Can You Freeze Roasted Vegetables?

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Roasted vegetables are an incredibly popular side dish – and for good reason! They go with everything, can contain most vegetables and can be seasoned and spiced with a variety of ingredients. But they do take quite a whole to cook…

How to Prepare Your Roasted Vegetables

Before you get to freezing your roasted vegetables, you’re going to need to cook and prepare them. When it comes to roasted vegetables, there are a few routes you can go. Fortunately, we’ve covered some of our favourite roasted vegetable mixes below:

The Mediterranean Mix

Take an aubergine, a few artichoke hearts, a handful of peppers, an onion, a couple of courgettes and cut them into chunks of roughly the same size. Drizzle with olive oil to coat, add a few sprigs of thyme, then season.

Please give it a shake, then roast in the oven for around 30 minutes at 200c. After the 30 minutes are up, add a couple of handfuls of cherry tomatoes cut in half and roast for a final 10 minutes.

The Classic Mix

This mix uses plenty of root vegetables. Take equal amounts of parsnip, carrot, potato and swede. Cut them into equal sizes – you can cut them in half lengthways or cut them into chunks.

Add to a tray, mix with a drizzle of oil and season. Throw in a sprig of rosemary (or any other sprigs of herbs you’ve got that need using). Roast in the oven at 200c for around 50 minutes until all the veg is tender.

The Indian Mix

Take a head of cauliflower and break it into florets. Take a couple of carrots and cut them in half lengthways and then in half again. Grab a few potatoes and cut them into wedges. Take a beetroot, peel it, then cut it into wedges – the same size as the potatoes.

Add to a roasting tray, add 2tsp of cumin seeds and coriander seeds, a pinch of dried chilli flakes and 1tsp of turmeric. Give it a good mix, then add enough oil to coat. Roast in an oven at 200c for 40 minutes.

That’s one exhaustive list… But it doesn’t even end there. There are so many other vegetables you can try roasting and freezing, which we’ve written about here on Freeze It. Why not try freezing butternut squash or aubergine, for example?

How to Freeze Roasted Vegetables

Freezing them isn’t difficult at all. Before you actually freeze them, give your roasted vegetables plenty of time to cool down to room temperature. Don’t try and speed this up. Just allow them to cool down naturally.

1. Portion Out: Once cooled, we recommend using foil containers (like those you get from the takeaway) as they work great for portioning your veg. Spoon the vegetables into your foil trays.
2. Seal: Pop the lid onto the container. If you want a tighter fit to prevent freezer burn for longer, then wrap the container in a sheet of foil or cling film too.
3. Freeze: Once sealed, write a clear label on the lid and place it in the freezer.

You can also achieve this using glass/plastic containers or freezer-safe bags. We prefer using the foil containers as you can grab one box and know it’ll serve two perfectly as a side dish.

Some people will go to the effort of flash freezing each item so that they don’t stick together.

However, we think this is a waste of time as you will be eating the vegetables together anyways. Once thawed, they’ll separate. Flash freezing is only really needed when you want to pick out individual items from the freezer, such as one potato.

3 Tips for Freezing Roasted Vegetables

Now you know how to freeze and prepare roasted vegetables, we’ve got our 3 top tips which we strongly recommend following when freezing them to have the best results:

Create Veg Mixes
Save time in future by saving roasted vegetables in ready-to-use mixes. 

Make Soup
These roasted vegetable packs make for great soups. Grab frozen vegetables from the freezer, place them directly into a pan over low heat and thaw. Once thawed, cover with stock, allow to soften through and then blend. 

Label
If you’ve got carried away and ended up freezing 3 different veg mixes, then it’s a good idea to ensure they are labelled clearly. Once frozen, it might be hard to tell your Indian, Chinese and Italian veg mixes apart. 

How Long Can You Freeze Roasted Vegetables?

Your frozen roasted vegetables will keep in the freezer for a good 6 months. Try not to use them much beyond this as there’s a chance that the flavour will have degraded.

As always, make sure you label your frozen veggies with the date on which they need to be consumed.

How Do You Defrost Roasted Vegetables?

If you want to eat your roasted vegetables as a side dish, then we recommend thawing them out in the fridge overnight. Once thawed, drain the excess water and place it into a hot oven to heat through for around 20 minutes.

There are other options, however. If you want to use your roasted vegetables in a soup, for example, then place the frozen block of vegetables in a pan and warm through slowly. Once thawed, top up with stock and blend.

You’ll have an instant roasted vegetable soup packed full of flavour and nutrients.

Can You Refreeze Roasted Vegetables

Refreezing roasted vegetables is not something we would recommend. You’ll find that the texture changes drastically when they are refrozen. They will become mushy and soft, which is not what you want from roasted veggies.

Instead, try to freeze them in portions so you can defrost enough at a time.

Do Roasted Vegetables Freeze Well?

Most vegetables will freeze pretty well.

Some softer vegetables containing a lot of water can break down a little quicker in the freezer when thawed, but, on the whole, freezing roasted vegetables is a great way to save yourself time in the middle of the week.

Roasted Vegetables Freezer Recipe

Roasted vegetables are an easy side dish that works alongside various dishes, whether it’s a steak, grilled chicken or fried tofu pieces. Here is our easy way to preparing a batch of roasted vegetables for the freezer:

Related FAQs

If you’ve still got questions about freezing roasted vegetables or roasted vegetables in general, then these may help: