Suggestions for decent vegetarian food that can be frozen

Official Post Master Gender : Age : 56 Posts : 799

Can anyone help please? I need suggestions for vegetarian food that I can make that can be frozen. No eggs, cous cous, aubergines or avocado.

It needs to be food that is not soggy and tasteless when it is defrosted and reheated in an oven or pan. I made veggies burritos last time and they were 'ok' but were a bit on the soggy side underneath. Veggie chilli sauce was also good as I bought precooked, prepacked rice to go in the microwave which was a winner too. I really need more variety and please bear in mind that the reheating and preparation of the meal needs to be as simple as possible with minimum effort on the part of the person preparing the meal. Smile

Thanks for your help in advance everyone!

Senior Member Gender : Age : 33 Posts : 1467

Vegetarian green lasagne, oven cooked with olive oil on french bread. Absolutely marvy and takes minutes (literally) and no effort.

Also, jacket potato with cheese and beans, you can buy them precooked in Tesco and you just gotta heat 'em up!

Any casserole style dishes should also be fine to freeze and reheat. Though they take a while to prepare (slow cook in oven) they're really simple, just require patience. These also go well with rice so this can also be easily prepared. I don't have a great knowledge of vegetarian food I'm afraid, but have many veggie friends so will get back to you when I learn more...

Official Post Master Gender : Age : 56 Posts : 799

What wonderful responses, thank you very much. Solvo, you are just too kind, I appreciate the help. This is very important to me so it's more than just a curious request. All your help is appreciated. I Love Merry Moot

Senior Member Gender : Age : 33 Posts : 1467

Brainwave: how does salad sound? They come ready bagged and often with cheese of some kind..

Yes, I'm joking. Salad is for losers, TOFU ROCKS!!

I never have or will eat tofu out of principle. It must be evil because it is too good for you...

Official Post Master Gender : Age : 56 Posts : 799

I love tofu but then again it was part of my diet when I was growing up. I have to admit it looks boring and tastes of very little but I love it anyway. Gina hates it! Laughing

Salad isn't a bad idea (even though you were joking) but again, Gina isn't keen on them. The frozen meals are for her to survive on while I am either working late or away on business and I know I have a long stint of heavy work to go through soon so I will need to cook approx 6 days worth of food in advance.

Thanks for your help again. Smile

Rice can be cooked ahead and frozen too. Apparently the trick is too rinse it with cold water AS SOON as it finishes cooking, or it will overcook in the few minutes it takes to cool down, and go soggy. If you seal it immediately in an airtight bag with as little air as possible inside, it should freeze OK.

Found lots of recipes by typing in "Freezable Vegetarian Meals" into google. I quite liked the freezable pesto cubes - am going to make some myself methinks.

(For 18 cubes, size of cubes as yet unknown Very Happy

) (this is my summary - full recipe at http://www.recipezaar.com/81307)

Put 4 cups freash basil leaves, 1 cup extra virgin olive oil, 4 tbsp pine nuts/walnuts/almonds/combination of these, 6 chopped cloves garlic and some salt and pepper into a food processor and blend until smooth.

Pour into a small bowl and add 1/2 romano and 1/2 parmesan grated chese. Mix well.

Pour mixture into the sections of an ice-cube tray. (Don't worry if it seems runny - should thicken during freezing)

Once frozen, cubes can be moved to a freezer bag.

There's also potato soup. Not sure of the exact recpe, coz I usually just make it up as I go along. Rub the inside of a sauspan with a little butter, and a crushed clove of garlic. Boil roughly chopped potatoes in stock (vegetable oxo cubes work well) along with chopped carrots, oinion and maybe some leek.

Add herbs of choice (varies everytime I make it, but I consider lots of fresh thyme a must - just remember remove the stalks after cooking, once the leaves have fallen off!) Don't add salt or pepper if it's going to be frozen as these flavours seem to become much stronger when the soup is frozen and re-heated (I don't THINK that's my imagination) - add them to taste after re-heating.

When veg are all cooked and mushy, allow it to cool and then liquidise it. (This is why it's important to remove the thyme twigs - otherwise you end up with little tiny bits of wood in your soup. The only advantage to forgetting to remove them is that I guarantee, you will never do it again. Believe me, I know.) It's now ready to freeze. The plastic takeaway containers you get from chinese and indian places are ideal. Empty (washed out!) margerine tubs work too, or freezer containers like this an be cheaply bought (sometimes as lunch boxes).

