Although I am fortunate to have an ice maker in my freezer (a luxury I have immense gratitude for), you’ll still find a stack of ice cube trays in there, too. But they’re not filled with water — instead, you’ll find cubes of soup, curry paste, coffee, and whatever other liquid leftovers I have that need freezing. The ice cube tray is an unsung hero for keeping leftovers and prepping ingredients for cooking. If you’ve only ever considered using an ice cube tray for actual ice, it’s time to break free of the mold and see it for what it really is: an unsung hero for storing leftovers and prepping ingredients for cooking.
I have ice cube trays of varying sizes that work well for different applications. My large ice cube tray from Peak is great for an old-fashioned, sure, but I more frequently find myself filling it with broth. Each cube fits one cup of soup, so whenever I need to preserve chicken broth or a vat of avgolemono, it’s what I reach for. The lid makes it very easy to stack — and keeps smells from leaking out — and the silicone body is ideal for later popping out perfectly symmetrical cubes of soup. It’s also oven safe, so if you’re portioning brownie batter, blueberry muffins, or monster-sized cookie dough, the tray can go from freezer to oven without issue.
I use my medium ice cube tray more for prepping ingredients for future cooking adventures. The tray holds cubes in two-tablespoon portions, so this is ideal for batch curry pastes and mother sauces, as well as pesto and tomato paste (does anyone actually ever use the whole can of tomato paste in a recipe?). I’ve also used the tray for juice when I get my hands on fresh pandan or a bucket of passionfruit from my mom’s garden — this comes in handy for future baking — or cocktail — endeavors. Leftover coffee and Thai tea cubes are also great for preventing watered-down iced tea and coffee.
The last ice cube tray in my possession, and arguably the cutest one, is this mini. It’s perfect for producing 100 tiny ice cubes for chilling punch or milky sago pudding, but I especially like it for minced garlic. Instead of peeling garlic whenever I need it, I buy a tub of peeled cloves, blitz them in my food processor, spoon them into the tray with a rubber spatula, and freeze them. Whenever I need garlic in a recipe, I’ll pop a cube (or seven) out of the tray. This saves so much time and ensures my garlic doesn’t spoil or sprout. Ginger works great here, too.
The silicone trays are easy to handwash and also dishwasher safe (something that doesn’t matter to me as I tragically don’t have a dishwasher). In the chaos of my freezer, among the half-eaten bags of frozen dumplings, fries, and freezer-burnt broccoli, the neat stack of ice cube trays filled with sweet and savory goodies is an organized haven. And it’s one you can create in your freezer, too.
