Freezer Power!
A frozen oasis of utility, plus a recipe for veggie scrap broth
Most of us have access to a freezer. Some of us may now have or grew up with a chest freezer in the garage or basement. All of us have thrown something in the back of the icy cavern only to forget about it and pull out something that looks like the vegetable mass above. Freezers are a strange but essential part of our kitchens, and they are far under utilized!
I use our freezer to source ingredients and components for a few meals a week in the summer and most of our meals during the dark, cold winter months when fresh local produce is a distant memory. As a part of meal planning, I usually take stock of what we have in our freezer, and what needs to be used up (i.e. what is freezer burnt, what has been in there for three to six months, or what I’m surprised to discover - if I don’t remember what’s in there, I need to use it). Just like you rotate your fridge “stock”, you should be rotating your freezer too!
For those of us in the Deep North of the country, our fresh local produce season is so short, so lots of folks preserve food for the year through canning or freezing fresh, in-season vegetables and herbs. I personally am wary of canning because of botulism risk and me being a novice, so I stick to refrigerator pickles, which last in the fridge usually through January or February, and freezing. I freeze leftovers or extra of any ingredient or cooked food. I have saved extra slices of apple pie from Thanksgiving that was a delicious dessert in the middle of January, grilled chicken from early in the summer to add to a fall salad, and slices of sourdough.
This not only saves us money, it prevents us from throwing food away which is deeply important to our household. By tapping into our freezer regularly, we are able to have local nutritious produce in the middle of winter and decrease food waste.
Tips to get started on harnessing the power of your freezer:
Label everything with what it is and the date you’re popping it into the freezer. We use painters tape and a sharpie, or just write it directly on the container with a sharpie.
Buy a few silicone trays of various sizes. We use 1 tablespoon trays and 1 cup trays in our house. The 1 tablespoon trays are perfect for saving leftover tomato paste, curry ketchup you made from scratch (looking at my husband here 👀), and extra herbs in olive oil. The 1 cup trays are perfect for leftover rice, soup, mashed potatoes, pureed squash or pumpkin, roasted veggies, and curries. Once they are frozen, pop them in a labeled zip top bag and store in the freezer. Target or Souper Cubes are my go-to places to get them!
Get or repurpose plastic containers for organization. We use a magazine rack, long clear plastic containers, and one long white container with higher sides to contain everything. The zip top bags can then be stood upright in them to keep things organized!
If you have a chest freezer or “deep freeze” as some Midwesterners call it, get some racks that go on the top part of the freezer so you can access some things more quickly than having to dig things out of the bottom of it. We keep butter and ice cream treats (ice cream sandwiches, ice cream bars) in our rack. Friends of mine store their extra breast milk in their chest freezer top rack, and they move the opened packages of tater tots, fries, and veggies up there so they remember to use them up first.
Now for some crowd-sourced freezer hacks to for those who are already freezer pros:
Throw wilted greens (kale, spinach, collards, swiss chard) in a container or zip top bag to save for sauteeing/soups/curries.
Vacuum seal anything you don’t have plans to use right away.
Freeze cucumber peels and end pieces as treats for the dog so there’s less food waste.
Have a frozen cup of water with a coin on top! If the power ever goes out at your house while you’re away you will know it went out because the coin will be somewhere within the ice. If it’s been out for long enough for the coin to sink, then it was probably out long enough to impact your food.
Put ground meat in gallon bags and roll out so it lays flat like a sheet and freeze - easier to organize!
Save parmesan cheese rinds in a bag in the freezer to throw in broth.
Set aside a part of your freezer for fancy/fun ice cubes for cocktails or mocktails!
The freezer is an underrated part of your kitchen - don’t forget about it!
Veggie Scrap Broth
I literally do not remember where I learned to save veggie scraps in a gallon bag in the freezer. All I know is there was a time before veggie scrap broth (B.V.S.B.) and a time after veggie scrap broth (A.V.S.B.) in my life. It is very simple - save all your veggie peels, nubs, ends, the center of kale leaves, stems of herbs, etc. in a zip top bag and then when it’s full, make broth. Each bag will be slightly different as you cook seasonally! It’s so fun!
1 gallon bag of veggie scraps
Water
Salt
Put veggie scraps in a big pot or crockpot.
Cover with water and add a large sprinkle of salt (if you’re the measuring type, start with 2 teaspoons).
Bring to a simmer and let it bubble away for a couple hours. Stir and taste every 30ish minutes to see if you need to add more salt and how it’s tasting.
When the broth tastes delicious, strain out the scraps but leave a little bit of water at the bottom!
*There may be some dirt left at the very bottom of the pot from onion ends or carrot tops, etc. but it will be dense enough that the dirt will sink to the bottom. Hence why you don’t want to pour out all the liquid!
Pour the broth into jars or containers and let cool on the counter. Then store in the fridge. If you want to freeze the broth, here’s where those 1 cup silicone trays come in handy.
*You can add chicken wings/bones, or pork or beef bones to the stock to make it a meat stock. Freeze these in a separate bag in your freezer until you need them and add to the pot in step 1.
Things I Like
I’ve fully bought into the cottage cheese trend. I’m not over it - give me more!
Sleeping on my back so I don’t have neck and back problems even though it’s so hard for me because I LOVE sleeping on my stomach.
Leon Bridges’ discography: so sexy, so smooth, etc.
The perfect meal of grilled hotdogs and blistered shishito peppers!
Arnold Palmers on the patio.
LMK in the comments what the weirdest thing is in your freezer! I have cheese rinds and cubes of mashed potatoes from last fall.
May your week be gentle and may you eat well. 🌲🥣