Gone are the days when, during the ripening period of vegetables and fruits, the kitchens of many housewives turned into real branches of canning factories, filling the shelves of cellars, loggias and other premises with jars of pickled, sweet and other preparations for the winter. Today, freezers are increasingly appearing in homes.

What vegetables can be frozen for the winter?

Wondering what vegetables can be frozen in the freezer? The answer is simple - any: zucchini, eggplant, cabbage, potatoes, sorrel and others. Products from your own garden are especially good for freezing. At the same time, the usefulness of frozen vegetables cannot be compared with the results of home canning and with vegetables that are offered to us fresh in the supermarket in winter.

To preserve maximum beneficial properties, you need to know how to freeze vegetables for the winter correctly, because you can’t just put them in the freezer - they can turn into ice lumps, from which it will then be difficult to prepare a tasty dish, much less some kind of culinary masterpiece. To enjoy the food you prepare, check out some general tips for freezing vegetables for the winter at home:

• Before harvesting, any vegetables must be washed and allowed to dry;
• select containers (containers, bags) mainly according to the portion sizes for one cooking;
• when using regular bags, after filling, you need to squeeze out the air from them;
• Do not refreeze vegetables after defrosting.

How to freeze eggplants for the winter

Eggplants belong to the group of vegetables rich in many vitamins and fiber, which do not lose their valuable properties even after long periods of freezing. You can freeze the fruits fresh, baked or fried. It is not recommended to put eggplants directly from the garden in the freezer, since when cooked they become “rubbery” and lose their taste. About ways to freeze eggplants for the winter at home:

• Freeze fresh. Select young ripe fruits. Cut them into bars, circles or cubes, depending on what you plan to cook from them. Cover the slices with coarse salt for several hours, after which the remaining salt should be rinsed off well. Next, the slightly squeezed slices are blanched by immersing them in boiling water for a couple of minutes and then in cold water, after which they are dried. All that remains is to place the slices in one layer on a tray, the size of which will fit in the freezer. After 3-4 hours, frozen vegetables can be packed into airtight containers or freezer bags.
• To freeze baked eggplants, cutting them is not necessary. Each fruit is pierced with a fork several times. Then the eggplants are baked in the oven, after which, after cooling and peeling (optional), they are packaged in bags or food containers.
• Many housewives know how to fry eggplants. After frying, the circles are placed on paper towels to get rid of excess fat. After cooling, they are placed on a tray, wrapped in cling film, a layer of fried eggplants is again laid out on top, which is also wrapped in film, etc. The tray is placed in the freezer for quick freezing, after which you can put the eggplants into bags and return them to the chamber.

How to Freeze Cauliflower

Choose a fresh juicy head of cabbage to freeze at home, which must first be placed in cold salted water to get rid of the larvae. After this, blanching is needed - the head of cabbage must be dipped in boiling water for 2-3 minutes, adding a little lemon juice or citric acid. From boiling water, the head of cabbage should be immediately immersed in cold water, then dried.

Before blanching, you can remove the leaves from the head of cabbage and divide it into inflorescences if you do not want to freeze it whole. Containers for freezing can be either sealed containers or bags with a zipper, inside of which a vacuum is created. The temperature of the freezer for cauliflower to remain there for a long time while preserving all its vitamins should be -18 degrees.

Freezing tomatoes for the winter

Here are two equally good ways to freeze these vegetables for the winter at home, while preserving the taste and smell of fresh tomatoes:

• Pass the tomatoes through a meat grinder or blender, removing the skin. After this, pour into small containers. Silicone muffin tins are convenient for this.
• Cut the fruits (into 2-4 parts or slices). Small cherry tomatoes do not need to be cut. Then quickly freeze everything on a tray or board, after which the slices or figures from the molds are laid out in storage containers.

