Christmas food prep. What can I freeze which won't ruin it and what are your best freezing recipes?

[ScreamingBeans]

I've just parboiled the potatoes for the roasties and am cooking another batch to make stuffing which I'll also freeze.

I want to freeze the carrots (maybe with a glaze if anyone can recommend one_, parsnips (ditto or possibly with flour and parmesan unless you tell me I need to do that once I take them out of the freezer) and if it's possible without making them vile, the sprouts.

Red cabbage as well, but am too much of a wuss to freeze cauliflower (for cauliflower cheese) unless someone's got a failsafe recipe.

Any suggestions?

I do the potatoes ,parsnips and carrots on the day but I peel and par boil the potatoes and parsnips on Christmas Eve
Swede is easy to freeze ( we have swede puree )
I don't make red cabbage but it freezes well

For the cauliflower cheese - I make up the sauce and freeze it , it's one of those things I don;t want to be cooking on Christmas Day . Then heat the sauce in the microwave till its hot , steam the cauliflower and the whole thing just needs to brown without it going soggy .

If you flour the parsnips would that stick on them I've done breadcrumbs but found they only stuck on when they were hot and I needed to press them on

Peeling and cutting up the Christmas veg is part of my Christmas relaxing prep while I watch something on TV - even peeling the sprouts and putting the cross in the stalk ( to let Satan out y'know )
I haven't bought my vegetables yet ......hoping the shop will have plenty on Tuesday .

I am in the middle of cooking a Sticky Toffee Pudding ( when DH finishes his film and I can use the mixer ) which will go in the freezer .

Ooh, would be interested in a freezable sticky toffee pudding recipe, have you done it before? Do you know it works or are you just very brave?

Parboiled parsnips freeze well. I do this all the time because I always seem to have too many. I don't put anything on them, then just bring back to the boil from frozen, drain and put in the oven.

Can confirm cheese sauce freezes well, and mashed/puréed swede. Also pea purée - in fact any puréed veg!

Is this for turkey etc?

I've just cooked my pigs in blankets and stuffing balls. I might need to make more as DH and teen have been unsupervised in the kitchen

M&S sell frozen parsnips, so presumably they are okay parboiled and frozen. For roasties I would just parboil the day before and find space in the fridge. Leave sprouts/brassicas alone until the day unless you are putting them in some sort of sauce.

I won't pre do meat, will defrost and deal with on the day

Just the veg really. I've done carrots and will do parsnips but I wondered if there's a nice recipe for a glaze that I could do for either the parsnips or carrots.

Wonder if the sprouts will last till Wednesday...

I normally use the Delia recipe which gives 8 small pudding basins , but found a scaled up recipe with 8oz dates and used a 10" square tin -took 35 minutes to cook.

i have cut into 8 pieces and its cooling now to freeze .
The mini pudding ones are easier I think as they cook quicker and not so much worry about 'is it cooked in the middle before the top gets brown '

Ohhhh I never thought to freeze the prep... I normally do it in Christmas Eve and bung it in the fridge

I make ahead and freeze:
Delia's Parmesan parsnips (coat them in flour and Parmesan mix and open freeze, pack in boxes once solid with layers of grease proof between.layers)

Delia's red cabbage. I make in the slow cooker, more than we need then freeze for both Christmas Day and roasts a later on.

I blanch and freeze sprouts because they often get smaller in the shops towards the big day

Mashed swede - because I love it but it's a pain to peel, chop, cook and mash on the day

That's the veg, which you are most interested in. I also make ahead and freeze stuffing, cranberry sauce, bread sauce and pigs in blankets

I cook carrots and roast potatoes from scratch on the day, although depending on what we're doing I might par boil the potatoes on Christmas Eve.

We don't normally have cauliflower cheese, but if we did, I'd make it on Christmas Eve and reheat on Christmas Day. I find it a bit mushy if reheated from frozen but that might be my technique !

Has anyone got a make ahead pudding without dates?

Here's the delia sticky toffee recipe.
Freeze once the puddings are cooked, then take out to defrost and cook with the sauce as per recipe.
They're scrummy!!

www.deliaonline.com/recipes/collections/hot-puddings/little-sticky-toffee-puddings-with-pecan-toffee-sauce

I've frozen the red cabbage, homemade sausage rolls, the sticky toffee puddings, some mini quiches and these starters.

realfood.tesco.com/recipes/asparagus-and-camembert-tarts.html

It’s not really brave… the one I make is just a cake really. I make that and freeze it then make and freeze the toffee sauce separately

@Shiremum40 I've had this recommended so it's in the freezer! Not sure how it will turn out though so can't comment on that! Tasted amazing before I froze it.

@FusionChefGeoff what do you have in the freezer?