Freezing Veggies was: Re: spinach and/or olive oil

[Guest guest]

Marilyn would probably know the

best way to do this kind of thing!

Maybe she'll answer- If not I'll try and get her attention.

Very good questions to ask!! Totally beneficial for me to. Marilyn

was the one who told me to get a meat grinder and take my patties

out

a night before from the freezer- and it is really changing how I

feel.

Most books on freezing call for blanching -- the idea is to preserve the

color and etc. of the fruit or vegetable. I never have, possibly because

of vivid memories of helping my mom blanch vegetables by the bushel when

I was younger. Besides, it takes a LOT of time and energy, and I'd rather

use that time and energy for other things. If you find you can't stand

the way some test bags look without the blanching, find a good cook book

and learn how to blanch!

For fruits like blueberries, strawberries (or other berries), I simply

pour them out on a cookie tray with a lip (so they don't go rolling all

over creation) and stick them in the freezer. We get some MONSTER

strawberries around here, so sometimes, I cut them up into smaller pieces

after hulling them and cleaning them. No stems or other debris allowed.

When frozen solid (ie, like marbles, I pour them into already labeled

quart bags (in fact, I typically freeze one quart per tray to save

measuring when frozen and hence having my fingers go numb and want to

fall off) and stack the bags in the freezer.

For peaches, I dip in boiling water and remove the skin, then quarter or

eighth them, removing the pit. Lay out on tray and freeze. Then

bag.

For apples, I'm more likely to dry them than freeze them, but I do dip

those, after peeling, coring, and slicing, in a lemon juice solution to

reduce browning.

For cherries, I pit, then freeze them.

Lets see....

Carrots: peel, slice into coins or whatever shapes you want, freeze on

tray, pour into labeled bag.

Broccoli & cauliflower: break into bite size florets. Freeze. Stems

may be cut into bite-size chunks and frozen separately for stews. My

stems end up in the dog food.

Green beans: string, cut, freeze. (Trust me: you do NOT want to try to

string pre-frozen defrosted green beans....)

Spinach: remove thick stems and any weedy looking stuff. Chop. Scrunch

together in a brick. Freeze. (The reason I scrunch it into a brick is

because the frozen leaves, left loose, have a tendency to powder when

frozen, and you lose half the vegetable when you try to cook it.

Celeriac: peel yucky brown exterior. Cut in slices. Boil. Cut slices into

chunks or mash with a hand blender. (When making mock mashed potatoes, I

often add butter, salt and DCCC to the celeriac as I'm whizzing it up,

then pour the resultant mix into portion or meal-size containers and

freeze. Then it's already prepared, and it's one less thing to cook when

making a meal.

Onions -- peel, chop, freeze. Freeze in cup-size containers. Or whatever

size you find convenient, so you can pull a block for a recipe, toss it

in the pan, cook, and go.

Garlic -- peel lots of cloves and place in a jar or bag in the freezer --

then you can pop out fingers of garlic as needed.

Celery -- string, chop, spread out and freeze, often in cup size measures

(which is how I use it) so you just pull a block out of the freezer, toss

it in the pan, and cook.

Green peppers -- stem, de-seed, chop, freeze, bag.

Mushrooms -- I've dehydrated them for use in soups or sauces, but have

never frozen them.

Hope this helps!

—

Marilyn

New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Undiagnosed IBS since 1976, SCD since 2001

Darn Good SCD Cook

No Human Children

Shadow & Sunny Longhair Dachshund