Roast vegetables in bulk and then freeze them in meal-sized packaging to use later. They’ll give rich flavor without a lot of fuss.
Roasted vegetables add rich flavor to any number of dishes. These tasty tidbits would include roasted garlic, roasted peppers and chiles, and roasted tomatoes.
The trick is that roasting often takes awhile. There’s prep time and slow cooking time — and many of us don’t have the luxury to cook that way every night of the week.
One solution is to roast a bulk batch of vegetables and then freeze them for later. Whenever I see a great sale on poblano chiles, I snatch up a dozen of them to roast and freeze. This takes a lot of work out of meal prep and makes it easy to add these rich flavors to any number of dishes I’m making.
Here are some of my favorites:
- How to Roast Chiles (works for bell peppers as well)
- Roasted Garlic
- Oven Roasted Tomatoes
This week I roasted the excess of cherry tomatoes that I had on hand. You can do this with roma or with slicing tomatoes as well. Once they were cooked and cooled, I placed them in a freezer container. Throughout the coming weeks, I can grab a few to add to soup or chop into dressings, sauces, or dips.
That little bit of work on a lazy afternoon will reap huge flavor in weeks to come.
31 Days of Freezer Cooking
For more ideas about how to make freezer cooking work for you, follow along with us here in October as I post 31 Days of Freezer Cooking. You can see past posts here.
For even more Freezer Cooking how-to’s you can also buy my book,Not Your Mother’s Make-Ahead and Freeze Cookbook.
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Grace @ Grace Dishes says
Roasting veggies is one of my favorite ways to prepare them! My toaster oven is perfect for that. Great post!
I find roasting anything really brings out the best flavor!
Claire says
Would this be good for those freezer slow cooker meal i have been seeing ? You mentioned in another post that they don’t turn out because you need to blanch the veggies. How about roasting?
Jessica says
@Claire, I’m not sure. They might be a soggy mess if they did a tour in the slow cooker after roasting. Probably depends on the recipe. Peppers, though, can be frozen without blanching, so you could do those packets with peppers. It’s other veg that might go funky.
claire says
@Jessica, Thanks for letting me know this. Didn’t even think about the mush factor.
Emily says
it took me a full minute of gazing and reading half way through the post before I could tell those were roasted peppers! Not a horrible picture, just one of those “identify this object” tests that I wasn’t passing. Great thoughts….just make sure you can cook your veggies well. I once roasted a whole batch of carrots for freezing only to find out I had no idea what I was doing…they were inedible! 😛
Jessica says
@Emily, yeah, this was one of my earlier photographs. I’m getting better — slowly. Bummer on the carrots. 🙁
Amy says
Emily – me too! I spent a minute thinking they were shrink-wrapped avocados, and I was puzzled as to why they would be roasted and frozen. Gave me a good laugh when I realized they were peppers! 🙂
karen says
What do you do with roasted poblanos? I often look at them in the store but I’m not sure what I’d do with them so I’ve never bought them.
Jessica says
We make enchiladas with them or stir them into scrambled eggs or tortilla casserole. SO yummy!
Marissa says
Question: How you do you store the vegetables? I always find mine get so soggy. I always do roasted vegetable for my meal plan. I want to try and keep them for the week. I also try to be eco friendly and not use a lot of plastic (ziplock) bags. I use containers as much as possible. Any suggestions? 🙂
Jessica Fisher says
I froze them last month and they were really soggy. I usually don’t have that trouble in the fridge, but I only keep them 3 to 4 days. I use plastic containers with lids.
Gillian says
What are your thoughts on roasted broccoli and roasted brussel sprouts for freezing? I have a to die for broccoli recipe (broccoli crack) that my family wants me to make a ton of so they can reheat a portion here and there…
Jessica Fisher says
I would undercook it and freeze a test portion. If you test it in a small batch, then you won’t waste a big batch if you don’t love it as much.
Clara says
Gillian, did the test batches work for you? I’m wondering the same thing!
Val says
I made a medley of mixed veg roasted for veg soup. I always make too much! Can I freeze seasons RV?
Jessica Fisher says
I would blend it first. Depending on which veggies you used, the textures will get funky when you freeze them. I add this puree to chilis and soups and sauces to up the vegetable content.