sweet plum extract, but use whatever liquid sweetener you have, and water. The exact measurements can be found in my description box or my website. And obviously, was I being greedy? Yes, but don't be like me. Use a bigger blender. Pour out half of the mixture and that's going to be our soy vinaigrette. For the other half, we're going to add in tahini and peanut butter to make a creamy sesame dressing. It's going to be used for salads and dan dan noodles. Same base, but two different dressings. Next, we're going to make the kimchi sauce. This is essentially just kimchi, soy sauce, gochujang, liquid sweetener, onion, and green onion. It's a mix that can be used for fried rice, rice balls, noodles, soups, salads, you name it. It's spicy, acidic, salty, and packs a punch of umami, so it's so useful to have on hand to fix up a quick meal. Perfect timing. Look how much has shrunk in size. This is going to be great for our sauce because caramelization means flavor. The reason why I like to roast the veggies instead of the traditional method of sauteing is because it frees up time to do other things. You don't have to worry about it burning or sticking to the bottom of the pot and it's a great way to evenly cook a lot of vegetables. We're going to blend everything together with two cans of tomatoes. So much sauce. Transfer half of the sauce into airtight containers and with the other half, we're making Japanese curry. Dissolve one packet of Japanese curry blocks in hot water until it becomes a thick smooth paste. Add the paste into the sauce and blend. Add water to your desired consistency and there you have it. Veggie packed Japanese curry. Honestly, ever since I developed this method, I never go back to making Japanese curry any other way. Now on to making our okonomiyaki. These patties are actually going to double as kikori toast, which you'll see in part two. Use the sliced cabbage we prepped earlier and add in flour, egg, and salt. Mix to combine and get your skillet ready and once the skillet has come up to temperature, drizzle in some oil then turn the heat down to a medium. Add our cabbage mixture in, making sure to evenly cook each side for about three to four minutes or until golden brown. Make sure to cool it down and cut into quarters and place two slices each in an airtight container. These go for about two to three days in the fridge but also freeze incredibly well, so if you want to prep a lot more, feel free to do that. So this filling recipe is something that I use all the time. It can be used for dumplings, cabbage rolls, meatballs, fritters, patties, like it can be used for so many different things and it is so versatile. Here I have 500 grams of minced protein. I'm using pork today but feel free to use chicken or beef or even cooked chickpeas. Then we're adding in 500 grams of firm tofu. Mine has been uncovered in the fridge overnight so it's not too wet or else our filling is going to be too watery. Then in goes scallion, salt, oyster sauce, soy sauce, black pepper, sesame oil, and eggs. And you really want to use your hands and just really mash everything in so it sticks all together. And this is what a good filling sounds like. I'm going to show you the easiest way you can fill many many dumplings. So first you just dip a one tablespoon measuring spoon, scoop up the filling, and dump. And next step, you're going to need a spray bottle. Just any spray bottle will do. And you just want to wet the entire dough. This way you don't have to individually go over and give each one a rim job. What? I mean wet the edges. This way you have to work a little fast but it's gonna be okay. You know dumplings, I feel like the biggest barrier when it comes to making dumplings is the pleats. But don't overthink it. Dumpling is just dough and filling. There's a Korean mandu called a napjak mandu, which is called a flat mandu. And you just fold it like this. These are incredibly nice when you pan fry them especially because they get both sides golden brown. And this is usually my go-to dumpling shape. 52 dumplings in less than 10 minutes. It's probably going to be the easiest dumpling recipe you'll ever find. And once they're frozen you can stack them together or you can also have a parchment paper in between so that they don't stick. We're going to use the same filling for the cabbage rolls. One tablespoon of filling each. Then tuck in the sides making sure that the seam is facing towards the bottom. Oh and these also freeze incredibly well and they're great pan fried and also steamed or in a soup. Same tray as the one that we roasted the vegetables in. This time we're gonna make meatballs using an ice cream scooper. And meatballs, they don't have to be completely round. Like neither are yours. Portion out the meatballs and bake at 200 degrees celsius or 400 degrees fahrenheit for 30 minutes or until they're nice and golden brown. Meanwhile are we gonna sit on our big butts and do nothing? Nah pookie, you're your own private chef. We're going to prepare our katsu. Line your cutting board with cling film and place your chicken breast. And another layer goes on top. And baby it's hammer time. Pound that meat like it owes you