Freezing Vegetables

Freezing vegetables is one of the best methods for preserving food. With this method, you can be rest assured, you enjoy your favorite veggies throughout the year even during the off-season time. Fresh vegetables are best frozen after harvesting. Freezing vegetables in the refrigerator helps to preserve their freshness till the time they can be used for the actual preparation. The quality of the frozen vegetables would also depend upon the handling of the same at the time of harvest. There are many techniques that are involved for appropriate storage of the same.

Freezing Vegetables: Methods to be used
It is best to choose fresh vegetables for freezing as soon as they are harvested. It is also very essential that veggies be blanched before they are frozen. Blanching involves few methods, which are used to treat the vegetables before they are stored. Blanching helps to slow down the enzymes that are present in the vegetables. These enzymes are responsible in causing the veggies to ripen. By slowing down the action of these enzymes, the nutritional value and the color of the vegetables are preserved.

Blanching can be done in different ways. Many vegetables can be blanched in boiling water. Steam blanching is also another process that can be used. One point that would be worth remembering is that these vegetables would need to be cooled thoroughly after the blanching process. The packaging is also equally important in this case. The containers to be used for freezing have to be the ones that are designed specifically for freezer storage.

While freezing vegetables, you must also note that it should never be overloaded. This can affect the condition of the freezer as well as the food that is stored in it.

Freezing Vegetables: Tips to store common vegetables
This method is applicable for many types of vegetables however, there are few for which you would need to avoid this technique. These veggies include green onions, cucumbers, radishes and tomatoes.

Asparagus:
Begin by washing the same and sort it out by size. Always snap off the ends and cut the stalks in 2-inch length. Once blanched, cool and dry to pack it. The small stalks may require 2 minutes in boiling water where as the large stalks would require around 4 minutes.

Beets:
Wash the beets and remove the top portion of the beet. Leave the taproot and cook in boiling water. Small sized beets would take half an hour for blanching where as medium sized beets would take 50 minutes at least.

Carrots:
Wash the carrots, trim and peel them. You can even cut large sized carrots. For water blanching, you would need 4 minutes for the process.

Potatoes:
The potatoes would need to be cut or grated as per your requirement. Then you would need to either cook it in water or sauté it in oil. Whole potatoes would need 5 minutes for blanching where as the pieces would require around 2-3 minutes.

Broccoli:
Use only the dark green stalks and wash and peel the same. Trim stalks and remove the heads. You might also need to soak it in saltwater solution to remove the insects. Then split them lengthwise and blanch. Once cooled, drain the same. It would require 3 minutes for water blanching.

These were some of the common tips and techniques used for freezing vegetables. These basic instructions should help you to begin with this process with some ease.