How to freeze vegetables for the winter at home?

The most effective and reliable way to get natural vitamins in the winter is to eat frozen vegetables and fruits. It was at this time that the human body is experiencing the greatest deficiency of vitamins. Imported fresh vegetables offered by supermarkets are oversaturated with harmful chemicals and will do more harm than good. The method of freezing allows you to save the taste, aroma and benefits of vegetables from your own garden.

Not all vegetables can be frozen. Before you begin to freeze food, read the list of vegetables that are allowed for storage in the freezer.

• Asparagus. To store this product, it is recommended to preliminarily eliminate the tails and chop the vegetable into 2–3 cm long bars. Next, blanch the vegetables for a few minutes in boiling water and drain into a colander. If these rules are neglected, then after defrosting the product will lose its taste and will take on a fibrous structure. When the asparagus is dry, you need to wrap it in a special film and send it in the freezer.
• Green peas. To freeze this product does not need to do anything, just get the peas from the pods, arrange in packages and place in the freezer.

• Bulgarian pepper. Only whole peppers without damage are suitable for freezing. It is better if all of them will be approximately the same parameters. First of all, the vegetables should be washed, free from seeds, cut the legs and dry. If pepper is needed for a future stew or soup, then it is recommended to cut it into strips. If you plan to stuff the peppers in winter, you need to freeze them whole.
• Cauliflower and broccoli. Before freezing, both types of cabbage should be disassembled into inflorescences and blanched in boiling water for 2–3 minutes. Next, you should fold the boiled vegetables in a colander, dry, pack in bags and place in the freezer.
• Tomatoes In this case, different methods are possible. The main rule is not to subject this vegetable to heat treatment. First, the tomatoes are thoroughly washed and dried. Miniature varieties can be frozen completely. If the fruits are large, it is recommended to cut the tomatoes into slices or circles. Next, the sliced ​​tomatoes are laid out on a plate, covered with a special plastic food wrap and placed in the refrigerator. When the slices are frozen, they should be taken out, put in a container and sent back to the freezer.

• Courgettes and zucchini. Rinse and dry the vegetables, clean if necessary. Next, cut into cubes and arrange in packages. It is recommended to stack products in small portions, since it will be difficult to separate the right amount of ingredients from a bag full of frozen vegetables.
• Carrot. Vegetable need to rinse and peel, then coarsely grate and decompose into packages. If the carrot will be used in the vegetable mixture, it is desirable to pre-cut it into cubes and blanch, and then place it in the chamber.
• Corn. The cob should be cleaned of leaves, wrapped in plastic and put in the freezer. By the way, you do not need to defrost it, you can just boil it, immediately getting out of the refrigerator.

In fact, the principles of freezing are not particularly different - first, the vegetables are washed, dried, cut and packed in bags. The hostess can use these rules for any products, but you should first examine the following list of vegetables that can not be subjected to freezing:

• cucumbers;
• radish;
• bulb and green onions;
• leaf salad;
• garlic;
• potatoes.

Of course, the benefits of frozen vegetables are much more than harm. Modern methods of freezing allow to keep almost all positive qualities in products.In addition, fresh-frozen vegetables significantly save time hostess. If a carrot is needed for the soup, you can simply remove it from the freezer and defrost it without wasting time on cleaning and cutting.

Another positive point is the savings of products. As you know, the household does not always have time to eat vegetables from his garden. Half of the products will go for pickling and pickling, and the rest may not wait for their time and rot. It is the fruits that remained from the harvest, you can freeze - in the winter they will be very useful. In addition to the fact that freezing saves most of the vitamins, it also retains almost full color, taste and aroma of vegetables. Of course, such ingredients are not always suitable for salad, but for frying, stews or gravy is a great option.

If you compare fresh vegetables from the supermarket and frozen vegetables from your garden, it is better to give preference to your own, but frozen foods. The fact is that store-bought fresh fruits and vegetables are often subjected to chemical treatment for the preservation of the presentation, therefore, their use is almost not preserved. Frozen vegetables can cause real harm if they have been re-frozen. This is absolutely impossible to do. That is why it is better to freeze the food yourself, rather than buying ready-made frozen vegetable mixes.

