Freezing helps lock in flavour and extend the food’s shelf life.
Did you know you could freeze cheese, eggs, herbs, tomato puree, beans, sliced onions.. and Christmas diners? Continue reading.
Freezing is an amazing way to not only save food, but also cook more efficiently:
If you see that an item will go spare before you can eat it, freeze it.
If you can’t use the leftovers, freeze them.
You can also prepare ingredients when you have time, freeze them, and cook later from frozen.
Check what you can’t freeze, what you can freeze and how to freeze them (some should be frozen raw, others cooked al dente), with the NHS, or the BBC .
So, what can you freeze? Check these examples:
Fresh herbs: place them in an ice cube tray, cover with a little water, leave to freeze. You can transfer to bags to free you ice cube tray. You can also just put them in a freezer bag/container and use as needed.
Vegetables: dice fresh onions, peppers, chillies, .. and freeze them flat. Blanche other veggies (i.e. cook them sliced, in boiling water for approx 2 to 4 min until they are al dente) before you freeze them.
Eggs: freeze the whites when you just use the yolks (write how many there are) and keep on adding until you have enough to do meringues or financiers.
Cheese: freeze camembert and hard cheese. It’s best to grate them first if you will only use handfuls of them.
Ginger: grate it and freeze it.
Tomato puree.
Milk in cartons can be frozen unopened if there is a gap between the milk and the lid – all liquids expand as they freeze, so if there isn’t enough room, the lid might pop off or the carton could split. Milk in glass bottles can’t be frozen so transfer it to a container or a freezer bag with a watertight seal.
Yogurt: freeze it in portions in a clean muffin tin. Slide the frozen portions out and put them in a container to use from frozen, or defrost first.
Take the time to check the two resources above (NHS, BBC), and if you want to become a pro, sign up with the Full Freezer for ideas to use your freeze for lunchboxes, and even Christmas diners!