Kitchen Tips Food Storage and Kitchen Organization Freezer You Don't Need an Ice Cube Tray to Freeze Small Portions of Food Check your recycling bin and use this instead. By Katherine Martinko Katherine Martinko Katherine Martinko is a well-respected writer, editor, and author with over 10 years' experience in digital publishing. She loves food, cooking, recipes, and kitchen-related content, and has written extensively about it on a number of different platforms, from Treehugger (where she worked as a long-time senior editor) to her personal Substack, The Analog Family. She is a graduate of the University of Toronto. Allrecipes' editorial guidelines Published on July 21, 2023 Close Photo: Winslow Productions/Getty Images If you have some extra plastic egg cartons kicking around, here is a clever way to put them to use. They make great little temporary containers for freezing surplus portions of prepared food and other ingredients. Just be sure to wash the carton thoroughly before adding food to it. Eggs can carry salmonella, which means that a good scrub with soap and hot water is necessary. Once dry, add the cooled portions of food to each of the 12 cups. Cover with plastic wrap, foil, or a large ziplock bag and place in the freezer. Once solid, you can either leave the carton as-is, or you can pop out the individual portions (run some warm water underneath if you're having trouble) and place them in a ziplock bag or container for easier access. Getty Images/Allrecipes Ice cube trays serve a similar purpose, but we don't always have enough of them to freeze surplus ingredients in the moment. Using a plastic egg carton is a quick hack for those times when you're in need. Please note that paper and foam cartons do not work for liquid ingredients, nor can they be properly sanitized prior to use. So, what can you freeze? Just about anything! Pasta Sauces If you have extra tomato sauce, Alfredo sauce, or pesto, then egg cartons allow for a perfect single-sized portion. When it comes time to serve up an individual bowl of pasta, you've already got the perfect-sized portion of sauce ready to go. Just defrost in the microwave or in a small pot, and add the noodles. Alternatively, spread the sauce on a homemade pizza for a quick weeknight dinner. Dotdash Meredith Food Studios Dips You can freeze guacamole, salsa, hummus, baba ghanoush, and other dips and spreads in egg carton cups. Give yourself time to thaw it in the fridge or at room temperature before serving, as you won’t want to defrost in the microwave. Dotdash Meredith Food Studios Leftover Ingredients You can also use a plastic egg carton to freeze small quantities of other ingredients, such as chopped herbs in olive oil, leftover heavy cream, coconut milk, compound butter, browned butter, minced garlic, cream cheese frosting, caramelized onions, egg whites, or 1- to 2-tablespoon portions of tomato paste (which is what recipes often call for), among other things. You could even prepare ingredients for miso soup by rolling vegetable ingredients into miso and freezing in a cube. Getty Images Fruit If you have overripe fruit, like mangoes, strawberries, or bananas, you could puree them and freeze in the cups—perfect for future smoothies. These little blocks of fruit are also handy for stirring into muffin or pancake batter, for serving on top of pancakes or waffles, or for flavoring yogurt-granola parfaits. Ilona Titova / EyeEm Cocktail Mixers Pre-mix parts of cocktails and freeze for super easy, chilled drinks down the road. You could make michelada ice cubes by mixing all the ingredients needed for this refreshing drink minus the cold beer (add the cubes to it later). Freeze portions of freshly squeezed lime juice or lemon juice, a light simple syrup (infused or plain), or rosé wine for slushy cocktails blitzed in the blender. Allrecipes Magazine Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit