Since March is Nationwide Frozen Meals Month, it is pretty much as good a time as any to sing the praises of my freezer. Positive, I like my fridge, however I like-like my freezer. It’s a magical field that stops time and retains naturally decaying meals in a state of scrumptious suspended animation. Whereas some gadgets do not benefit from the course of—say, salad greens and delicate sauces—most meals take fairly kindly to life at zero levels. Listed here are those that I freeze essentially the most.
1. Bananas
Generally we eat all of the bananas; generally, we do not. After we do not, I peel and thickly slice them and put them within the freezer. After we do eat all of them, generally I purchase extra only for freezing. Frozen sliced bananas change into the miracle constructing blocks of one-ingredient ice cream and smoothies. If any bananas by accident change into perilously mushy within the fruit bowl, I mash them and freeze them as such—they then go on to be included in any variety of baked items.
2. Berries
Contemporary berries have a fairly brief life earlier than going rogue. If they begin getting mushy and seem like mould is close to, into the freezer they go. Freezing bursts their cells, and thus they lose their construction, however they’re nonetheless excellent for smoothies, baked items, oatmeal, et cetera.
3. Bread
I as soon as labored at a French restaurant, and to my younger foodie horror was shocked to see the chef put stunning baguettes within the freezer. Quelle horreur! However what did I do know? Nothing, as a result of sticking bread within the freezer retains it as recent because it was when it went in. I preserve all our bread within the freezer, well-wrapped, and ensuring to pre-slice any that shall be used for sandwiches. For thawing loaves, take away one from the freezer and let it sit in its wrapper till it is room temperature—a trick for all baked items; it permits them to reabsorb their moisture. After unwrapping, loaves may be popped within the oven at 350 levels Fahrenheit for 10 minutes to get that scrumptious crust-to-center relationship going. For particular person slices with a future as toast, they’ll go straight from the freezer to the toaster.
4. Cake
If there occurs to ever be any leftover cake—espresso cake, birthday cake, cupcakes, on a regular basis cake, et cetera—it does completely effectively being frozen, frosting and all. Desserts with delicate whipped lotions and recent fruit might get a bit of wonky, however they may nonetheless style nice. I freeze cake in slices (wrapped in foil, which I re-use), which may then be taken out in parts that prohibit Cookie-Monster-style cake devouring.
5. Coconut Milk
In the event you open a can of coconut milk for the cream, you will have a lot of the milk left over afterward—that is what occurs at our home, a minimum of. I put the remaining in an ice dice tray and freeze it, then put the coco cubes in a freezer jar. They’ll go in smoothies, be the ice in iced espresso, be utilized in baked items, or may be mixed and used the subsequent time I’m making a coconut soup or curry.
6. Cookie Dough
Many cookie recipes make too large of a batch for smaller households. You would halve the recipe, I suppose, however cookie dough is a superb freezer resident—so freeze some as an alternative. (Or in case you’re so inclined, make a double batch if you wish to save labor subsequent time round.) It may be frozen in an entire log, in slices, in dropped spoonfuls or scoops; rolled dough may be frozen in a pre-rolled ball or rolled out and frozen in sheets, which makes cookie-cutting them a dream
7. Common Leftovers
The freezer is the right method to deal with large batch meals that do not get eaten after a day or two; issues like casseroles and lasagna. However I additionally freeze components of dinners, like rice or polenta, that may then simply change into a headstart on one other dinner down the street.
8. Ginger
In the event you love recent ginger however discover that you aren’t getting by means of a root earlier than it begins to whither, then freeze away. I preserve the peel on to assist defend it a bit, and minimize it in hunks that can match right into a small freezer jar. I at all times use a ceramic ginger grater for prepping ginger for recipes, and discover that I can carry out the basis, grate it whereas nonetheless frozen, after which return it to the jar.
9. Soup and Chili
I’ve a soup and chili downside. I love making them—there’s is remedy of their constructing and stirring, and they’re the right receptacle for fridge odds and ends that do not wish to go to waste. However each time I make a pot, I preserve including and including and including, and find yourself with sufficient soup or chili to feed a small village. So we eat it for a number of days, after which the remaining goes within the freezer. The soup I normally freeze in a single giant container, however chili will get frozen in muffin tins after which transferred to a different container for small potions that can be utilized for lunches or integrated into issues like burritos.
10. Tomato Sauce
Whether or not you make your individual do-it-yourself tomato sauce or have half a jar lingering within the fridge; stick the extras within the freezer. Like chili, that is one other good candidate for muffin tins so to take away particular person parts, if that fits your loved ones’s wants.
11. Tomato Paste
In the event you solely use tomato paste by the occasional spoonful, don’t let that almost-full can die an ignominious dying at the back of your fridge. Put it in a small freezer-safe jar within the freezer.
12. Tortillas
Identical to bread, tortillas keep brisker when having been saved within the freezer and can be utilized as wanted. I discover that generally my do-it-yourself spelt tortillas stick collectively if I freeze them in a stack (a destiny that occurs to others, however not all, forms of tortillas). I take advantage of a small piece of parchment between them which makes eradicating one by one a lot simpler. I preserve the used parchment items within the bag with the tortillas in order that I can use them batch after batch.
13. Wine
In the event you ever find yourself with leftover wine, or wine you did not love, freeze it in ice dice trays and stick the cubes in a freeze container. Wine cubes may be added to punch or sangria—however I particularly love to make use of them in sauces and to deglaze pans.
14. Vegetable Scraps
Each single half that comes off a vegetable goes right into a lined bowl in my freezer, as does any odd or finish that finds itself languishing within the fridge. When the bowl is full, I make vegetable inventory, and it is one in every of my favourite issues: It’s free meals!
15. Vegetable Inventory
Since I’ve an countless provide of do-it-yourself vegetable inventory (see above), I typically find yourself with a few of it within the freezer. I used to freeze all of it in large jars, however now I additionally freeze it in smaller parts in order that I can use it extra randomly, like when cooking grains, making risotto or utilizing it in different recipes.