Vegan Storecupboard Challenge Winter 25 - Winter 26

Moorviews

@boultdj - @leftatthetrafficlights is the expert on this but I have never had a problem freezing beans. I nearly always cook a 500g packet at once and freeze what I don’t need for the recipe. Freeze in 250g portions to equal the drained weight of a can of beans. The freezing isn’t a problem at all. Generally, I drain the beans after cooking and freeze them loose in bags, laying them flat on a baking tray. If the cooking liquor is well flavoured I sometimes freeze them in that. It just depends on how I am going to use them later. On some occasions I have soaked the beans, run out of time to cook them and just drained and frozen them without issue. They obviously will still require cooking afterwards but they then do cook more quickly.  

I made a potage from various lentils, beans, vegetables and pearl barley. Served with masala roasted cauliflower and a carrot, date, pistachio and pumpkin seed salad. Another night was an aubergine and mushroom traybake with pine nuts. Spiced butternut, sweet potato and lentil soup today and an oven baked ratatouille later with some rissoles made from leftovers and mashed potato. 

leftatthetrafficlights

Moorviews said:

I made a potage from various lentils, beans, vegetables and pearl barley. Served with masala roasted cauliflower and a carrot, date, pistachio and pumpkin seed salad. Another night was an aubergine and mushroom traybake with pine nuts. Spiced butternut, sweet potato and lentil soup today and an oven baked ratatouille later with some rissoles made from leftovers and mashed potato. 

That all sounds delicious!! 😋😁

As far as liquid or not is concerned - I've just always done it with it, it's good to know they work well either way! 😁

LotsOfTea

I usually freeze beans without liquid and they've always been fine too. 

I've been experimenting with trying some tempeh as a change from tofu and today I chopped up some smoked tempeh, mushrooms and onion into tiny cubes, fried them and then used them as a topping for some pumpkin and red lentil soup. OMG it was delicious! It really gave the soup an extra flavour boost and felt a bit fancy too. 

Brie

LotsOfTea said:

I usually freeze beans without liquid and they've always been fine too. 

I've been experimenting with trying some tempeh as a change from tofu and today I chopped up some smoked tempeh, mushrooms and onion into tiny cubes, fried them and then used them as a topping for some pumpkin and red lentil soup. OMG it was delicious! It really gave the soup an extra flavour boost and felt a bit fancy too. 

must admit I've never heard of tempeh but from what I google it sounds like it would be better than tofu which, when I've had it, has always been so blah.  love the sound of the soup.

boultdj

Thank you for the answers, that's my next months meal prep sorted then, soak and freeze beans for soups and stews.

leftatthetrafficlights

@LotsOfTea - I've never tried smoked tempeh so that's good to know (the soup sounds lovely too!). I must admit that I'm not a tempeh fan usually although I have been told that steaming it first takes away some of the more pungent flavour so intend to try that with the box I have in my freezer. I think I'll steam it then put half of it into a marinade with liquid smoke in it to test it out and keep the other half plain and see how I feel about it! 😉 

@Brie - I must admit that tofu can be a bit bland and difficult to get flavour into (paticularly the super firm stuff). That's one of the reasons that I prefer to make my own - I can get loads of flavour into it from the outset and then add to it during the marinading phase - I really enjoy it then! It can be time consuming to make so I tend to do quite a large batch and then freeze it for later use - I'll frequently freeze it in the marinade after its been sitting in it overnight 😁 

@boultdj - happy bean cooking! 😁 

Last night we ended up just having stuff from the freezer as by the time I'd got home I couldn't be bothered to cook - we had some juicy marbles 'pork' and finished the opened bag of salt and vinegar 'vibes'. Dh had veg from the freezer with his - I just had apple sauce with mine 😂 

I am going to make sushi today (better late than never!) and have the vegetable gyoza and remaining bao buns with it - I'm going to be avoiding all UPF'S for at least a couple of weeks after this lot as I've eaten more of them over the past week than I have done for months and I'm starting to feel the effects!🤦‍♀️

I may make the menu plan for next week today - I'll post it later if I do....

leftatthetrafficlights

Asian dinner had - gyozas, sushi, bao buns and inari with a miso and soy dipping sauce; very nice but I definitely need salad tomorrow!! 😂 

Moorviews

@LotsOfTea - that sounds like a great high protein topping. 

I like to crumble the extra firm tofu and then it is easier to get the marinade flavours into it. I am always impressed that you make your own @leftatthetrafficlights. 

More butternut squash used last night in a chipotle and black eye peas stew. Eaten with the last few taco shells from the larder. Thankfully not stale, even though they have been opened for months!

leftatthetrafficlights

@Moorviews - crumbling definitely helps with getting flavour in - the more surface area the better! 😁 I did a dish relatively recently where I grated the tofu and that worked really well 🙌 No need to be impressed with me making tofu at home - it's really simple, just a bit time consuming! 🙄 Your chipotle and black eye pea stew sounds lush!! 😋 

I forgot to say yesterday that I had to get rid of my tubes of wasabi 😔 they were seriously out of date (I'm talking years! 😳) but I'd thought that as they were sealed they'd be fine...the colour looked wrong so I tasted before I put it onto the sushi rice - very glad I did...it was not fine!! 🤢😂

leftatthetrafficlights

Simple dinner tonight as I couldn't be bothered to do much cooking! Dark speckled lentils, grain mix with barberries and seeds, spaghetti squash, rocket, blueberries, strawberries, black grapes and pomegranate with blood orange balsamic and a big dollop of hommous 😋