How to freeze vegetables for the winter: step by step instructions

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

How to keep tasty and he althy vegetables from your own garden for the whole winter? The easiest way is to freeze vegetables, but you can pickle and roll them up. There are a lot of storage methods, it is important to preserve all the useful properties of products.

Practical tips for freezing vegetables

Before you put your favorite foods in the freezer, they must be thoroughly washed and dried. It is worth removing the skin and unnecessary parts of the cuttings. Large vegetables (cauliflower, broccoli, white cabbage) are cut into small pieces. Can be in slices or circles. If you want to prepare a soup mix or vegetables for frying for the winter, then you can chop them in your usual way.

You can freeze vegetables either separately or as a mixture. To do this, it is best to lay out the products in a thin layer on a tray and freeze in parts. Then mix in a bag or box. If you immediately place the food in a bag or box and freeze, then it will be difficult to take them out. Almost all vegetable plants can be stored in this form, except for radish and lettuce.

You can freeze vegetables together with greens or rice, as well as potatoes. Youyou can make at home suitable combinations of vegetables for soup or stew. This will save a lot of cooking time for lunch or dinner.

Vegetable storage

Remember that vegetables cannot be thawed and frozen several times. That is why they should be laid out in portions that can be eaten immediately.

At a temperature in the freezer of -18 degrees, vegetables can be stored for no more than a year. At the same time, it is important to ensure that there are no temperature drops, and the vegetables are not re-frozen.

If you choose frozen vegetables in a supermarket, then you should make sure that the packaging is intact. It should be slightly inflated - this is evidence of its tightness. Vegetables should not be glued or in ice - this indicates improper storage. You should not purchase the product at the end of the shelf life, because the temperature regime could be violated, which means that the product is not suitable for food.

Vegetable mix options

Some vegetables can be lightly stewed before freezing. This helps preserve their color and also speeds up subsequent cooking. The combination of corn, bell peppers and green peas can be used in both soup and risotto. Carrots, peas, green beans, red beans, corn, celery, peppers, corn are a great combination for steamed vegetables that you can add rice or potatoes to. Onions, mushrooms, carrots and potatoes are a complete independent dish and a hearty lunch in a few minutes. But frozen tomatoes with peppers and onions can becomean excellent dressing for borscht and vegetable stew.

Many housewives currently practice freezing borscht bases and dressings for them. For example, boiled beets, carrots, onions, tomatoes and sweet peppers are almost ready-made borscht. Separately, you can store frozen tomatoes in slices and add them to pilaf, pizza or soups.

Chopped green beans are perfect for vegetable soup or as a side dish. You can store asparagus in uncut form, but be sure to rinse, sort and dry before freezing. A mixture of frozen vegetables with beans can be pre-dipped in boiling water, so they will cook faster.

It is very beautiful and tasty to freeze sweet peppers of different colors, carrots and corn. This combination is usually cooked with rice or potatoes.

How to cook frozen vegetables

Vegetable preparations are suitable for people who value their time, as well as for adherents of proper nutrition. Frozen vegetables - tasty and he althy in any form. There are many recipes with assorted vegetables. It should be noted that most do not even defrost the product before cooking, although this is wrong, because vegetables lose their beneficial properties.

Before cooking, the mixture must be thawed, rinsed and dried (allow excess moisture to drain). And now you can start frying or stewing. Remember, don't cook vegetables for too long.as vitamins are destroyed. Store-bought mixed vegetables usually take no more than 15-20 minutes to cook. If you freeze vegetables yourself, then make sure that they are optimally combined. After all, too large slices of cabbage, broccoli or other vegetables will cook longer than zucchini, pumpkin or carrot cubes. Therefore, they should be cut fairly small.

Recipes with frozen vegetables (recipe with photos and step by step instructions)

Most housewives know that cooking delicious vegetables is a lot of work. Most often, this he althy dish is not very favored by the household. However, there are many secrets with which your vegetables will be eaten to the last spoon. So, how to cook frozen vegetables tasty and festive? To do this, we always use three basic rules:

1. Balance of s alt and spices. Vegetables are a neutral product that absorbs all the spices like a sponge. At the same time, it is important to strike a balance, because too much s alt and spices, as well as their lack, can spoil the dish.
2. Sauces and fillings are the main friend of vegetables. Cream, sour cream and cheese sauce can turn almost any dish into a culinary masterpiece. Your family and friends will be pleasantly surprised when they find out that under the delicate cream hides the simplest frozen zucchini.
3. Green, more green. Dill, parsley and basil will give the dish an unusual taste and aroma.

Vegetable casserole in the oven

To prepare the dish, we need 200 grams of vegetables (assorted, or you can favorite green peas or broccoli), as well as 2 eggs, 250ml of milk (you can cream), 100 grams of hard cheese, s alt, spices and herbs.

