Frozen stir fry mix can be expensive, and fresh veg can be pricier still. But I have a top tip for making your own stir-fry mix, which I’ve been busy doing this week: freeze-your-own!
I visiting my local Tesco in the evening for quick shop and was lucky enough to have arrived at the right time for their price-reductions hitting rock bottom. This usually happens an hour or two before the store closes every day (but if your local supermarket opens 24 hours, the only time it’d be good to go is on a Sunday afternoon!) and there are some great bargains to be had on the fresh veg section. I was delighted to be able to pick up bags of peppers, courgettes and spring onions for literally pence, and only worried about the quantity that I’d bought when I got home and had nowhere to store it! And it wasn’t going to stay fresh for long, as it was fast approaching its best-before date.
So I had a look in my mother-in-law’s home-preserving book and discovered that all of these vegetables could be prepared and frozen without the extra effort of blanching or pre-cooking. So I sliced up my veg and laid it in a single layer on a baking tray and popped in the freezer until the veg was thoroughly frozen. I then mixed the peppers, courgettes and spring onions together and put them in portion-sized plastic tubs (the contains that my takeaway comes in – recycling, hurrah!).
So now I have perfect 2-person portions of stir-fry veg mix and also (due to the quantity of veg I’d bought) I also varied my chopping to include some diced veg mix which will be great for adding into a Bolognese or chilli con carne. And these can all be added to the meal straight from the freezer. I’ve tried a portion of stir-fry mix already and found that the peppers actually softened and cooked more quickly from frozen than they would from fresh, so I’m happy with that!
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