Have you gone a little mad and cooked far too much cauliflower than you can eat tonight? Then perhaps you need to know how best to store it to avoid throwing it in the bin?
Can You Freeze Cooked Cauliflower?
Yes, you can freeze cooked cauliflower for up to 3 months. Cook the cauliflower before draining and drying it, then transfer it to a lined baking sheet. Freeze solid before bagging it up and returning it to the freezer.
Do Does Cooked Cauliflowerr freeze well? Yes
Can you refreeze Cooked Cauliflowerr? Yes
How to Freeze Cooked Cauliflower
Freezing cooked cauliflower canāt be as simple as placing it into the freezer. There are a few steps involved to make sure that your cauliflower maintains its quality in the freezer:
- Cook: Cooking the cauliflower until itās only half-cooked will mean that you can finish the cooking process immediately upon thawing. This allows you to easily ensure the freshness of your cauliflower.
- Drain, Dry and Cool: Drain the cauliflower after youāve cooked it, and ensure itās as dry as possible. After draining, gently pat it with a tea towel to make sure.
- Transfer to a Baking Sheet: Transfer the cooked cauliflower to a lined baking sheet, ensuring that no two pieces touch one another. If they touch, they can freeze together, which isnāt ideal.
- Freeze for Around 2 Hours: Flash-freezing the cauliflower allows it to become rapidly frozen. This will prevent the cauliflower from clumping together in the bag.
- Bag Up: Transferring the cauliflower to a freezer bag will allow it to have a sturdy barrier between it and the freezer itself, allowing for the prevention of frost as much as possible.
- Seal: Removing excess air from the freezer bag prevents freezer burn: any air can condense to water and, in turn, freeze to ice. This ice can lead to freezer burn, which is certainly not ideal.
- Freeze: Freezing food at the centre of your freezer places it as far away as possible from the frost front that approaches from the walls of your freezer.
3 Tips for Freezing Cooked Cauliflower
Now you know how to freeze it, we’ve got our 3 top tips which we strongly recommend following when freezing cooked cauliflower to have the best results:
Dry It Thoroughly
Ensuring that the cauliflower is as dry as possible will ensure that as little ice forms within the freezer bag as possible. In turn, this will lead to the cauliflower being damaged as little as possible, allowing it to maintain texture and flavour.
Be Gentle
Cauliflower florets can be more fragile than broccoli florets. This means that making sure the cauliflower is undamaged is very important – donāt be too rough with the cooked cauliflower before freezing it.
Avoid Spices and Seasoning
Unfortunately, most spices and seasoning will become diluted in the freezer which can make it tricky to season correctly when warming it back up. Instead, avoid spices and add them during the reheated period.
How Long Can You Freeze Cooked Cauliflower?
You can freeze cooked cauliflower for around 3 months before the cauliflower can begin to succumb to freezer burn which will ruin the texture.
Beyond this time frame, cauliflower will still be safe to eat, but it will only be worthwhile eating it when it is blended or pureed in a soup or mash, for example.
You can keep cooked cauliflower in a covered dish in the fridge for between 3 and 5 days before it needs to be thrown out.
How Do You Defrost Cooked Cauliflower?
The best way to defrost cooked cauliflower is not to defrost it and add it directly to boiling water, as you would with any frozen veg. This will melt the ice very quickly and finish off the cooking process.
You can also roast the cauliflower from frozen but there is a risk that it becomes a little mushier due to it steaming before it roasts.
Can You Refreeze Cooked Cauliflower?
As cauliflower is not meat, dairy, or fish, it can be thawed and refrozen as many times as you might like without becoming dangerous to eat.
With that said, however, we would advise against doing that too many times, as repeated freezing and thawing will totally destroy the texture of the vegetable, leading to a slightly unpleasant final result.
Does Cooked Cauliflower Freeze Well?
Yes, cooked cauliflower does freeze well.
The enemy of a good freeze, in this instance, is water. As long as you make sure to seal the freezer bag and pat dry the cauliflower, you should be good to go.
Related FAQs
If youāve still got questions about freezing cooked cauliflower or cauliflower in general, then these may help:
Yes, once the cauliflower cheese has cooked and cooled, wrap the dish in foil and pop it into the freezer. You can then reheat it from frozen.
No, this is not a good idea. As cauliflower rice is so small, cooking it, freezing it and then reheating it will result in mushy, soggy cauliflower rice, unfortunately.
