FREEZER CROWD...
Celebrity MasterChef winner and Weekend Kitchen presenter Lisa Faulkner whips up some tasty meals, making use of some nifty frozen favourites. By JANE HAASE
LISA FAULKNER is helping people find ways to cook delicious meals from frozen ingredients, saving time, money and reducing food waste during the cost-ofliving crisis.
The actress and TV presenter has whipped up three delicious and great-value recipes using some of her freezer favourites including bread, spinach, herbs, prawns and peas to create a traybake, salad and curry.
“When you need a quick weeknight supper, a traybake is always a winner,” says Lisa, 51, who is married to TV chef John Torode.
“Crispy chicken traybake is one of my favourite freezer-raid recipes; the puffed rice cereal gives a lovely crunchy coating to the chicken, and you can use whatever veg you have lurking in your freezer.”
Lisa uses her freezer almost every other day to freeze bread, veggies, fruit – even cookie dough!
Here are her top freezer tips:
1. FROZEN SPINACH
I always have a bag as I can add to soups or even a pack of Super Noodles which just gets some healthy veg into a lot of dishes. Stir through mashed potato, add to chickpeas for dhal, serve with a frozen fishcake for a quick freezer dinner….the list goes on.
2. VEGETABLES NEARING THEIR SELL BY DATE
I empty my fridge drawers and find all the oldish bits of veg that are left, carrots, leeks, broccoli – I chop these up and put in a freezer bag. I can make fridge raid soup I add to stews. It means I always have veg of some sort in my freezer.
3. FRUIT THAT HAS SEEN BETTER DAYS
I do exactly the same with berries and apples and grapes, and use these to make smoothies.
4. BANANAS
I break up any brown bananas that the family have vetoed because they are too old. I freeze them and make cheat’s ice cream with a splash of yoghurt or banana cake.
5. BREAD CRUMBS
I know it seems like a faff but if a recipe calls for bread crumbs it’s great to have some in a bag in the freezer. I take bread crusts and last bits of baguette and whizz them in food processor.
They don’t need to be defrosted and I can add crunch to a pasta bake or mac and cheese or for breaded chicken or fish.
6. COOKIE DOUGH
I like to make a double batch of cookie dough, one to cook straight away and one to roll into a sausage shape and place in the freezer in Cling Film, or greaseproof paper.
I can slice off a few rounds and cook it for a quick sweet treat fix when someone is having a bad day!
7. HERBS AND GINGER
I freeze most fresh herbs, some freeze better than others but they keep their taste even if they don’t look good! Parsley, chives, coriander all freeze
■ Ocado’s Fill your Freezer campaign runs until March 14, with a ‘5 for £10’ offer on a range of frozen products, including pizza, vegetables and ice cream, to help everyone make the most out of their freezer this spring and beyond.
When you need a quick weeknight supper, a traybake is always a winner,
Lisa Faulkner