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How to freeze zucchini, eggplant, peppers and mushrooms fresh for the winter
Freezing food allows you to keep all the useful elements in them. In addition, this method of canning will not take much of the housewives’ time.
Now freezing at home is becoming more and more popular, many families specifically purchase freezers for this and fill it with a wide variety of contents: fresh frozen herbs, vegetables, fruits, berries, mushrooms. In packages, the products retain their fresh appearance, their useful qualities and enable us to prepare summer meals with the maximum amount of vitamins and minerals all year round, unlike fresh vegetables and fruits grown in greenhouses. But before you start freezing something, consider some of the features of the technology.
What foods are suitable for freezing at home
Almost all vegetables, mushrooms and herbs can be frozen independently, and they will not differ from industrial production.
Courgettes they are dense in composition, contain a large amount of water, therefore they quickly cool down at sub-zero temperatures and retain vitamins during the entire storage period. What can you cook with zucchini in winter? In fact, there are a lot of dishes: vegetable puree for feeding a baby, stews, pancakes, soup, desserts and compote. Zucchini are boiled, stewed, fried, baked. They are a common ingredient in Asian cuisine. Bell peppers, cauliflower and broccoli, peas, pumpkin are also good for freezing.
mushrooms – chanterelles and honey agarics – are also stored for a long time in the freezer, and after defrosting they look like a freshly harvested crop. At the same time, the mushroom aroma remains in them.
Eggplant they change their structure after freezing, therefore they are suitable for cooking stews, sote or warm salad – for recipes where the integrity of the vegetable is not needed. The same can be said for tomatoes.
Greenery. For salads, it is better to use fresh parsley, dill, tarragon, basil, spinach, and for hot dishes and baked goods, frozen herbs are a good alternative.
How to prepare fresh zucchini for freezing?
Medium and late varieties are suitable for long-term storage. It is better to select young fruits, they have a delicate skin and pulp, no hard seeds. Zucchini must be intact, free from damage, signs of deterioration or decay. A hard skin indicates that the zucchini is overripe or has been plucked long ago. If you prepare a dish from such a fruit, then after heat treatment it will remain fibrous and tough, so it is better not to use such a zucchini for freezing. After sorting, the zucchini must be thoroughly washed, dried a little and cut. If you plan to cook stew or caviar from frozen zucchini, then you need to cut it into cubes; if you cook vegetable casseroles in winter, make mugs or slices; for vegetable pancakes, the zucchini should be grated (just do not forget to squeeze the mass out of the juice). It is not necessary to freeze the zucchini whole, in this case it will be difficult to cut them after defrosting, but the halves will be well preserved in the freezer, in winter it will be possible to make stuffed boats from them.
Many housewives prefer before sending zucchini into the freezer, free the vegetable from moisture – the chopped zucchini is dipped into boiling salted water for just a minute, then thrown back in a colander, cooled, put into a bag and frozen.
Another way to get rid of the juice from the zucchini is to spread the vegetable circles on the board, lightly salt them. Blot the resulting juice with a paper towel and put the vegetable prepared for freezing in plastic containers.
Bell pepper can be cut into pieces, as for the first courses, or can be frozen whole for stuffing. The pepper is cored, washed and frozen.
Cauliflower и broccoli prepared for freezing at home in two ways – either by boiling for a few minutes, or raw without heat treatment. Cabbage is pre-divided into inflorescences.
To prepare for storage in the chamber mushrooms, they should also be re-sorted, washed and dried – small chanterelles or mushrooms can be frozen whole, large ones cut into several pieces. You do not need to mix whole mushrooms and chopped ones, it is better to pack them in different bags or disposable forms.
Spices wash and drain. Chop the dried herbs and pack them into disposable molds or a bag. Life hack: finely chopped greens can be laid out in the cells in an ice mold, add a little water. The resulting ice cubes with herbs are convenient to use for making broths and soups.
Which storage capacity to choose
If for winter storage you need coarsely chopped vegetables, broccoli or cauliflower inflorescences, whole peppers, then it is better to do this: put the pure fruits on a dish and send them to the freezer. After a day, the vegetables will take shape, and then they can be packed in bags or in plastic containers.
Chopped vegetables, mushrooms, zucchini can be immediately laid out in bags.
What else can you cook from zucchini for the winter
You can make vegetable mixes. For example, a set for borscht – beets, carrots, onions, bell peppers, tomatoes. In winter, all that remains is to boil the broth, add the mixture from the freezer – and the first course is ready.
Vegetable mix for soup. Here you can combine any vegetables, herbs to taste. In the cold season, vegetable soup will warm you up and give you the necessary vitamins.
Lecho. It must include tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, carrots and onions.
Hawaiian mix. Mix the bell pepper cubes with boiled and chilled rice, green peas, corn. Any finely chopped vegetables and herbs can be added to rice. In winter, from such a blank, you can concoct a side dish in 15 minutes or make an independent light dinner from the mixture.