Strive your hand at preserving veggies by freezing them! Freezing greens is a fast, easy strategy to protect them to take pleasure in all yr lengthy.
The next is an excerpt from Many Palms Make a Farm by Jack Kittredge and Julie Rawson. It has been tailored for the online.
A Information to Freezing Greens
Freezing greens, particularly in small batches, is sort of easy and fast. It takes solely about ten minutes to freeze a bunch of kale or chard, and that would be the foundation of an important winter meal. For those who try no different technique of meals preservation, do this. Quickly it would be best to purchase a chest freezer by which to retailer your bounty.
The Means of Blanching & Freezing Veggies
Blanching (scalding greens in boiling water or steam for a short while) is a should for nearly all greens earlier than freezing them. The quick heating stops enzyme exercise that may trigger lack of taste, coloration, and texture over time.
Listed below are crucial tricks to keep in mind for freezing greens:
- For greatest outcomes, put together your work space and instruments properly so you’ll be able to work shortly and effectively.
- Reduce greens into bite-size items.
- Wait till the water is boiling to immerse the ready greens.
- Begin timing when the pot comes again to a boil. Most greens must prepare dinner from one to a few minutes on this a part of the method. The necessary factor to look at for is a change to a brighter coloration.
- Dump the blanched greens right into a colander within the sink and rinse instantly with chilly water. That is simpler than fussing with cooling the greens in an ice-water bathtub.
- Squeeze any further water out of the greens after they arecool, and retailer them in freezer containers that may pack effectively in your freezer.
This process works properly for a variety of greens. One variable is how lengthy to go away the greens within the boiling water. You are able to do your personal analysis, although I counsel retaining your course of easy so that you’re extra prone to accomplish it.
Suggestions for Freezing Greens
Listed below are some particular suggestions based mostly on my expertise.
Basil. I puree the leaves with olive oil within the blender and freeze in ice dice trays. Then come out the frozen cubes and switch to a plastic bag for longer storage.
Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower. Attributable to their chunky texture, these brassicas take round three minutes to correctly blanch.
Celery. No blanching wanted however will maintain longer within the freezer if blanched.
Edamame or inexperienced soybeans. Boil the bean pods till you’ll be able to pop the beans out of the shell. Cool them down in water so as to deal with them comfortably after which pop them out.
Garlic scapes. A month earlier than harvesting stiff-neck garlic is the time to reap scapes. Break off each the stem and the curly bulb head. We chop them and meals course of them with olive oil and freeze in pint containers to be used in soups and stews.
Greens. Spinach, Asian greens, chard, kale, collards, and cabbage solely take a minute or two. We normally strip the kale and collards from their stems earlier than reducing them up, and we reduce out and discard the core from cabbages.
Leeks. Blanch for thirty to forty-five seconds.
Parsley, peppers. No blanching wanted These greens comprise a number of. water naturally. They freeze properly unblanched and maintain their high quality for a number of months.
Starchy greens. For pea pods, take away and discard the stem ends earlier than reducing. For sugar snaps, strip and discard the complete string. Blanch for 2 minutes. Shell peas and inexperienced beans want three minutes. Corn (reduce off the cob) wants six to eight minutes.
Summer season squash and zucchini. Slice and boil in a small quantity of water for 2 minutes. Puree with the water after which freeze in plastic containers.
Winter squash. If, when saved on a shelf or within the root cellar, winter squash begin to rot, salvage it by reducing out the unhealthy spots, eradicating the rind, reducing it into small items, after which boiling it in minimal water. Course of and pack as you’ll summer time squash.
Advisable Reads
Reaping the Harvest: Suggestions for Harvesting and Preserving
Capturing the Crunch: How one can Harvest and Retailer Cucumbers