Vacuum sealing and freezing cooked rice dishes?

[newchef]

Hello,

I'm eyeing a rice recipe for a make-ahead side that I'll cook, vacuum seal (Foodsaver) and then freeze. Do people do such things? Does the freezing ruin the texture of the cooked rice? I'm thinking of refrigerating the finished product for an hour or two and then breaking up the rice as much as possible before freezing so the rice doesn't clump together into one block when freezing.
This may not be necessary, though, if the reheating process loosens up the rice again.

Ideally I'd like to create my own version of those "microwave in bag" rice/veggie medleys that Birds' Eye and Green Giant offer; I'd just take the bag out of the freezer and drop the bag in some boiling water to re-heat it, or throw the bag in the microwave. Below I've included the ingredients and the gist of the recipe.

Thanks!

-------------------------------

-1 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
-1 small onion
-1 1/2 cups Basmati rice
-2 garlic cloves, minced
-1/2 tsp ground turmeric
-1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
-2 1/4 cups water
-1/4 cup currants
-1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted

1) Saute onion with salt and oil until softened, then add rice, garlic, turmeric and cinnamon and cook until grain edges begin to turn translucent.
2) Stir in water and bring to simmer. Simmer gently until rice is tender and water is absorbed.
3) Off heat, sprinkle currants over pilaf. Cover, laying clean dish towel underneath lid, and let pilaf sit for 10 minutes. Add almonds to pilaf and fluff gently with fork to combine.

[Darienne]

We always cook multiples of rice and freeze the extra (and not vacuum sealed either.)  Now maybe we are not very sophisticated in our eating of rice, but I have never noticed any loss of taste or texture in the process.  

 

We used to cook rice in a regular pot and now we cook it in a rice cooker.  The only difference is that DH hated brown rice when he cooked it...and now it's all we eat when I do it in the rice cooker.  Hooray for rice cookers, I say.   But then I am not a polished cook and never will be.

 

[Thanks for the Crepes]

I also freeze rice and pilafs. I think your recipe would work fine for the freezer, but you might want to add the almonds after thawing/reheating, as I'm afraid they would lose their crunch during storage with the moister ingredients.

[Lisa Shock]

Rice freezes really well, don't worry about clumping. I freeze mine in small rectangular containers overnight, then, I pop the brick out and vacuum seal it then freeze for real. The initial freeze helps prevent the vacuum sealer from smashing the rice.