Plant-Based Freezer Meals
Many of my students want to know what dishes can be made ahead of time and frozen. This is a great question, because not all foods freeze equally well. But those recipes that do freeze well can help on so many fronts:
Prevent boredom by not requiring you to eat the same thing day after day
Lessen your overall cooking load, especially if you live alone, because a freezer full of entrees can take care of several meals a week
Serve as an emergency reserve when it’s impossible to make the lunch or dinner you’d planned to make
Caveats
Before I provide my list of go-to freezer entrees, let me mention a few tricky ingredients.
Potatoes – chunks of cooked potatoes can become squishy when frozen in soups and stews, so I avoid freezing potato-heavy dishes, except for those with mashed potatoes.
Fully cooked rice can turn mealy when frozen
Not all pasta dishes freeze well. Some baked pasta dishes like lasagna work very well, whereas dishes that involve tossing cooked pasta with a sauce usually don’t freeze well. (Note that whole-grain cooked pasta (without sauce) freezes well – see my post on this topic.)
Storage options
I recommend freezing dishes in individual portion sizes for easier thawing and heating. Here’s a list of safe types of containers for freezing whole or individual portions.
Freezer-safe glass dishes with snap-on lids
Soup “cubes” that freeze 1- or 2-cup portions
Plastic freezer bags (BPA-free)
Silicone storage bags
Mason jars (wide-mouth are easiest)
Heavy-duty foil (can wrap first in parchment if you don’t want foil touching your food)
Vacuum sealer packages
Freezer paper
Meals for freezing
Here is my list of dishes that you can make to completion, then freeze in individual portions. You will be so happy to find them when you want a good meal and don’t want to cook. Happy freezing!
