Stuff you recently discovered that actually freezes really well...

[MindYourUsage]

...or stuff you now freeze that has been a game changer

I'll start:

• Pesto portions. Dolloped in little tin foil parcels
• Ditto cream cheese (only good for cooking with once defrosted tho)
• A Fecking squeeze of fresh lemon 😂 for those poxy recipes that demand it
• Single portions of mashed potato - freezes exceptionally well with double cream and butter. Game changer for single living.

not a different thing that freezes, but if you routinely make and freeze soup and are tight for freezer space, make it like a puree instead of like soup and then thin it with milk or stock or whatever when you thaw it. It works with stuff like ragu as well.

I think a few pictures of the interior of people's freezers are needed.

I buy bags of dried pulses (e.g. chickpeas), cook them all up in one batch and then freeze them. I can then dip into the freezer for as many / as few as I need for adding to stews / curries, making hummus, etc.
It's cheaper than buying tins, of which I might only use half.

All the fresh herbs and spices! How did I not know about this.

I now have frozen chopped ginger, chillies, garlic, coriander and parsley. It's made a huge difference to how long it takes to throw a meal together.

I also buy emergency soffrito mix (or make, if there's lots of suitable veg), and freeze pesto once the jar's open, so no more mouldy jars in the back of the fridge.

I try freezing most things, tho I froze a whole, unpeeled banana once which didn't go so well

I store all my flours in the freezer. Doesn’t require defrosting but prevents weevils! Just make sure the paper bags are in zip sealed plastic bags to protect from moisture.

Fresh pasta dough freezes brilliantly and defrosts surprisingly quickly.

if you freeze flour for 24hrs when you buy it, then take it out the freezer you don’t get weevils

Welshcakes.

I make them everyso often for a group I attend. One time I made them up but did not go, so I put them in the freezer. They came out great and no one knew they were weeks old.

You can even grate them from frozen if you only want a teen bit.

Ginger, garlic and pesto. I blitz the ginger and garlic and freeze them flat in freezer bags and as other mentioned just break off pieces as needed. I used a chop stick to portion it into squares before sticking it in the bag for freezing

Also freeze celery (who uses the whole bunch), cream and anything bread based like bagels and pancakes and the rinds off Parmesan

i freeze the carcass off roast chicken and with I have 3/4 I make chicken stock. Reduce it right down until it’s nearly a syrup and freeze in ice cube trays. Homemade stock pots.

An annual trip into the specialist supermarket in our nearest big city, hence the need to freeze!

Our big sainsburys has them occasionally but not reliably.

I got fed up of wasting fruit and veg so now I have a couple of ziplock bags that live in the freezer, as any fruit or veg starts to go past its best it gets prepped and chucked in a bag. The veg one gets turned into soup in the slow cooker, the fruit one is used for smoothies/crumbles/pies/compote. I also triple the recipe whenever I make pastry/cookie dough or crumble topping and freeze the excess. Cookie dough rolled into balls can be cooked from frozen for fresh hot cookies in about 8 minutes without having to make a big batch, just cook 1 or 2 when you fancy them.

Tinned tomatoes.. sometimes l only need a table spoon full. I freeze into tiny freezer bags.

Aah my Mum made the most amazing Welsh Cakes . She died in 2014 and I miss her so much ❤️

Parmesan. Basil leaves in ice cube trays,
Grapes. Lush in a drink!!

Fresh basil
Fresh parsley
Fresh coriander

Freeze them loosely in takeaway tubs then grab a handful and crumble frozen leaves straight into the cooking pot - no more chopping herbs either.

Freeze fresh mint throughout the summer.
Wash,dry and portion up into squares of foil and put them in a freezer bag.
So easy to unwrap one of the packets and throw into a pan of new potatoes.
I've just used up the last of our garden mint.
I found foil easier than trying to stuff mint into ice cube trays, even the bigger ones.

I haven't tried it myself but I watched a Marcus Wearing programme earlier. He was visiting a French boulangerie and the woman in the shop said you can freeze fresh baguettes. Take them out of the freezer and allow to defrost at room temperature for 30 minutes. ( In France, maybe a bit longer in Scotland in the winter).

Slices or cubes of butter and slices or cubes of chedder. They are really handy for adding to things and it makes them easy to portion out.

Paneer, herbs and curry leaves.
Cookies - also from Costco as someone suggests above!

Veggies are best blanched prior to freezing - part cooking in boiling water then rapidly cooling. Summers in our house were extremely fraught as dad's big garden produced a lot of veg that mum froze so she’d have loads of beans etc to process. There’s a guide here: https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/freeze/freeze-general-information/blanching-vegetables/. She had a giant soup pot and if I remember rightly used the basket from the deep fryer to dunk the veggies. She then froze in trays and transferred to bags.

If I buy chip shop chips I will put some of them into the airfryer while I get other stuff out, they are now very crisp, losing the sogginess from being wrapped up. Left overs can also be reheated in the sirfryer next day.

Cooked basmati rice

Lidl Brownie.. probably all brownies but I had a free lidl bake good, got a brownie, didnt want it yet so froze it.. few weeks later when i remembered I had it. It was lovely!

Left over veg, fruit, milk. Discovered recently that the best way to get breadcrumbs is to grate frozen slices of bread- game changer for me

@DuchessofStaffordshireis that a good thing?