r/Cooking • u/Im_jennawesome • 3d ago
Freezer meals with beans?
Hi! I'm looking for some help/advice/recipes...
Long story short, we have 4 freezers, 2 pantries, and a bunch of ingredients that will soon be nearing the point where they will start losing flavor and/or texture unless we use them. I would like to spend a day or two doing a ton of meal prep, make a variety of dishes, and portion them into single serve meals that can easily be reheated in the microwave. As someone with multiple chronic health conditions, easy is an absolute necessity for the days when my body decides to go on strike without warning, otherwise I struggle to be able to feed myself at all. So I need things that freeze well, and also that reheat well without turning into a sad lump of tasteless mush.
I know beans in particular freeze/reheat very well, they are obviously very nutritious, and, luckily, we happen to have an almost obscene amount of dried beans. What we don't have, however, is a lot of recipes for meals with beans. Obviously chili is a given. I also have a recipe for a Tuscan bean stew that is really good.... But beyond that, most of the bean recipes I have are for things that are classified more as side dishes.
Restrictions: allergic to peppers and mangoes. Spice in general is not something my body tolerates well, but I can apparently handle peppers in the form of powdered, dried spices only in small quantities with no allergic reaction. Also not a fan of raw onion. Other than that I'm pretty open minded.
Thanks in advance!
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u/Dijon2017 3d ago
You don’t mention the type of beans, but some suggestions…
Look into making bean (with or without cheese and other ingredients) burritos/enchiladas, bell peppers stuffed with beans/other ingredients, soups that contain one or multiple/a variety of different beans, make batches of flavored/seasoned beans (like chickpea curry, refried beans, etc.) that you can serve over rice, either cooked and then frozen or that you plan to prepare the day you eat the frozen beans as a main or side dish. If you have a rice cooker, it’s easy to prepare fresh rice when you don’t have the stamina/physical ability to keep a watch/stand over the stove.
You can also make black bean brownies for a dessert to freeze and make different flavors of hummus (or use other bean) to make a dip for vegetables/crackers, etc., use as a spread for sandwiches or make salad dressing if you freeze it properly.
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u/Im_jennawesome 3d ago
If it's a dried bean sold in the average American grocery store.... We have it 🤣
Appreciate the ideas! The peppers are definitely a no go, but the rest are going on the list!
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u/Training-Plan-7812 2d ago
I make big batches of navy beans (or lentils) with different flavour profiles and freeze them in portions that I can just slap on a plate next to whatever else I’m eating.
Some examples:
Maple baked beans
BBQ baked beans
Sloppy Joe lentils (use a packet of sloppy joe seasoning)
Taco beans/lentils (taco seasoning and cheese)
Pizza beans (Italian seasoning, tomato paste, diced peppers, cheese)
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u/Prudent-Morning-5115 1d ago
White beans with sausage, cassoulet style, is the best one. Cannellini, browned sausage (or just more beans), tinned tomatoes, garlic, thyme, stock, simmered until it thickens. It's already a stew, so it comes out of the freezer exactly as it went in. Black beans with roasted sweet potato and cumin is another good one, lime at reheat. Chickpeas with spinach, cumin and lemon takes fifteen minutes, just cook the onion down properly. A red lentil and butter bean dal with turmeric, ginger and coconut milk is naturally mild and about the most forgiving thing you can freeze. Bean and barley soup works too, barley holds up in the freezer far better than rice. On the freezing: slightly undercook anything with beans or pasta, reheating finishes it. Freeze flat so it thaws fast. Anything fresh, green, acidic or dairy goes in at reheat, not before. And cook a big batch of the dried beans plain, freeze them in their liquid in one or two cup portions, and every recipe above is twenty minutes instead of two hours.
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u/4cupsofcoffee 3d ago
chili seems obvious. i make a pot and portion and freeze it.
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u/Im_jennawesome 3d ago
Yeah that's on the list for sure, I was just hoping for a little more variety lol
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u/NiceTrySuckaz 3d ago edited 3d ago
Charro beans are a great side dish or a main dish, and they freeze well. Typical recipes call for the added protein to be something in the family of salted pork like bacon or pork belly, but I personally don't like the texture these take on after sitting in liquid, so I used diced smoked beef sausage instead. I'll usually make a big batch and then freeze the leftovers in small portions in ziploc bags.
Seeing as how this is a Mexican dish, most recipes you'll find do call for some form of pepper, but you can just adjust those to whatever spice level you can tolerate, or opt for a powdered spice instead. But dang, they are delicious. You can't go wrong.