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To get the necessary vitamins even in winter and season dishes with aromatic herbs, it can be frozen. Subject to the rules of the process, herbs retain their vitamin benefits, aroma and taste. At home, freezing of parsley, dill, celery, basil, mint is possible.

Preparation

In order for frozen greens to be stored in the freezer longer, not to wither and not to lose their taste, they must be properly prepared for processing. Helpful hints:

1. When buying, you need to choose fresh elastic bunches, without yellow withered inflorescences, signs of wilting, rotting.
2. The grass is thoroughly washed, sand and other contaminants are removed from it.
3. The greens are laid out to dry in a thin layer in the air, for about half an hour, so that no moisture drops remain.
4. The coarsest stems are cut off.
5. If necessary, grind the grass with a thin sharp knife, mix the mixes.
6. They are laid out in containers or plastic bags, placed on the shelf of the freezer.
7. Shake the bags every half hour so that the leaves do not stick together.

How to freeze greens for the winter

Harvesting greens for the winter is a process that has its own characteristics. Professional recommendations:

1. Do not freeze greens using metal or glass containers. Herbs contain many biologically active substances that can oxidize the metal. Glass can crack from temperature extremes. For freezing, it is optimal to choose plastic bags, plastic containers or silicone molds.
2. Freeze greens in small portions. So the process will go faster, more vitamins will be saved.
3. Dill and parsley can be frozen immediately with salt or oil, basil, oregano - in bunches, celery and mint - in leaves.

Frozen greens do not need to be thawed before using. You need to take a portion or pinch off the required amount from a large piece and immediately add it to soup or meat. So the herbs will not lose their beneficial substances, aroma.

In bundles

The method of freezing herbs in bunches is good if there is a lot of space in the freezer. This method is used to harvest dill, basil, parsley, mint, sorrel for the winter. They are stored in containers, loosely packed, or wrapped in foil so that the bundles do not crush each other. Cooking method:

1. Wash the raw materials, dry thoroughly, collect in bundles, cut off the stems.
2. Spread out on a tray so that the bundles do not come into contact with each other, put in the freezer at the maximum setting.
3. Remove from the chamber, transfer to containers or wrap in foil, fold for storage.

Green cubes

The method of freezing in cubes is faster than the others, because the spices do not need to be dried. For cooking, you will need molds made of plastic or silicone (in which ice or baked goods are prepared). Herbs for beauty treatments can be frozen in the same way. Cooking method:

1. Wash the herbs, remove the stems, chop the leaves or grind with a blender.
2. Divide the mass into molds, tamp, pour in a little water.
3. Place in the freezer to freeze.
4. Remove the cubes, transfer to bags, reuse the vacated molds.

Sliced

You can store finely chopped frozen parsley, basil, dill, or sorrel in the freezer. It doesn't take up much space, especially when folded into a large container and scooped up with a spoon if necessary. Cooking method:

1. Wash, dry the herbs, cut off the stems.
2. Finely chop the green parts, arrange in bags or containers.
3. Send to freezer for freezing and storage.

With salt

An almost ready-made soup dressing mixture will turn out if you mix herbs with salt and freeze. More often for this, they take dill twigs no higher than 15 cm, which will retain the aroma, softness and tenderness of taste for the winter. For cooking, you need large white (rock) salt, but not iodized - according to reviews, it gives bitterness. Cooking process:

1. Proportions: for 300 g of fresh dill, 100 g of coarse salt.
2. Cut off the roots, rinse the herbs with running water, tie in a bundle, dry on a napkin.
3. Tear off the leaves, put in a deep bowl, cover with salt.
4. Shake the bowl to mix the ingredients. You can not crush the twigs, the workpiece remains dry.
5. Transfer the workpiece into packages, send to the freezer.

By freezing greens for the winter, we have the opportunity to use spicy plants throughout the year to prepare our favorite dishes and diversify our meals.

Preparing greens for freezing:

• We put well-washed plants so that excess water escapes. It is better to wash the plants rather than blanch them, it is more possible to preserve vitamins.
• With some freezing methods, the greens need to be dried a little. Put the greens to dry on a towel; systematically, within 2 hours, we shift the layers, swapping them. We do not hold it for a long time, otherwise the plants may wither.
• With dense packing of greens, it must first be doused with boiling water and the plants become softer.
• If desired, with certain methods of freezing, the plants can be finely chopped.

