We ’re lucky to hold up during a time when we have approach to the kind offreezing technologypeople did n’t have even half a century ago . That imply if you have clean veggies from your garden or the supermarket , you have countless fashion to keep those vegetable as toothsome as the day you got them , including freezing them .
While notallvegetables take as kindly to freezing as others , when most vegetable areprepared , packed and frozen the right way , you could ask them to last six to 12 months in the freezer . And consort to a2017 study conduct by the University of Georgiaand published in the Journal of Food Composition and Analysis , those veggies might even be more nutritiousafteryou freeze them than if you ’d keep them fresh for five twenty-four hours .
So whether you have a bumper crop from your garden , or you simply want to freeze some fresh veggie from the market you want to revel year - around , it ’s loose if you sleep together how .
Prep and Packaging
When it derive to bracing vegetable picked from the garden or purchase from the farmers mart , metre is of the burden . Fresh veggies should be frozenat mostonlya few hours after being pickedand you should already know what you ’ll be storing them in .
No matter what kind of storage containers you use ( it can depend on the amount you ’re freeze down ) , they take to be wet - proof and durable and able to withstand the low temperature of the deep freezer . That think bound off the chintzy sandwich bag and go for backbreaking - duty freezer bags , canning jars or plastic containers .
Once you have your containers picked out , you require to exhaustively launder and blanch your vegetables .
What Is Blanching?
Blanchingis the process of boiling or steam your veggie for a short amount of clip to slow the enzymes that can pass to loss of flavor , color and texture and then forthwith scandalise them in internal-combustion engine water ( also called an ice bath ) to break the cooking process . This stone’s throw is critical for almost all vegetables to be frozen , and prison term diverge with each veg and its size ( see graphic below ) .
If you do n’t blanch the vegetables long enough , that could stimulate the enzyme ( theyturn apple brownonce you slice them , for instance ) and end up being worse than not blanching at all . But if you blench them too long , you may belt down the flavor , color and all the good vitamins .
Not only does pale dense those harmful enzyme , but it play as a type of antimicrobic , cleansing your veggies of all the shite and organisms from your garden . Another welfare of parboil ispreserving those essential vitaminslikepotassium , dietary fiber , folate , vitamin A , and vitamin C nestled within your garden truck .
The Step-by-Step
Not All Veggies Are Cut for Freezing
Not all vegetables are create equal , though , and there are some that just do n’t stand up to the freeze process . manoeuver exculpated ofstick vegetableslike celery , cress , cucumbers , endive , lettuce , Petroselinum crispum and radishes . Because of their high water content , they just wo n’t keep as well as root vegetables and will de-ice bland , wilted and water - logged .
fortuitously , defrostingvegetables is the easiest part of the process . Just dump your wintry veggies into a strainer and run cool piss over them . you may even entrust them in the original deep freezer dish if you want ! When de-ice Green like kale or spinach plant , utilise a salad thread maker to get out as much water as you could .
