Can you freeze scrap vegetable stock?
Yes. Freeze it in containers, one meal to each.
How to freeze and defrost it, with the Food Standards Agency’s advice at each step.
The recipe
One batch makes 8 portions, in 1h start to finish.
Ingredients for 8 portions
Method
Simmer the scraps
- Boil the kettle.
- Tip vegetable peelings and ends into your biggest pan with dried bay leaf and black peppercorns. They can go in straight from the freezer.
- Pour water from the kettle over the scraps, boiling it again if you need more, and bring back to the boil.
- Turn down and simmer for 45 minutes, uncovered.
Strain
- Set a sieve over a large jug or bowl and pour the stock through it.
- Press the vegetables with the back of a spoon to get the last of the stock out, then put them in your food waste caddy.
How to freeze
-
cool any warm dishes before putting them in your freezer
, says the Food Standards Agency. - Pour into your containers, one meal to each, and seal.
How to defrost
-
the safest way to defrost food is in the fridge overnight
, says the Food Standards Agency. - Take it out of its container.
- Tip it into a pan and heat it, stirring, until it’s steaming hot all the way through.
-
it is important that food is cooked to steaming hot throughout, rather than warmed
, says the Food Standards Agency.
How we’d cook it, not advice. We don’t check recipes for allergens, and ingredients vary by brand, so check the label on everything you use. Prepare and cook food the way the Food Standards Agency says. Allergens and food safety
Made some already? Add it to your stash. Mark it always in and Nomstash tells you when you’re running low.
Part of a whole bag of carrots
The peelings and ends of a 1kg bag of carrots: saved in the freezer for stock. The same session makes honey roast carrots and spiced carrot and lentil soup.
No special kit
- Works best in freezer bags Any freezer-safe container does the job too.
- Everything from one shop Batch cook it with Nomstash and the freezer bags go on the same shopping list as the food.
Cook what you already cook
-
Already keep a freezer spreadsheet?
Paste it in from Excel or Google Sheets, or choose a CSV file, and Nomstash reads it into your stash.
Bring in my freezer list
Freezing and defrosting safely
The Food Standards Agency’s advice, in their words.
Label everything you freeze.
label food you freeze so you don’t end up with Unidentified Frozen Objects (UFOs)
The rest of the Food Standards Agency’s advice, in their words, is in our freezing and defrosting guide.
Sources
- Food Standards Agency How to chill, freeze and defrost food safely gov.uk
- Food Standards Agency Cooking your food gov.uk
Last checked . Each quotation on this page was read against the page it links to.