money and season on both sides with salt and pepper. Dust the cutlets with AP flour and let's prepare our dredge. Egg wash in one, panko in another and we're going to use our left hand for wet and right for dry. This way you won't get big clumpy doughy fingers. The most important part about making katsu is making sure that you're really pushing down all the panko so it adheres to the meat. These are all going in the freezer. These are so so helpful. You can just stick it in the oven or in an air fryer. You can even pan fry it with a little bit of oil and you have fresh katsu within minutes. Your future self is going to thank you. Let's go over everything we prepped today. We have our salad mix, watermelon, watermelon juice, chicken stock for later, two different types of sauces, soy and creamy sesame, celery for juice, bell pepper for the salad, cabbage rolls, okonomiyaki slash gilgori toast, some herbs and some veggies prepped and ready. We have our kimchi sauce, we have our tomato sauce, and we have our curry, rice, meatballs, chicken katsu, mandu, oh sorry rice, mandu, and store-bought udon where we can have with either the curry or a quick stir fry with the kimchi sauce. To be honest, this was the easiest meal prep that I've ever done and I've been incorporating meal prep into my life because I'm not cooking every day. Just because I'm a food content creator doesn't mean that I'm cooking every single meal. Sometimes I need something quick and something easy but something nutritious that gives me energy throughout the day and also helps me poop at the end of the day. Good morning. As soon as I woke up, I thought oh my god I'm gonna be eating good. This is what I'm talking about. This is joy in a form of a refrigerator. I'm just gonna quickly toast some bread and get ready. So worth it. I even went all fancy pants and put cilantro on top. It's time for lunch. So lunch is usually like the easiest meal of the day for me because I just want something quick especially when I'm working and I don't want to do a lot of dishes so it's literally just gonna be a microwave lunch but it's gonna be good. I'm done with work and that means one thing. Winner winner, chicken dinner. I actually didn't freeze the chicken katsu because I'm gonna cook all of it today. I know I have a pretty busy week because I'm catching up on all the editing that I didn't do. So I'm just gonna cook all of this and even after it's cooked, it actually refries incredibly well in an oven or an air fryer if you have one. So that's what I'm gonna do. Plus besides cleaning up oil for one chicken katsu versus four chicken katsu, the work is equal. So why not cook all of it? Did I have to use that extra bowl just to make the rice shape aesthetic like anime katsu? Yes, it was necessary. I don't know why but I feel like my life right now is straight out of a Japanese food movie. Master, good night. Just put it into the freezer and these reheat beautifully at 180 degrees celsius for about 10 to 15 minutes. Today's breakfast is going to be street toast. Where's my mayo? I'm just gonna toast it in the oven for five minutes on each side and it should be ready. Easy peasy. And I'm gonna top it off with a little more cabbage for some extra crunch and a bite. Damn, look at that cross-section. Street toast is definitely one of my favorite, favorite, favorite breakfast foods. It's really fluffy and moist because the cabbages retain a lot of moisture and I love the crunch of the raw cabbage also. That's optional but I personally love it. Pre-cooked watermelon is a service for your future self. I just went for a quick workout and I'm back and I want something quick and easy with lots of delicious protein and carbs because I am exhausted. I just did a little bit of weight training. I'm just gonna get this water boiling and shower and look presentable in just a second. See you later, alligator. I'm gonna add four of these meatballs to kind of create like the chunkiness of the sauce. Adding two tablespoons of the soy dressing as well as the sesame dressing and I'm gonna thin it out with a little bit of water and chili oil and this is the sauce. The garlic is so nice. I'm gonna add a little bit of the salad veg just so that I have a bit more fiber because I have some leftover sauce and this sauce, bomb. I'm hungry and I need food now. A little bit of the ajimoto dashi stock goes a very long way. I need to go edit. Bye-bye. I'm gonna make some kimchi rice balls for breakfast. This one's so simple. I'm literally just gonna microwave it. One tablespoon of water. When I'm rehydrating the rice from the freezer, I'm just gonna cover it with a plate and then into the microwave. Two minutes 30. It's simple. It's yummy. Katsu curry. It's still so crispy and the curry sauce is so good. Another meal, another bringer. I had a good work day today and I'm hungry and I want some pan-fried dumplings and I'm gonna make a little salad on the side just to add a little bit of fiber and this I'm very very very excited about but to be honest I've been excited for every meal so this is what I'm talking about. I feel so rich whenever I have dumplings in my freezer. I'm gonna go out for a run so I want something