If you’re an avid meal prepper, then you know the power of a frozen meal. After a long day, when the last thing you want to think of is what to cook, you can rest easy knowing you have a few cups of Bolognese sauce or a bag of soup (yes, a bag) ready to be defrosted.
Cooking Tips
When Reheating Frozen Food, Don’t Forget to Reseason
Flavors can dull in the freezer . . . but it doesn’t have to stay that way.
By Published Apr. 17, 2022
But there’s one thing that’s easy to overlook when enjoying a frozen dinner. While you surely seasoned to taste the day you cooked your meal, those flavors can dull over the time they’ve spent in the freezer.
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That’s why you can’t just reheat your food: You have to reseason it, too! And it can take more than just a little salt and pepper to bring food back to its original glory (though those are certainly good starting points).
Our cookbook The Ultimate Meal-Prep Cookbook highlights the importance of reinvigorating frozen food with an extra infusion of flavors to add brightness and complexity.
“Refreshing reheated foods before serving with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil, a spritz of vinegar, or a squeeze of citrus juice enriches and wakes up any flavors that might have gone quiet with storage.”
If you’re not sure what kinds of seasonings to use to bring your dish back to life, the easiest option is to add a little acid. A quick squeeze of lemon or lime does wonders to brighten a dull meal, as does a sprinkling of vinegar. Remember, a little goes a long way!
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And when it comes to soups and stews, your food might also have thickened a little during its time in the freezer. To ensure the ideal consistency, reheat the soup or stew with a few extra splashes of water (or broth, if you’ve got it!) and stir to recombine—it’s at this point you’ll want to taste and reseason as needed, too.
So the moment you walk in the door and pull your frozen dinner out of the freezer, you can take it easy. Because you’ll know that you’ve not only saved the time of cooking an entire meal but also treated yourself to a dish with as much punch and flavor as the day you cooked it.