We offer ways to freeze greens for the winter in the freezer:

Note! If you take plastic molds to freeze greens, then do not use them for other purposes. Plastic absorbs persistent green odors, and ice cubes used to cool water from these molds will have a strong odor.

Important! If you put greens in bags, then you need to squeeze them in order to remove the air. Otherwise, the remaining air turns into ice during freezing, and the greens will be difficult to separate from each other.

When freezing plants in the freezer, pay attention to the quick freeze function. If this function is not available, then you need to create conditions for quick freezing of greens by preparing small portions. The preservation of vitamins depends on this.

What greens can you freeze?

The housewives themselves choose what is more convenient for them - to freeze the plants according to individual types or to make spicy mixtures of greens, put in one freezer container. It depends on the experience and preferences of the cook herself.

When preparing greens for freezing in the freezer for the winter, pay attention to the following:

• What specific plants are you using for food. Not all housewives use rosemary, but many do use parsley.
• Which greens are useful in large quantities, and which are not very popular in your kitchen. So, dill is put in many dishes, and you will need it much more than tarragon.
• How much greens will be needed before its future harvest. A rough estimate of the total amount of herbs used for cooking can be calculated.

Important! You need to know what greens you can freeze. So lettuce leaves change their structure from the cold and look unappetizing when defrosting - they are not suitable for food. And the parsley sprigs look fresh anyway.

Benefit and harm

The benefits and harms of frozen greens:

To properly freeze and use thawed greens correctly means observing the following rules:

1. Do not use containers for freezing plants made of metal, which oxidizes vitamins, or glass, which can crack at subzero temperatures. Use silicone, plastic or plastic dishes.
2. The quality of frozen plants depends on how quickly they are frozen, so it is best if the herbs are distributed in small portions.
3. When using herbs for cooking, they do not need to be thawed.

For a good housewife, frozen plants will not compete with fresh ones, they will be just like fresh ones. And in composition, and in appearance, and in color, pleasing to the eye. And, of course, for a persistent smell.

Bon appetit and delicious dishes on your table!

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Despite the fact that autumn has already confidently declared its presence, most markets still offer a variety of fresh vegetables at affordable prices: eggplant, zucchini, fresh herbs, corn, bell peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, and so on. It is on them that we intend to stop our attention and make preparations for the winter.

Vegetables

You can freeze any vegetables that are not too watery. Cauliflower and broccoli are ideal candidates for freezing because they are dense enough to tolerate other harvesting methods.

Before packing, both types of cabbage should be disassembled into inflorescences and rinsed.

So that after defrosting the cabbage is not tough, it must be blanched in a small amount of boiling water. Cauliflower inflorescences should be in boiling water for about two minutes, and tender broccoli inflorescences should be enough for a minute.

After that, the cabbage should be doused with ice water to stop the cooking process, and then dry as much as possible and transfer to a bag.

Another candidate for freezing is bell peppers, which can be stored well either chopped or whole. In both cases, the pods are first washed, then the seed box is cleaned, and then cut or stacked together and packed in bags. It is better to put whole peppers into each other in small piles so that it is easier to defrost them.

Zucchini and eggplant are some of those fruits that also need preliminary preparation. Both vegetables should be washed, chopped and then blanched for about a minute. Late eggplants, which can be found on the shelves in the fall, are very bitter, and therefore, before blanching, they must be generously salted, left for half an hour, and then rinsed with cold water.

Corn cobs, as well as other legumes, can be harvested in a simple way, in which the kernels are simply separated from the cob or pod and then packaged in bags. In order for the legumes not to stick together into a single lump, they must be frozen on a board or dish, and only then poured into a bag.

Greens

Almost any greenery can survive the winter in the freezer, if you approach the freezing technology itself wisely.

A standard set of herbs like dill, parsley and green onions can be frozen in a simple way: rinse, dry, chop and pack. You can store greens in one bag or spread out in several small portions in individual bags so that, if necessary, you can quickly fill your soup or stew.

Sorrel and spinach leaves can also survive simple freezing when stored in a modern freezer and as sealed as possible. Otherwise, it is also better to blanch the leaves in boiling water for literally 30 seconds, rinse with ice water, squeeze and put in a container or bag. Coarse greens like kale leaves are blanched for a minute and then frozen in the same way.

