Ever wonder how to freeze quinoa? Well, I’ve got your back. Cooking and freezing quinoa in bulk is a great way to save money and more importantly time!
I’m not sure I have mentioned this on my blog yet, but recently my 12-year-old daughter had a food allergy test. And I nearly cried. She is allergic to wheat, oats, and even yeast! Wheat and yeast are seemingly in everything. I’m totally not a pro yet with making new foods without these ingredients, but I’m working my way into trying to figure out some foods she CAN eat. And quinoa is one of them! Yay! So I’ve been making ahead grains she can have like quinoa to freeze.
How To Freeze Quinoa
Here is all you ever wanted to know about freezing quinoa.
1. Cook the quinoa.
This goes without saying, but you’ll want to cook the quinoa first! Since you’re going to freeze quinoa, it’s a good idea to cook a larger amount so you have plenty to freeze (and eat if you’re cooking some to eat right now too). If you’re meal planning for a family, cook accordingly so everybody has enough. Cook according to package or to desired doneness.
2. Lay it out to cool.
You’ll want to lay out the quinoa and let it cool before you start portioning it to go in the freezer. You could certainly freeze quinoa all together but it’ll cut down on time spent in the kitchen during the week if you portion them out to individual servings. After they’ve cooled, start scooping them into the portions you want and then pour each portion into a sandwich or freezer bag.
Note: Make sure to squeeze the air out of the bags before putting them in the freezer!
3. Defrost!
After you freeze quinoa, you’ll want to defrost each pack individually as you use it. To defrost, either thaw at room temperature or in the microwave for 30-60 seconds. Once you’ve defrosted the quinoa, you can pair it with a salad, meat of your choice, or a sauce! However you decide to eat your quinoa, you’ll be able to do so in no time because the thawing process is relatively quick!
See how easy it is? Easy peasy.
Frozen quinoa can be used for a multitude of different recipes and make your meal planning much less time-consuming. Plus a little quinoa goes a long way, so that’s really nice too.
What are your favorite spices or recipes to use with quinoa? Seriously, I need to know!
Just be really careful and make sure that you rinse the quinoa thoroughly before cooking it. It’s got something in the coating on the surface that you can react badly to. I only found out after googling it when I had developed *terrible* stomach cramps twice ina row after eating quinoa. And this was after having been eating it several times a week for about 3 years. Now I can’t eat it at all 🙁
I just found you yesterday and I just want to thank you for so much good info on saving money and going natural.
Patricia
Love this ! I just ordered a big bag of quinoa last week…I’m almost out. I love the idea of freezing it!
After updating what I know about “Fake Food,” you know, the half a page of unpronounceable chemicals that the National Institute of Health prohibit for healthy human ingestion, but the FDA permits under the label “organic. Everything pointed me back to really organically raised food. So, my pantry started to fill up with bunches of dry goods for healthy eating.
THEN A BUNCH OF BUGS started infesting my kitchen, True organics are raised without insecticides or round up. It means they come with dormant bug eggs and such. The most persistent was a small moth with a chevron pattern. Most common advice: clean out your pantry its all about the crumbs in the cracks, I was told. I did clean and wash it down, but they came back a month later.
DuckDuckgo.com got me right to the Life Cycle of Pantry Moths and I found two important things: 1.) can get into nearly anything, slither or bore and 2.) if they are in your food, you will see small webs scattered in the container. I found webs in a lot of types of foods, but particularly in mixed spice jars and quina. Astoundingly more very hot spices with lots of heat. But nothing talked about stopping them.
However my local international spices lady knew exactly what to do: FREEZE THEM. Buy them and straight into your freezer for a couple of weeks to a month. I prefer a month. After that, they were gone. Vacuum bags will not do it unless the food has been cooked, because they can bore through plastic bags. So the Alpha and Omega of organic is Freeze, Cook and Refreeze for your monthly food plan.
This is great advice! Pantry moths are a pain to get rid of and they will infest all of your dried foods. I’m buying more bulk and organic foods, so I will have to remember to freeze them first. And things like flour and nuts are great for storing in the freezer permanently, if you have the space. They will last much longer and not go rancid before you can use them all.