Nature gives people to the table a lot of useful and aromatic herbs that grow everywhere, not just in the garden. In order to saturate your body with the most useful vitamins contained in greens in winter, you need to learn how to properly prepare and freeze it.
Freezing greens for the winter is the most common way to keep them fresh. This storage method, such as freezing, allows you to preserve all the beneficial properties of plants, including color and aroma. The most popular foods for winter storage are basil, dill, green onions, parsley, and celery. In practice, there are two ways to freeze aromatic herbs and garden plants - with and without blanching. And as for the very type of workpieces, they can be frozen in ice cubes, in bundles or in sliced form. On the practical side, freezing chopped greens is the most popular.
Rules for the correct freezing of greens
The freezing process itself does not require special culinary skills from the hostess, but you still need to know some important nuances that affect the quality of the harvested greens. To properly freeze green aromatic products, several established rules must be observed:
- select only fresh herbs, then wash in several waters and dry;
- before putting it into the freezer chamber, a clean and dry product must be hermetically packed, squeezing air out of the package as much as possible.
Frozen greens are used exclusively without prior thawing! If dill, parsley or other useful herb from the garden lies on the table, it will darken and look ugly and unnatural in the dish.
Preparing greens for freezing
Selected fresh herbs should be placed in a suitable large bowl and covered with cold water for 10-15 minutes. Then you should carefully remove it, change the water and repeat the soaking procedure again. Shake clean greens thoroughly to remove the remaining water and put in a thin layer on a dry towel. After complete drying, the green product must be finely chopped, as for cooking.
Packing herbs before placing them in the freezer compartment
Both vacuum containers and simple plastic bags can be used as packaging material. Since the containers are too large and expensive, most housewives prefer regular food bags. Prepared, chopped and dried from excess moisture, greens must be placed in a small food bag. After that, you need to place a bag of herbs in the freezer and turn on the maximum freezing mode.
Do not tamp the greens before placing them in the chamber, since the product packed in this way will necessarily be compressed into one lump. Unsqueezed greens will be free-flowing, making it easy to take the required amount.
After about 10 minutes, you can remove the bag with the product from the chamber, squeeze it slightly, releasing the remaining air. Next, you need to tightly tie a bag of herbs and place it in another bag, after putting a note with the name of the seasoning in it. Send the finished package back to the freezer, setting it to the usual freezing mode.
