Veggies on sale? Buy a lot and freeze them. Your freezer can be your best friend when trying to save money on your food bills.
By blanching the vegetables, they retain more vitamins and will cook faster when you decide to use them. To cook your frozen vegetables: Heat vegetables in water until tender.
Freezing veggies is not as difficult as freezing meat or proteins. As for zucchini, carrots, etc, cut them the same round size and blanch them in boiling water for about a minute.
Can I freeze raw vegetables to use in soup later?
By Sally
How do I go about freezing these veggies altogether (cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, leeks, and capsicum (red and green)?
Freezing Fresh Vegetables. Why should you not freeze fresh vegetables?
I planted my first garden this year and a lot of the veggies I planted are becoming ready to pick.
When I open a bag of corn, I use my scissors and cut across the top of the bag, leaving enough that I can use it to tie my bag up with it. The other thing I use is leftover twisty ties.
Do I need to do anything (like blanch) veggies to use later as stirfry? Any other helpful hints? Thanks.
By Mary from Henderson, NC
Yes, you should blanch most of the veggies that you save for stirfry (squash, broccoli, green beans, etc). Green and red peppers, onions, celery, mushrooms don't have to be blanched, however.
I was considering lightly microwaving my home grown yellow squash and green beans instead of par boiling them which can make a lot of water, and then vacuum sealing is difficult.
Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
By Daphna Ariel from Alachua, FL
I microwaved 2 years ago and they got that funny taste after 6 months. I then tried the steam method, instead of microwave. Leave them whole, and when you get them hot all the way through dunk them in ice water to cool at once like corn on the cob, dry with a towel and cut up and freeze that way.
It is handy to chop up such items as celery, onions, peppers and peeled garlic and store them in small plastic bags in the door of your freezer. I save some to use fresh, but a lot of the time I don't use them up, and they can go bad before we eat them.
I have had a good crop of capsicums, how would I prepare the capsicums for freezing?
After you freeze vegetables can you thaw them and eat them as a raw vegetables?
By Dawn
Can you mix and freeze together onions, green peppers, garlic, oil, salt, and culantro/recao (also known as Mexican coriander)?
By Jessica
I have always frozen onion and green peppers together. I have never added anything else, other than occasionally some red peppers.
I buy frozen vegetables in the bags. Then when I get home I divide the veggies into the proportion size I want and put them into a sealed container.
How do I freeze fresh celery?
By Vic
I have done this too, but I also wrapped several layers of plastic wrap and placed it in a zip lock bag to insure no freezer burn, in case I didn't get it used up in a timely manner. Now I use a vacuum sealer works much better, no freezer burn because all the air has been 'sucked' out.
Do all vegetables have to be blanched before freezing?
By G Norman from Oxfordshire
No - most do need to be blanched, but not all. I freeze summer squashes without blanching, just slicing and freezing. Tomatoes can be frozen whole. This is an excellent way to have fresh-tasting sauces all winter, and the skins just slip right off once the tomatoes are partially thawed.
I want to vacuum pack vegetables without cooking them. Can you freeze vegetables without cooking them?
By Joan
Except for veggies like peppers and onions they need to be blanched. The reason is to keep their fresh color but, most importantly, to stop the enzymes that break down the quality and nutrients of the food. Here's some info I shared a few weeks ago:
Vegetable Water Blanching Timetable
There have been a lot of requests for blanching veggies as of late so here's an easy timetable to follow. Be sure to check tenderness part way into the blanching guide times because freshness and size of vegetables vary and can affect how long they truly need to blanch.
Be sure to give the veggies an immediate ice water bath after the blanching to stop the cooking process. Pat veggies dry if you are going to be freezing them and remove as much air from the freezer bag as possible because both help to reduce freezer burn.
Artichoke Hearts, Globe: 7 minutes
Artichoke Whole, Globe: 10 minutes
Artichoke Whole, Jerusalem: 3 to 5 minutes
Asparagus: Small Stalk - 2 minutes, Medium Stalk - 3 minutes, Large Stalk - 4 minutes
Beans: Snap, Green or Wax - 3 minutes
Beans: Lima, Butter, or Pinto - Small - 2 minutes, Medium - 3 minutes, Large - 4 minutes
Beets: Cook until tender