After reheating, stirring in a little cream makes it extra...well...creamy. Serve with a sprig of fresh parsley (mostly just coz it looks good) and crusty bread like a baguette (mostly just coz it tastes good)

This recipe is really versitile and you can add pretty much whatever you want to it. It can become a whole new dish by changing the herbs and vegetables you put in. Well not a WHOLE new dish - it'll still be soup, but y'know, play around with it a bit. I still haven't hit the PERFECT combination yet. If you find it first, let me know lol.

Try googling for more stuff - will keep an eye out for anything good.

By the way, good to see you back in the forums. Smile

Senior Member Gender : Age : 33 Posts : 435

sushi! but without the fish n meat!

.........i dunno lol

Official Post Master Gender : Age : 56 Posts : 799

Hello Lizzie!

It was lovely to bump into you (OK, not literally) a few weeks ago, sorry I was dashing around as usual - story of my life that is. Razz

Anyway, I'm glad you looked happy and well. Thank you for taking the trouble to post the recipes and link. I had no idea that rice could be frozen! Now that's an interesting idea. Soup is a good one too, especially potato soup, thanks.

I appreciate everyone's help as always. I'll have to start googling too, I hadn't even thought of that. Very Happy

Official Post Master Gender : Age : 56 Posts : 799

Whoops, sorry Jaska, forgot to thnak you too. Sushi would be a fine idea except Gina doen't like it, even the veggie ones. Nice idea though... Hmmm, I fancy ysome veggie sushi now!

I make some fantastic casserole dishes, all of them have meat in them, but there isn't any reason they couldn't be converted to vegetarian dishes! Best part about them is, you make them up, label them and throw them in the freezer till needed! Take them out the night before you need them, put them in the frige to thaw, by nightfall, they are ready to go in the oven to cook and be enjoyed!
My only problem is, ya'll's foods are possibly a bit different there than here.
I use dry onion soup mix often, lipton and knorr both make these products. They also have a vegetable base in the dry mix and they are VERY tasty.
If your interested, let me know and I'll spend some time getting some recipes put together. *i'm a GREAT cook!*
Also, Pot Pie is awesome and is so easy to make ahead of time. My favorite pot pie is all vegies and a vegie type gravy mix. YUMMY!
Another alternative is crockpotting. Do you have a crock pot? That makes life SO easy. Put your food together the night before in the crock, put it in the fridge till morning, throw it in the base in the a.m. turn it on, when you come home from work 8-10 hours later, you have hot food waiting for you!
I cook potatoes, carrots, celery, cabbage, leaks, peas, canned tomatoes, brussel sprouts, and even broccoli & cauliflower for a change of pace sometimes, salt and pepper to taste, some butter and a can of vegetable soup mix, add water and have a very nice stew type when it's done.
I use a lot of different herbs so my foods are always very flavorful, but I use the soup mix bases to add substance and a gravy type to it all. These will usually last a few days and can go back in the freezer for re-heating at a later date so there is yet more meals!
I think I am the queen of freezer meals what with all the work I do and 5 kids, a husband and animals to feed in a short amount of time or when I'm not there at all!
Hope this helps some and don't be afraid to have me set up those recipes! I really don't mind!
*casseroles are a personal thing it seems and some people don't like the idea of them!*
Hugs,
Mama Storm

Official Post Master Gender : Age : 56 Posts : 799

Storm, you are brilliant. Thank you.

Well everyone, just a week away from my cookfest now, then I have to make a week's worth of chompies! Well, I hope they'll be chompies anyway. Laughing

All of your help has been sincerely appreciated, I'm not the world's best cook so thinking of new things is very difficult. This has been a huge help. As a friend of mine used to say, "Cheers m'dears!". Smile

Official Post Master Gender : Age : 56 Posts : 799

Well everyone, your help was and is much appreciated as always.

Gina survived the week, I was in Russia for the week and I have to admit I was very worried how well she would be able to cope. We ended up trying a soup whcih is always a safe bet, had a couple of microwave pizzas, veggie chilli and some frozen veggie garlic kievs. She managed to keep herself fed and survived for the week.

Ironically it was me who had problems with food. I had no idea that the Russian food pallete was a preference for hardly any flavour at all! YUK! I would starve if I had to rely on restaurants and precooked food for long over there! I was SOOO glad to be home. Smile

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