Christmas veg ideas for the freezer

Tink_04

January is a long cold month already but with all the cheap veg in the supermarkets I’m trying to make the most of it by making food for the freezer. So far it’s been mostly soups a bit I thought we could share some ideas to make the most of the cheap food and stock up the freezer.

• Soup ( millions of variants!!)
• Cauliflower/ Broccoli bake
• Mashed potatoes/swede/carrots 

I’m sure there is loads of other things that could be made but I can’t think off the top of my head. I’d like to chip potatoes for chips but they always go brown when I froze them before.

Tink

Katiehound

Freeze most of them ready prepared for future meals.
Blanch beforehand to retain colour 
some ideas here:
https://www.familyfreshmeals.com/2021/08/how-to-freeze-fresh-vegetables.html

If you google there are lots more articles including charts to show blanching, cooling times - but most are from US- so some veg have slightly different names!

it would take up less room to freeze them as veg rather than as  ready made meals. my freezer is full now!!

JIL

Delia's red cabbage freezes beautifully .
Swede and carrot mash, is also a good one (can also use other root veg) it's also a really good addition to soups.
Ratatouille is also a good freezer addition.
Rumbledethump in a tinfoil dish ready to go straight into the oven.

joedenise

Chips are best blanched, dried off and then sprayed with oil before freezing.  If you open freeze and then put into bags you can just use what you want each time and just pop them into the oven from frozen.

Katiehound

Cooked potato dishes which can be cut into  portions & frozen:
dauphinoise potatoes
lyonnaise potatoes
boulangere potatoes

mashed potato if mixed with milk/ fat- use for shepherd's pie , potato scones
fish cakes made with potato
rosti
hash browns

Delia's red cabbage- as above. Will keep in fridge for a week. can be cooked in slow cooker, eaten hot or cold

green cabbage can be frozen in wedges and then added to dishes

 

Sunshine_and_Roses

I would like to try Delias red cabbage recipe in the slow cooker, but could do with advice.  I have some frozen stewed apples, could I defrost these instead of fresh and layer them with the cabbage and onions, then slow cook overnight? 

Katiehound

clareski said:

I would like to try Delias red cabbage recipe in the slow cooker, but could do with advice.  I have some frozen stewed apples, could I defrost these instead of fresh and layer them with the cabbage and onions, then slow cook overnight? 

almost certainly
I have used cheap apple sauce instead of fresh apples- worked fine

Tink_04

Made 2 shepherds pie today with a bag of 19p potatoes, diced carrots in the pie too!

MSE_James

We're getting to the time when the cheap veg deals are starting up for this year ... as well as this thread, there are some ideas from 2019 here too - but please keep the suggestions coming. 

RAS

The first thing I'd suggest is for people to think about is that they could keep some veg whole and uncooked if it's stored properly, giving them more flexibility. Then they can batch cook if stuff starts to get less attractive after the frenzy of the festive season. 

Remove everything from its plastic wrapper and making sure it's dry. Wet/moist roots in plastic go really nasty very quickly. Potatoes need to be in a light proof breathable sack, or a couple of brown paper carriers one inside the other kept in a dark corner. Other roots don't mind the same treatment short-term.

If you are batch cooking the veg for soup, save space in the freezer and give yourself more options by cooking and mashing or briefly blending the veg rather than cooking in lots of liquid. More compact and you can use the mix for rissoles and fried "cakes", pie topping, side dishes  as well as adding stock to make soup.

And think about making veggie curries. Parsnip goes brilliantly with cumin. Potato curry is great even with cheap curry powder. Haven't tried swede but guess it would also be good if pre-cooked and given time to meld with flavourings.

Finally, check out recipes for quick carrot pickles. Most keep a week or two in the fridge. 

Tink_04

What can I make for the freezer? 

I’m trying to fill my freezer after a hard few months. Christmas is coming and we have been doing our best this year. I used to be able to fill the freezer with loads of great easy meals and cooking hacks but I’m a bit out of practice.

can I freezer leek and potato soup if I make it as got some cheap leeks and potatoes? I have done carrot and parsnip soup already. 

Potatoes tent to go brown when I freezer them but I have made some mash and frozen that. 

Did anyone have any ideas on anything else I can utilise the cheap veg for my freezer?

Merry Christmas everyone!!