You want hot Shabbos food both Friday night and Shabbos day with minimal shlep when you go away. But how? The answer is One-Pot Shabbat!
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The information in this post is not intended as psak halacha. Please always follow the guidance of your own Rav.
So, you’re going away and don’t want to shlep a blech. Nor do you want to figure out Shabbos mode on the oven in your vacation rental or leave your propane oven on in your RV all Shabbos. So, what can you do to ensure you have hot food both Friday night and Shabbos day? What we call “One-Pot Shabbat” is what we do to ensure all our hot food stays hot. Read on to find out what you need and how to do it.
Everything You Need to Stock Your (Vacation Rental or) RV Kitchen
Equipment
In order to make this work, all you need is a slow cooker that’s large enough to hold all the food you plan to serve warm, some slow cooker liners, and aluminum foil. Our slow cooker comes with its own blech, but that’s a total bonus. Depending on your model you can use foil or skip it altogether. Consult your own Rav.
If don’t want your slow cooker to be on all Shabbos, you can also put it on a timer to go off after your Shabbos day meal. And don’t forget the adapter if your trip is abroad.
The Set Up
Now you are going to layer all the food you want to serve warm. The lowest layer will be served last (ex: cholent) and the top layer will be served first (ex: soup). You’re going to place each layer in its own bag.
- Layer 1: cholent in liner (or not)
- Layer 2: kugel in foil/boil-in-a-bag in cholet/something else in a liner
- Layer 3: Friday Night main and side in a liner (or side in its own additional liner)
- Layer 4: soup in a liner
If you’re going to put your cholent directly in the pot, I recommend spraying it or oiling it some other way for easier cleanup. If you’re going to use a liner, then it’s recommended to put some water in the bottom to keep the bag from sticking to the pot.
The next layer will be your Shabbos Day kugel or another type of side dish. If it’s kugel, you can really just wrap it in foil and place it in the cholent. You could also put a bag of boil-in-a-bag rice or quinoa directly in the cholent–just make sure there’s enough water. This is a great opportunity to use brown rice if your kids usually refuse to eat it since it will be brown from the cholent anyway so they won’t notice!
Your next layer will be your Friday Night main and side. Chicken and root vegetables is an easy one. Or you could do a sweet and sour brisket and then shred it over rice or mashed potatoes (warmed in its own liner). You should cook it ahead of time and put it in its slow cooker liner fully cooked. Here’s an easy recipe, feel free to adjust based on taste and availability:
- cut up a bunch of peeled or cleaned root vegetables in larges chunks (fingerling potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, parsnips, onions, etc.)
- toss them in a 9×13 pan with some garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, paprika, and garlic cloves
- top with chicken bottoms
- season the chicken with the same spices
- cover and bake at 350 for about 2 hours; no need to add oil to the potatoes since they’ll cook in the shmaltz from the chicken
- note: when I make this on its own, I cook it for about a half hour uncovered as well to get it crispy but it won’t stay crispy in the “One-Pot Shabbat” method
Pro-Tip: The above chicken and vegetable meal is a good one to make while you’re driving in your RV. Throw it together while stopped for gas and arrive at the campground (or pull over at a park) with a hot meal. You can substitute rice for the vegetables, in which case add a little water depending on the amount of rice.
The top layer will be your soup. Put a liner on top of your main and fill it with soup. The soup should be fully cooked as well. So, if you brought a container of frozen chicken soup with you, just make sure it’s defrosted before you put it in. Depending on how many hours between when you plug in your slow cooker and sit down to eat, you may or may not want to heat it up first.
Serving
You’re going to be serving one layer at a time. So, the type of slow cooker you have will determine how you can take each out as needed. Again, you may want to consult your Rav.
3 Important Considerations for Shabbos in an RV
A good tip here is to have some serving pieces immediately ready–even if it’s a few extra pots or 9×13 pans. This will make it easier so that when you take out each liner you can just empty the contents into the serving piece. (Think: what are you going to do with a big bag of soup?)
What Else?
While One-Pot Shabbat really refers to hot food, don’t forget the other stuff you’ll want to eat. This will really depend on your family’s preferences. For example, chipotle dip is real oneg Shabbos for my oldest son. So much so that we spent one Shabbos at my brother-in-law’s house and my son brought it into the house from the RV fridge, put some on his plate, then returned it to the RV to ensure that he still had some the next Shabbos.
While not everyone needs chipotle dip–or any dips for that matter–there are some basics that you should remember:
- Grape juice or wine and challah–or matza/tortilla/pita/etc depending on your travels
- fish–can even just be a can of tuna or some lox if that’s what’s available where you are for Shabbos
- dessert–doesn’t have to be anything fancy, you can find some pareve cookies or ice cream or even just some fruit
Nice additions:
- sliced vegetables
- dips
- salad
- nuts/chips/candy/snacks/Shabbos Party
You’ll be surprised how much of this can really be found with good hechsherim even far from major Jewish Communities. For example, you can find fully cooked ready to eat salmon in Whole Foods or Walmart and arrange for a pickup or delivery. Same with pareve ice cream and challah!
Make it easy on yourself with a One-Pot Shabbat and, when possible, have everything else delivered or arrange a pick-up.
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