Vegan Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecans Recipe - Vegan in the Freezer (2024)

FAQs

Can you freeze sweet potato pecan casserole? ›

The answer is yes — though there are some guidelines to follow to ensure it freezes well. The absolute best way to freeze sweet potato casserole, to start, requires you to cook the sweet potatoes before freezing.

Can you freeze raw sweet potatoes? It's not recommended to freeze raw sweet potato fries or cubes. They won't hold up well in the freezer and they won't cook correctly in recipes. Blanching or cooking sweet potatoes fully is the way to go.

In fact, casseroles are an excellent make-ahead meal because of how easy they are to prep, cook, freeze and store. The extra effort is minimal—you can double a recipe, freeze one and serve the other—and you're gifting yourself a mostly kitchen-free night at some point down the road.

Freezing also lowers the starting temperature of the potato, allowing more time for amylase enzymes to convert starch to sweet-tasting maltose. Starting the sweet potatoes in a cold oven further enhances sweetness via gradual heating, which stretches out the time spent in the “sweet spot” for enzymatic activity.

If you end up with leftover sweet potato casserole, you can store it in the fridge for 4 to 5 days or freeze the remaining portions for up to 4 months.

Here are some other great Make-Ahead Thanksgiving recipes. Freezing Instructions: Prepare the sweet potato casserole completely, but don't bake it. Cover with a double layer of aluminum foil and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator.

While deciding where to store sweet potatoes keep in mind whether they're raw or cooked. Storing raw sweet potatoes in the freezer will actually make them spoil faster, however it's best to keep baked sweet potatoes or cooked yams in the freezer.

It is not recommended that you freeze raw potatoes because they just won't act right in recipes nor will they taste their best. If you want to freeze a whole sweet potato, then it's also important to cook it first. Instead of blanching it whole, though, you'll need to roast it completely.

How to Freeze Sweet Potatoes. You can freeze cooked sweet potatoes in three ways: whole, sliced, or mashed. No matter which way you choose, they'll last in the freezer for about one year.

Avoid freezing casseroles made with dairy products (especially soft cheeses with a high-water content like ricotta or cottage), eggs, starchy vegetables, and watery vegetables like lettuce and cucumber.

How do you make a casserole and freeze it? ›

The casserole out of the oven is pasteurized and pathogen free. Sit it on the counter to cool (keeping it covered or covering with foil if it wasn't cooked covered) Then into the freezer. Unless you have a LOT of cookware to freeze, you'll want to portion it out into smaller containers (Ziploc, Rubbermaid etc.)

If the casserole you're making has raw meat in it, you should absolutely bake the dish to the full temperature before you cool and freeze it. If it has pre-cooked meat or no meat, you don't have to cook it at all. Freeze the casserole uncooked, and save the cooking for later.

A batch of make-ahead and freeze, slow-cooker sweet potatoes tastes just as irresistibly good as if you made it on the same day! Prep early for Thanksgiving by cooking and freezing these slow-cooker sweet potatoes weeks beforehand.

The science behind using frozen sweet potatoes

“Freezing sweet potatoes before baking them results in a nice and charred exterior and the most fluffy inside, because freezing the potatoes allows their interior flesh to macerate from the inside out,” says Chin. (FYI, “macerate” is the chef word for soften.)

The most versatile and sweetest variation of sweet potatoes is the Beauregard. Throughout the United States, you will see this species stacked high in the grocery stores during the holiday season. Beauregard's have a bit of a stringy texture, but they stay soft: this is what makes them so popular.

You can safely refreeze frozen food that has thawed—raw or cooked, although there may be a loss of quality due to the moisture lost through thawing. To safely refreeze, the thawed product must have been kept cold at 40 degrees or below for no more than 3-4 days.

You can absolutely freeze sweet potato pie — and you should if you want to get a jump-start on holiday baking.

The answer is yes! This sweet potato crunch makes a great make-ahead Thanksgiving side dish. Don't you just love when that happens? I recommend freezing the sweet potato casserole unbaked, just up until the part before adding the pecan topping and freezing for up to 3 months.