How to freeze eggplants at home for the winter fresh and

Freezing vegetables, fruits, and berries for the winter has long been familiar. The freezer provides a supply of vitamins for a long winter. Loved by many "blue" is no exception. How to freeze eggplants so that they do not lose their wonderful taste?

How to freeze fresh eggplants?

Frozen vegetables are very convenient to use when cooking various dishes. In order for this naughty vegetable to retain its taste, to be soft and juicy after defrosting, you need to know a little tricks of laying in the refrigerator.

• Raw eggplants require additional preparation. For harvesting it is recommended to use fresh vegetables. Each eggplant must be washed, dried, removed the stem and, if desired, the skin. To freeze fresh eggplants for the winter, they need to be scalded - blanch. Cut into small pieces - circles, cubes - vegetables are placed in a colander and dipped for a couple of minutes in boiling water. Thanks to this simple procedure, bitterness will disappear from the fruit, and the flesh will not become "rubber" after defrosting.
• It is worth considering that the eggplant pulp darkens in air for half an hour, so you should not cut vegetables for the future. It is better to do it in portions, for 1 blanching.
• Lemon juice can be added to boiling water. It will not affect the taste, but will retain the original color of the pulp.
• From boiled water, pieces of eggplants are caught with a slotted spoon and placed under cold water for several minutes. After that, they are allowed to drain and dried on paper towels.
• The finished pieces are placed in a vacuum bag or a special container and sent to the freezer. It's simple!

Fry, soar, cook - freeze!

Eggplants can be frozen not only fresh, but also fried, steamed, boiled, and so on. How to freeze cooked eggplants?

Bake

In the oven, heated to 200⁰With, on a baking sheet, covered with foil and sprinkled with a sufficiently large amount of vegetable oil, put eggplants - previously washed, with a cut off stem. Roasting time depends on the size of the vegetable and varies from half an hour to an hour. Before you put the fruit in the oven, the peel must be pierced in several places. After the eggplant is ready, it is allowed to cool. Then remove the peel and take out the pulp, packaged in a container or bag, and then sent to the freezer.

With the same success can be baked eggplant slices. Oven temperature - about 180⁰C, time - 1 hour. Vegetables need to be mixed periodically to bake them evenly.

Fry

Eggplants, washed and cut into pieces, salted and fried in butter in a frying pan. No need to add flour. A wide bowl is lined with plastic wrap and spread on it fried slices. If you intend to lay out several layers, then they shift the film. The bowl is put in the refrigerator overnight, and the next day the eggplants are “moved” into freezer bags and transferred to the freezer.

How to defrost eggplants?

A good housewife should know not only how to freeze eggplants at home, but also how to properly defrost them.

It is convenient to use the special function of the microwave oven - “defrosting” or let the vegetables thaw in the refrigerator. Many housewives send eggplants to the pan, without even waiting for them to thaw. They know that the vegetable "will reach" itself during cooking. All methods are good, except defrosting in water. Along with it, vitamins will leave the eggplants, and the pulp will become watery and tasteless.

So, the answer to the question of whether eggplants can be frozen in the freezer is found - it's time to get down to business! Delicious, juicy, delicious "blue" in the winter will give the feeling of summer. And the ability to send for storage in different types will provide a wealth of options for future use.