FREEZING FRESH VEGETABLES FOR THE WINTER

FREEZING FRESH VEGETABLES FOR THE WINTER

Today I am going to do a “cooking” day.  Well actually, not a cooking day but a “freezing day”.  Vegetables are at their peak of ripeness and low in cost now!  What is better than the taste of fresh picked, ripened vegetables and fruit.  I am going to the farmers market to get an abundance of vegetables, prepare them to be frozen and “put them up” in my freezer for use on those bleak winter days when all vegetables are tasteless and bland.

Freezing food is a great way to preserve food if you do not want to can/jar them.

Make sure you have many FREEZER Zip Lock bags on hand and a marker.

1.      GREEN BEANS: Rinse well and trim off the ends.  Cut to desired length.

2.      CORN: Use the method below of blanching the full ear of corn and drain. Cut the kernels off the cob and continue with the below process.

3.      TOMATOES: Remove from the stem. Rinse well and place a small X with your knife at the base of each tomato.

4.      BROCCOLI: Rinse well and cut off the stem and then separate into nice florets.

5.      CAULIFLOWER: Rinse well and cut off the stem and then separate into nice florets.

Trim each end

Add to boiling water

Remove with a slotted spoon

Plunge into ice water bath. I use a colander in the bowl for easy removal

FOR ALL ABOVE VEGETABLES:

Choose your vegetables well and make sure they are as fresh and as ripe as possible.  Rinse them well.

Place vegetables into rapidly boiling water, cover the pot and boil them for 3 minutes. (The water can be re-used up to five times - but make sure it's brought back to a rolling boil. Add more water if you need)

Use a large slotted spoon to remove the vegetables from the boiling water and immediately plunge them into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. (This method is called BLANCHING) after a couple of minutes remove the vegetables and drain them well.

Place in Zip Lock bags and remove as much air as possible.  Label and stack bags flat on top of each other to save room.

BEETS:

Remove the beet greens from the root bulbs. Set them aside to prepare later.  They make a wonderful “HORTA” salad- I will blog how to make that later. Rinse the beets really well to remove any excess dirt and soil as they are a root vegetable.

Place the beets into the boiling water and cook until tender. (anywhere from 25 mins for a small beet to 50 mins for large beets).

Place in ice water and cool for 5 minutes.  Remove and slice, cut in chunks or leave whole. Place in zip Lock bags as above and freeze.

DILL:

Wash and dry the Dill. Trim off stems and place flat in baggy

Trim off larger stems

Place in baggy

TIPS:|

·        If you have a FoodSaver this is a great time to use it!

·        Berries will be “put up” differently and I will explain on another blog

·        When freezing un-blanched vegetables there will be a loss of flavor and toughening. Vegetables contain an active enzyme which causes this and nutrient loss during freezing. Blanching retards the enzyme activity.

·        Watery vegetables such as cucumbers, potatoes and celery turn soft upon freezing and they should be canned instead.  That is an entirely different method.

As always be your own Creative Dump Cook and change this recipe to what YOU have on hand!