Another way to keep your greens fresh is to turn the leaves into a sauce and pour it into ice cube trays. So we decided to do with a bunch of basil. Basil leaves must be made into a gruel along with a few cloves of garlic and a little oil. Put the pureed basil in the tins, freeze, and then pour the cubes into a bag. A couple of these cubes, and your pasta or sauce will instantly be saturated with the taste of fresh herbs.

It is advisable to store each of the frozen blanks for no more than eight months, but vegetables and herbs can live in a good freezer for up to a year.

I used to always dry greens and use them dried in cooking. She decorated the dish, but there was no smell. And once my friend suggested that I freeze the greens when she saw me add dried herbs to the first dish.

She listened to her advice, but still continued to dry the greens with her, as they say, trampled method. Since I counted, what's the difference in this - dried or frozen.

And the difference turned out to be when she was convinced of this herself, seeing how my daughter-in-law, while cooking borscht, took the greens out of the freezer and added it to the borscht. I could smell the added greenery from a distance. But I did not feel the aroma from my dried greens.

Then I decided to try freezing greens. This method stuck, I liked it, and every year I learned different ways of freezing, which I share with you.

You can freeze almost any greens. It all depends on the purpose of its use. In cooking, they use dill, parsley, cilantro, sorrel, basil, garlic arrows.

And frozen mint, thyme, lemon balm, raspberry leaves or black currant leaves are good for making tea. They make tea aromatic and pleasant to drink. In winter, this tea replenishes our body with vitamins and minerals, which is very useful for us.

All the beneficial properties of greens are preserved in freezing.

But before freezing the greens, I rinse them well under running water. Then I put the greens in a large empty cup of water and add a tablespoon of salt to the top. I leave it for 15 - 20 minutes. This is so that the insects, invisible to the eye, die in the salted water and settle to the bottom of the cup.

Then the washed greens must be dried so that ice and snow do not form on it. I dry it on a towel, blotting excess moisture with another towel. After getting well wet, you can still leave the greens to air dry a little. After all these steps, the greens are ready for freezing.

Now I'll tell you about 4 ways to freeze greens.

1. A method of freezing greens with twigs.
2. Method for freezing chopped greens
3. Freezing method in ice cube trays with water
4. Freezing method in ice cube trays with butter

For this we need plastic containers, an ice mold and plastic bags.

The first way

Dill and parsley can have thick, tough stems, so we remove them, separating small shoots with soft, thin stems. We don’t throw away the thick stems, they can also be frozen and used in the preparation of the first courses by tying them in portions with threads.

When all the small twigs have been separated, we put some of them in containers, and partly we put them in plastic bags, carefully removing air from the bag and roll it up with a tube. When all the greens are laid out, we send them to the freezer.

Whole twigs can be used to decorate main courses, and when cut, they can also be added to different dishes. In this way, we preserve all vitamins, trace elements and essential oils.

Second way

Finely chop the prepared greens and also put some in containers, some in plastic bags, and send them to the freezer. Convenience is that the greens are already cut, scooped up with a spoon as much as necessary and added to any dish. In the chopped greens, some of the essential oils have evaporated and less nutrients remain.

The third way

You can make green ice cubes in an ice cube tray. To do this, fill the molds with chopped greens, slightly compacting, and fill them with cold boiled water. Cover with cling film and place in the freezer. After freezing, put it in a container.

These green ice cubes can be used to prepare first courses 1 to 2 minutes before they are ready. The color and aroma are retained. Can be used in cosmetics - for wiping the face. In this case, the skin will receive both vitamins and tone.

Fourth way

After filling the ice cube trays with chopped herbs, now fill them with olive oil or melted butter. We also cover with cling film so that the aroma does not evaporate, and put in the freezer. After freezing, put it in a container.

It is good to use such cubes in hot dishes. For example: boiled a young potato, put it on a dish, and put one or two cubes of butter on top. The butter melted, but the herbs and aroma remained on the potatoes. When baking fish, you can put cubes in the belly, and the aroma of herbs will appear, and the fish will become juicier from the oil.

Conclusion

I use greens not only to decorate the dish, although the dish decorated with herbs evokes appetite and good mood, but it is also useful for our body. Therefore, greens should be consumed daily, they can be in their natural form, you can make cocktails with them and add them to different dishes. Therefore, in the summertime I try to stock up on greens for future use.

Do you use herbs in your dishes? Freezing greens for the winter? Write in the comments about your freezing methods. If the article was useful to you, then share it with your friends on social networks. And now, see you soon!