Amyone cooking and freezing the veg before hand?

[Chbebe]

Am considering it but not sure if I should!

Yep. I’ve pre frozen the following - spuds, Brussels, bread sauce, stuffing balls, mashed swede

Not me. That doesn’t sound very nice at all.
I’ll just prep the veg the day before and stick it in the oven with everything else.

Just sounds like more faff. Chop and prep the day before so all you have to do is cook.

I do parboil the spuds, freeze on a tray then break up and put in a bag in the freezer. Also cooked red cabbage doesn’t suffer from being frozen.

We tried freezing the roast spuds a couple of years ago but not bothered since.
Par boil spuds and make Cauli cheese Christmas Eve, also par boil sprouts and cook the bacon for the chestnut sprout dish.
Other veg is plain and just prepped and kept in water.

Me too,I can't imagine it saving much time tbh.

I pre-make my red cabbage, and make the cauli cheese early but all the fresh veg takes minutes to cook once the turkey is out, so freezing it doesn't seem to be much of a time saving to me. We have lovely organic veg, so it tastes amazing just boiled/steamed.

I've roasted and frozen celeriac, parsnips, sweet potato and carrots.

I often freeze a batch of roasted root vegetables and they're always delicious.

Only our braised red cabbage as something weird happens in the freezer that makes it taste even better when defrosted !

Do you just put it in the fridge dry?

No, in cold water in the saucepans.

I prep my veg on christmas eve. Carrots and sprouts are peeled/chopped and go into plastic bags in the fridge. Potatoes and parsnips are peeled and go into pans with cold water on top of the stove. Only the red cabbage is frozen.

I’ve done my sprouts. Just because they’re such a faff to prepare. The rest of the veg I’ll happily do on the day.

How about sprouts - if you top and tail them and take off any outer leaves, is it then better to keep them in water or are they ok to just go in fridge as they are?

Freezing can amplify the seasoning.

I was just doing a test batch of pre roasted potatoes to freeze and then reheat on the day. My OH says he doesn’t understand why I’m making such a fuss over something perfectly simple. So I’ll happily leave him to it on Christmas Day and when he gets all stressed trying to juggle lots of things in the oven (and a ham on the fucking bbq) all I at the same time I will happily ignore him and pour myself another drink.

I’ve just made a leek gratin and the swede/carrot mash and frozen them.

also decided to do cauliflower/broccoli cheese early but after consulting mumsnet and various other sites I’ve ended up having the blanch them and put into freezer! Probably made more work for myself. I’ll make a cheese sauce and freeze it and then put it all together on Christmas Day. Last year I used a bag of frozen cauliflower and it was fine but I do think it can get a bit watery. I’m just hoping if the cheese sauce is amazing I’ll get away with it.

The ‘recipe’ I saw online said to prepare them (i.e. take off any outer leaves) and then boil in salted water for 2-3 minutes. Then plunge them into a bowl of iced water. When they’re cold, drain and then put them on an oven tray, on parchment, and open freeze them. Once frozen, put them into a plastic bag.

When it comes to cooking them, just cook as you would normally, but from frozen.

Thanks!
I'll now be spending the evening sorting out a mountain of sprouts.
🤣

Indeed! That was the whole reason I decided to try doing them in advance. The little buggers take so much time to prepare

I think a Christmas BBQ would have me divorcing for January tbh.

I’ve blanched the sprouts, leeks, cabbage and cauliflower. Also made and froze the stuffing, pigs in blankets, bread sauce and two types of gravy. I usually spend all day prepping on Xmas eve and I’m exhausted by Xmas day so I’m hoping this year I’ll have an easy day tomorrow. Will just peel 15lb of potatoes, the carrots and parsnips and make a trifle.