Freezer?!

[rivenwanderer]

Hi! Last month, we roasted a pumpkin and froze the flesh in 1-cup portions in freezer bags. My partner has made blintzes with it, and I've been making fancy quesadillas (defrost pumpkin, add black beans and grated cheese and salt and mix it all together, cook in a tortilla on a skillet like a quesadilla and add arugula). It got me wondering: what other things work really well to cook in big batches, freeze, and use as ingredients later?

The criteria here:
-Economy of scale to cook lots of at once (only need to spend one night processing things and then get many meals in the future with less prep)
-still tasty and usable as a versatile ingredient after freezing
-vegetarian

We just froze some beans cooked from dry in the pressure cooker, and I'm thinking about other squashes to roast. Maybe carmelized onions. Anyone have more ideas or success stories?

Comments

[angel_negra]

I like making a bunch of bean burritos ahead of time, freezing them and then pulling one out for lunch the night beforehand. (1 tortilla, 1/4 cup corn, 1/4 cup cooked black beans, 1/2 cup shredded cheese, 2 tbsps of mashed avocado/guacamole)

[vass]

Vegetable stock is good, and can be frozen in ice cube trays so you can pop out a few cubes at a time.

[weaverbird]

I make pesto in bulk when basil is in season and freeze it in ice-cube trays. To re-use the trays and to save space, once the cubes are frozen I pop them out and store in bags.

Also, when there are a lot of good-looking mushrooms on clearance at the supermarket I make duxelles in bulk and then freeze and store the same way. It's wonderful to pop a couple cubes into a pot of soup or pasta sauce.

[peaceful_sands]

I make batches of a simple vegetable soup (whatever veggies are available at the time and a tin of tomatoes and some stock) and then split them into smaller batches to freeze. When I thaw them I can add different spices to the mix to create slightly different effects.

When it comes to freezing, I wait until it's cool and then pour it into a plastic freezer safe tub lined with a plastic bag. I tie the top of the bag but still keep it in the tub. Once it's frozen the tub comes out, the soup stays in the freezer without being sloppy and so the bag doesn't leek.

[wetdryvac]

I've had good luck with curries, daals, and similar. I tend towards sweeter curries, both Indian and Thai, with potato, tomato, and similar. Curries: As long as it's somewhere between a light cream sauce and a thick paste, and all the air is out of the bag, you should be good to go. Daals or bean dishes, I try to make sure there's enough liquid to avoid air-space between beans/lentils/etc. so it doesn't freezer burn.

Daals tend to scale up slightly more easily than curries, especially the ghee heavy northern Indian ones, and more especially if they're British influenced, but Thai curries can be done in huge batches.

Pizza and many yeasted bread doughs also freezes pretty well, though that's really only half a process there.

* * *

Dahl baseline, which I love for the slow-cooker: http://allrecipes.com/personalrecipe/63512932/slow-cooker-yellow-lentil-dahl/detail.aspx

Pizza dough baseline: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pizza-dough-iii/detail.aspx - I do this up in 4x or 8x batches and lump the dough for later, frozen. To thaw out, I heat water up to just about as hot a I can stand my hand in, in a pot, and immerse a bag or two - about 1/2 gallon water for 2 bags. Works with hun bao dough too: http://allrecipes.com/personalrecipe/62765691/hun-bao-dough/detail.aspx

Cabbage based piroshki filling makes for easy freezing, but takes a bit to get all the air out: http://allrecipes.com/personalrecipe/62558295/cabbage-peroshki-filling/detail.aspx - and works nicely as hun bao filling too, or straight up as a side with other food.

[yarngeek]

I just pulled a couple ziplock bags of curry out (I made extra a couple weeks ago) and packed it for lunch; I find it useful to do that when I make too much batch lunch.

I usually just keep frozen veggies in the freezer, so I will be keeping an eye on this space.