Freezing soy foods?
Posted by juliar on Oct 26, 2006 · Member since Oct 2006 · 2 posts
Do any of you have much experience with freezing soy foods? I often make soy ice cream, but of course that would freeze well. I am mostly curious about how freezing affects tofu, soy milk, and soy milk powder. These would most likely be sauces and uncheese recipes and they would most likely be with veggies, pasta, and grains in a casserole or soup. I am wondering how likely they are to seperate and how much the texture and flavor will be affected. Does anyone have any experience with this, or know of any links or resources?
TIA
Freezing and thawing of tofu before use is common and gives it a "meaty" texture. I actually think of it as a spongier texture... good for soaking in marinade! Holds together better if stir-frying etc... now that doesn't mean it's BETTER... Just like firm tofu is not better than soft... it just depends on your purposes... When I make pad thai I do not freeze my tofu, or say spinach lasagna.... when I want a crumbley or creamy texture. If I want chewier (which most often my family doesn't go for) I freeze. Oh the color will change too after freezing! But don't worry it's fine.
no idea about soy milk or soy milk powder... but do you mean in a recipe? or like throwing a box of soy milk in the freezer?
I've frozen soy milk when I've had to go out of town and I had an almost full container (just squeezed out most of the air first to allow expansion). It sort of separated when I thawed it, but after being shaken, it was more or less normal.
Yes, it would mostly be in recipes like lasagna. Sometimes made in a creamy cheesy like sauce. It's good to know it freezes well in lasagna. I wonder if I should try freezing the sauce seperatly so I can thaw and stir up well if it seperates, then add to other ingredients.
Are you freezing meal portions for yourself? What a great project, if so!
Traditional spinach/tofu lasagna freezes well in it's entirety.
You can
A Make the lasagna up, bake it and freeze in it's pan
B Make the lasagna, do not bake and freeze in it's pan.
C Line pan with foil that hangs way over the edge, Make the lasagna, bake or do not and freeze in it's pan overnight. THEN pull the frozen lasagna out and that way you can use your pan again. to reheat just plop it back in a pan.
I would say lasagna will keep for at least 3 months in the freezer.
You can do this for many, many dishes.
as for the sauce... Do you make the sauce from a dry mix? i'd premix all the the dry stuff and have that on hand and just add water (see Dragonfly's UNCheese dry mix on this site http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=7126.0) if you can make your cheese sauce like that it might help make things easy to prepare