Frozen vegetables in the oven with scrambled eggs - it's very he althy and tasty. The result is 2 full servings for breakfast or dinner. First you need to put the oven on heating. In a deep bowl, beat the eggs until smooth, s alt and pepper. Then add 200-250 ml of milk or cream to them, beat again. Now you can add vegetables to the resulting mass. Sprinkle everything on top with herbs and grated cheese. We put in the oven for 20-30 minutes. A he althy and hearty breakfast is ready.

Vegetables in a slow cooker

The process of preparing any dish in a slow cooker is simple and convenient. Frozen vegetables cooked in a slow cooker can be either an independent dish or a side dish, or an addition to rice or potatoes.

Recipe 1: side dish

Put the vegetable mixture (400-500 grams) into the multicooker container, add 2 tablespoons of tomato paste, onion and garlic, as well as s alt, pour 1 cm of water and cook on the "Stewing" function. After 20-30 minutes, you can check readiness.

Recipe 2: with rice or potatoes

You need to take 1 measuring cup of brown rice, mix it with 300-400 grams of vegetable mixture, add s alt, pepper and herbs to taste. If there are no tomatoes in the mixture, then you can add them separately or replace them with a tablespoon of tomato paste.

If you cook vegetables with potatoes, then it should be cut into cubes or slices, 4-5 root crops are enough. Add vegetables to them.freezers, s alt, pepper and herbs. At the end of cooking, you can pour everything with cream and simmer for another 5-10 minutes. Set the slow cooker to the "Stew" or "Soup" mode.

Fried vegetables

Very quickly you can cook a vegetable side dish of asparagus, cauliflower, peppers and peas. Frozen vegetables in a pan should be fried for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. At the end of frying, add a clove of garlic (chopped or whole), as well as ketchup or 1 tablespoon of tomato paste. Sprinkle everything abundantly with herbs, green onions and basil will be useful in this dish.

Many are interested in how to cook frozen vegetables with potatoes in a pan, because the cooking time for these dishes is different. The thing is that natural vegetable juice will not allow the potatoes to fry until golden brown. Therefore, if you want fried potatoes and fried vegetables, then they should be cooked separately. A great option would be sliced potatoes in their skins (precooked) along with vegetables in a regular frying pan or on the grill. To do this, take 3-4 medium potatoes and boil in their skins. Then cut into slices or circles with a diameter of at least 1 cm. Sprinkle the chopped potatoes with spices (paprika, s alt, Provence herbs). In a preheated pan, fry the vegetable mixture until golden brown, then add the potatoes to it. The dish is ready.

Chicken and frozen vegetables (photos and recommendations)

Cooking food in the oven is always good. And if this is done in a special package, thenit will be twice as useful and tastier. For the dish you will need 500-600 grams of chicken meat, 500 grams of vegetable mixture, 300 ml of full-fat milk or cream, s alt and pepper. Marinate the chicken in advance in spices (about 2 hours). We put poultry meat, vegetables, s alt, pepper in a baking bag and pour all this with cream. Seal the bag tightly and place in the oven. After 45-60 minutes, the dish is ready.

In this recipe, you can use the whole chicken, you can stuff it with vegetables and put them around. Cooking time will be slightly longer in this case.

Frozen broccoli with cheese

For this recipe, you will need 500-600 grams of broccoli (possible as part of a vegetable mixture), as well as 4-5 potatoes, 200 ml cream, 1 egg, 200 grams of hard cheese, s alt.

In a deep bowl, put large pieces of broccoli and potato halves, s alt and pepper. Whip cream with egg and grated cheese. Pour this mixture over the vegetables. We seal the container tightly with foil on top and put in the oven for 30-40 minutes. Decorate with greenery before serving.

Vegetable soup

Frozen vegetables can be used to make soup or broth quickly and he althy. If you want it to be with meat, then you need to put it to boil in advance. It will be enough 150-200 grams or 2 seeds. Vegetable mix must contain at least 5 ingredients: onions, carrots, peas or corn, green beans, cauliflower or broccoli, bell peppers.

Add 200 grams of vegetables and 1 diced potato to the boiling meat broth. S alt and spices to taste. At the end of cooking, you can add greens.

One of the options for vegetable soup can be rice broth. In this case, we replace the potatoes with half a measuring cup of rice - the soup is ready.

Vegetable soup can be cooked without meat. Then, before serving, add the halves of a boiled egg to each serving. So the soup will be more satisfying and he althier.

Rice porridge with frozen pumpkin

Many housewives specially freeze vegetables in the combinations necessary for their signature dishes. So a great Sunday breakfast can be rice porridge with pumpkin. For cooking, you need 1 liter of milk, 1 measuring cup of rice, s alt, 1 tablespoon of sugar and 200 grams of pumpkin. Bring the milk to a boil and add rice, a pinch of s alt and sugar to it. After the porridge boils again, you can slowly stir in the pumpkin cubes. Everyone determines the size of the chopped vegetable for himself. Smaller pieces will boil, and large ones will taste. Before serving, porridge can be sprinkled with candied fruit and honey.

Frozen vegetables can help housewives in many ways when there is very little time, but you want to cook a he althy dish. They are he althy and tasty both fried and stewed. They can also be used as a main course or a delicious dessert.