light but also very hydrating especially on such a hot sunny day so I'm gonna make some watermelon celery juice. I actually had a piece of old ginger lying around. Oh my god this looks like freaking fish sauce. For some reason I thought mixing red and green would turn into Christmas, not brown. My color theory is totally off. Or is it is it brown? Red and green together? It smells like cucumbers so we'll see. I've actually never mixed these two together. Cheers. It's so nasty. I'm gonna make a super easy lunch with the leftover katsu, the last of it, bless him, and make katsu sando. It's a saucy fella. Trust me on this though, you want your katsu sando to be drenched in sauce because the katsu itself is it's gonna be a little bit dry and crunchy and then you have the cabbage. You need the sauce to really bind it together. Damn this is one filthy boy. And for katsu sando, you always want your bread to be untoasted white bread. That's like the rule. Because if you have toasty on toasty on crunchy, you're gonna scrape the top of your mouth and nobody wants that. It needs to be a soft pillowy bed where the katsu to just lie in sauce and mayonnaise and to be blanketed with a mountain of thinly sliced cabbage. Damn I should be a poet. Do you like my pajamas? They're tangerines. I like them. Anyways, I really really really want some kimchi fried rice. It's so easy. Like literally almost everything that I've been making, actually I think everything that I've been making has been like using one dish or less and like by meal prepping, you only really have to clean like one dish. Like also obviously like I've been kind of fancy with the plating because I'm doing a damn video and same for trash because like I'm not ordering delivery, like wasting any food and I've just been so proud of myself. And because I'm so proud of myself, I'm gonna watch some anime, eat my fried rice and then go to bed. Good morning. I'm gonna make some curry bread with the leftover curry from yesterday. Was it supposed to look like a nipple? No. I'm still getting used to my new oven. It's a convection oven so I'm learning how to use it but it wasn't the most aesthetic looking toast I must say. But we do not waste food on this channel. I mean it's toast, curry, mayo and egg. So how could you go wrong? Oh so yummy. And for lunch I think I'm gonna make some kimchi udon. Oh for dinner today, let's make some meatballs. Another great meal. Another great meal. I made a little extra because I'm gonna use the leftovers for omurice. I'm gonna just mash it up and then make fried rice with it tomorrow morning. Good morning. I slept really well and sometimes when I wake up from a really like nice sleep, having too much canned corn is never never ever an issue for me. So oh it's super nice. It's lunchtime. I'm gonna make curry udon with some of the leftover curry and the udons that are frozen and using the rest of my chicken stock. The key to any good curry based like ramen or udon is not just adding straight up curry in my opinion. I love it when there's like a brothy element to it so it's not so thick. I like thick curry with rice but with noodles I want to be able to slurp and not get a third degree burn. Oh but this broth is really really good. Last meal prep dinner. I'm getting almost emotional. Cabbage rolls. Look how beautifully caramelized the other side is. Let me show you. I love the crunchiness of the cabbage and the sweetness and like when it caramelizes especially it just becomes almost like caramelized onion flavor and the filling inside is so nice and moist and the tofu is like a really good regulator in that making sure it's like really nice and airy and fluffy while retaining moisture. Bye bye. Good morning. Today is the final day of meal prep and I'm gonna make some tuna mayo rice balls. Literally don't ask me why but I just can't do oatmeal in the morning. It's it's just the thing that I cannot do. Like I like oatmeal raisin cookies and I like I like sweet oatmeal as like a dessert alternative but like having oatmeal in the morning it just makes me gag. Balls. Some of the dumplings that I'm just gonna rip apart. I really like adding the broken up parts of the dumpling because it gets really nice and crispy and for me yaki udon like with the vegetables you have that crunch but it's a little bit of a different type of crunch that you can get. Three things that you should take away from this meal prep video. Number one, meal prepping allows you to eat so many vegetables. It's about what you add to your diet not really subtracting. Meal prepping has been a really great way to ensure that I'm getting all the veggies that I want to be eating throughout the week. Number two, the lack of plastic and dishes that's come out of this whole experience has been so surprising and three, you don't have to make all these meals. Also like you can freeze half of it. Usually I like to eat out more with my friends and with my partner so I wouldn't do it this intensely but if you do it's also delicious and it feels like restaurant quality. I had a lot of fun and I hope you guys give it a try and if you want to see any more videos like this, make sure you like and subscribe.