Freezing vegetables at home

There are many ways to harvest vegetables for the winter. But sometimes it would be so desirable that the products used were not at all canned, but fresh. For such cases, a solution was invented - frost. If you hold it correctly, you will get fresh vegetables to your table even in winter.

General rules for freezing products

• To carry out proper freezing, it is necessary to properly prepare the fruit. They should be clean and should not take up too much space in the freezer. For example, before freezing apricots, spare them from the stone, and pepper from the core. Do the same with other products.

• It is equally important to choose the right capacity for freezing. As such peculiar molds for the formation of briquettes can serve as cans or forms for ice with partitions removed. It is better if these shapes are not round, but rectangular. In this case, the space of the freezer will be used more efficiently.
• The molds should be about five or six centimeters high, since in too-high molds the products will freeze for too long, and in low forms the layer of the product will be too thin. It is necessary to put the product tightly in these containers so that there is four to five millimeters left to the edge. After the products are completely frozen, the form with them must be removed from the freezer and kept under running warm water for a few seconds to keep the edges of the briquette off the dishes. Then, turning the dishes and knocking lightly on its bottom, you can easily remove the briquette from there, which must be immediately placed, for example, in cellophane and sent back to the refrigerator for further storage.
• Should remember that for frozen food, any contact with air is harmful, therefore, they need to be carefully clogged. The less your products interact with the air, the better their quality will be preserved. And another, many well-known rule: never put in the refrigerator products that did not have time to cool down after heat treatment. This can harm both the technology and the product itself.

How to freeze vegetables at home?

For freezing various foods, you can use your home refrigerator. It can thus store semi-finished meat or fish, ready the first or second courses, as well as various fruits, berries and vegetables.

• To freeze vegetables well, you need to do this when the vegetables are as fresh as possible. It is then that they retain most of the beneficial properties.
• Almost all vegetables, except onions and sweet peppers, must be blanched before freezing. Onions and peppers can be simply cut without blanching. This process is necessary in order to prevent further development of the fetus. When freezing without blanching, the development of the fetus will still continue, despite the fact that there is a strong cold. Continuing the process of ripening can lead to the loss of freshness of the taste of the vegetable, and can make the fruit colorless and hard.
• The blanching process consists of two stages. First, the vegetables must be placed in boiling water. They must stay at this temperature for a certain time, which will vary depending on the size and type of the fruit. After the vegetable has left its boiling water, it is abruptly placed in cold water at about the same time as in boiling water.
• In order to blanch the vegetables, it is better to use a colander or metal mesh. Place in a colander at a time you need no more than a pound of vegetables. Five liters of water should be poured into such a quantity of vegetables in a saucepan.
• If you are blanching leafy vegetables, double the amount of water. Then the leaves will not stick together.
• The water in the pan should be brought to a boil. Place a colander in boiling water. The pot needs to be covered with a lid and wait a certain time. This is a very important factor. The cauliflower should boil for three minutes, the cabbage, if it is cut into strips, is one and a half minutes, if the slices are three minutes. Eggplants boil for four minutes, whole carrots - five minutes, carrots straws - two minutes. Two minutes need to boil and zucchini, and mushrooms - from two to five minutes.
• After the time spent in boiling water for vegetables has expired, they need to be cooled by placing in cold, even ice-cold water. After you cool the vegetables, they must be dried.
• Then you can place the vegetables in a freezer dish and blanch the next batch.
• As for hot water, without changing it, you can blanch up to six portions of the same vegetable in it. But the cold water must be changed every time.

How to freeze various vegetables?

Different types of vegetables may differ slightly according to their freezing method.

• It is recommended to freeze cucumbers by cutting them into slices or slices and placing them in a sealed package. Do the same with tomatoes. Small tomatoes varieties of cherry can be frozen and whole.
• If you freeze the pepper in order to enjoy this stuffed vegetable in the future, you must leave it whole, removing only the top and the seeds. In order to economically spend space in the freezer, the peppers need to be folded into one another.
• String beans need to be washed, cut into pieces about two centimeters long and freeze. But green peas need to be sent in cold bulk, do not forget to pre-wash and dry it.
• Similarly, freeze and corn. This vegetable should be placed in the freezer when it is still milky ripeness.
• Cabbage broccoli blanch is not worth it. This is a very delicate vegetable. Therefore, to freeze it enough to divide the cabbage into inflorescences, rinse it thoroughly. Then dry and place the inflorescences in bags.

Frozen vegetables should keep in themselves all those vitamins that they plucked from the garden. Of course, their concentration will still be somewhat less, but this will not prevent you from replenishing your supply of vitamins in the winter and enriching your diet with the help of delicious vegetables.