So that after freezing the vegetables do not lose their color, taste and flavor, you must first properly prepare them for freezing, performing the following steps:

• select only ripe, high-quality fruits without mechanical damage, not over-ripe; it is better if it is dense vegetables that are not leaking anywhere;
• wash products thoroughly, peel off skin and seeds if necessary;
• cut into small pieces, if the fruits are large; small species can be frozen free;
• before freezing, it is recommended to blanch the sliced ​​vegetables for a few minutes - the ingredients will receive additional protection from spoilage, get rid of small parasites, and adopt the most solid structure for future defrosting.

These are important principles to follow when preparing vegetables for freezing. However, there are separate rules for a particular type of vegetables. For example, greens need special attention, before freezing it can be prepared in such ways as:

1. cutting - to do this, simply chop the greens and place in portioned frost bags;
2. bundles - this method involves simply placing the greenery in the package as a whole and cleaning the freezer, but it is important to squeeze the air out of the package;
3. oil cubes - for this, chopped greens can be mixed with butter and decomposed into ice molds (olive oil can be replaced); the containers filled with a mix we place in a freezer, and in the future cubes can be used as refueling for salads.

When preparing vegetables for freezing, also listen to recommendations such as:

• if you want to freeze the white cabbage, then it is better to store it in the freezer in the form of twisted cabbage rolls;
• a very convenient way of freezing with whole vegetable mixtures, that is, you do not need to pack each type of vegetables separately, you can pack all the blanks together and use them in winter for stews, pilaf, roasts;
• the most preferred method of freezing is shock freezing, which is possible at home with freezing equipment, the chambers of which maintain the temperature from -19 to -23 degrees; fast freezing helps to preserve the shape of vegetables, their color, and also saves up to 90% of vitamins.

When freezing vegetables with your own hands, use a few simple recipes that will greatly facilitate the work in the kitchen.

We need the following ingredients:

• carrot;
• Bulgarian pepper;
• White cabbage;
• greenery;
• beet.

Preparation includes such actions as:

1. all the ingredients are prepared in the above way - wash, dry, clean;
2. carrot and beetroot three on a large grater, put in one bowl;
3. we also send chopped greens and chopped Bulgarian pepper;
4. we cut cabbage into thin strips;
5. a mixture of vegetables is packed in bags and sent to the freezer;
6. cabbage laid in a separate package.

Dressing for borsch ready. Now it remains to add only potatoes and meat to the future soup. By the way, the ingredients can be completely different. Not everyone recognizes Bulgarian pepper as part of borscht, but some people like to add tomatoes to the dish - here the chef's imagination can be limitless.

We need ingredients such as:

• corn;
• young peas;
• Bell pepper;
• rice

Preparation includes the following steps:

1. boil until half cooked rice;
2. mix in a bowl corn and fresh peas, pulled out of the pods;
3. there we also place Bulgarian pepper, cut into small cubes; for an even brighter color of the dish, you can use peppers of different colors;
4. The cooled rice is transferred to the vegetable mixture, mixed and packed to freeze.

To preserve the vegetables before winter in its original form, You need to pay attention to such rules for storing food in the freezer, such as:

• in one container or package there should not be more than 300 grams of ingredients;
• if the food is frozen in a bag, then you need to ensure that there is as little air as possible in the tank;
• it is very useful to stick on the names of mixtures and the date of freezing on the containers, thus avoiding damage to products;
• The shelf life of frozen vegetables at a temperature of at least -18 degrees is one year.

Separately, it should be said about the container for freezing. The store does not offer frozen mixes in plastic bags, since, according to current GOST, this material is not suitable for freezing. The fact is that polyethylene is a recycled product; in close contact with the ingredients, it can give them a part of harmful substances. Therefore, for freezing, it is recommended to buy specially designed bags and films or food containers.

How to freeze vegetables for the winter at home, see the following video.