How to freeze peppers for the winter for stuffing

Before freezing sweet peppers at home, prepare them: cut off the cap, remove the stalk and clean the inside. There are the following methods for freezing it:

• Place the peppers prepared for stuffing on a tray and place inside the freezer for 10-12 minutes. Then compactly transfer into regular plastic bags and put back in the freezer.
• Place the prepared pepper in boiling water for 30 seconds. After this, carefully fold the cooled peppers one by one, place them in bags and freeze.

How to freeze mixed vegetables for the winter

Various vegetables of any quantity can be used for vegetable mixtures. No recipe needed here. It all depends for what purpose you prepare it and on your own tastes:

• For borscht, you can grate beets, carrots, add finely chopped herbs and freeze the mixture in small containers or portioned bags so that you can use everything at once when preparing the dish.
• For vegetable stew, cut any greens, leeks into rings, bell peppers, tomatoes, grated carrots. The mixed mixture is placed into containers and frozen.
• To prepare vegetable mixtures with green peas and beans, they are first blanched for 1-3 minutes in boiling water and immediately cooled with cold water, allowed to drain and flash-frozen.
• Broccoli and diced carrots are frozen separately without blanching. After this, you can mix everything and store it in the freezer.

Why blanch vegetables before freezing?

Freezing vegetables for the winter at home requires blanching. You can do without it, but you will not get perfect freezing results. The main goal of blanching is to preserve the original appearance and aroma of vegetables as much as possible. Besides:

Have you noticed which vegetables can be frozen for the winter at home? They need to be frozen in two stages. The first stage, rapid cooling, is called the blast freezing procedure. To do this, you need freezers, inside of which very low temperatures are maintained: from -19 to -23 degrees. Only after this the frozen vegetables are packaged for further preservation (second stage).

Shock treatment (quick freezing) does not damage the cells of vegetables and, after defrosting, helps preserve their shape, color and about 90% of the nutrients. It is carried out in ordinary home conditions in the presence of freezers and refrigerators with the “quick freezing” function. After blast freezing, frozen stocks can last longer. This also applies to berries.

How to choose a freezer bag

You've learned a little about freezing vegetables, but you also need to know about freezer bags. There are many of them on the market: disposable, reusable, roll; made of polyethylene and lavsan. To freeze vegetables, it is important that they are strong. It is advisable to purchase bags with reusable zippers, which increases their useful volume, and a field for marking, because in the freezer it is sometimes difficult to find the necessary vegetables or mixtures by their appearance.

Vacuum bags are considered to be of higher quality - they are a wonderful alternative to food containers (see photo). Inside such bags, freezing vegetables for the winter at home is preserved better, moisture is not lost, they are not covered with frost, as a result of which it is easy to get the necessary products from the freezer even if there is no marking on the bag, if the bag is transparent.

It is important to know exactly what vegetables can be frozen for the winter, as well as the best freezing techniques that will help preserve food well and its taste.

Frozen vegetables are almost as healthy as fresh ones. They retain a significant portion of the vitamins and nutrients that can be obtained even in winter. It is important to know exactly what vegetables can be frozen for the winter, as well as the best freezing techniques that will help preserve food well and its taste.

Benefits of freezing vegetables

Fresh vegetables are undoubtedly healthier than frozen ones, which retain their beneficial properties to the maximum, but are inferior to fresh products in terms of the amount of preserved microelements and vitamins.

Freezing has the following advantages:

• More nutrients are retained compared to heat treatment.
• An economical storage method as it does not require sugar, spices or salt.
• No cooking required.
• Save time.
• Freezing vegetables is much more profitable than canning. There is no need to worry about storage duration. Properly frozen products retain their quality for a whole year. However, vegetables should not be frozen twice.

Advice!When frozen, vitamin C is most susceptible to the damaging effects of cold.

Features of freezing

Before deciding which vegetables and fruits can be frozen for the winter, you need to familiarize yourself with the nuances of freezing. At a temperature of -6 degrees, vegetables are stored for a couple of weeks, at -12 - 5-6 weeks, and at -18 they can be stored for up to a year.

To prevent the formation of a shapeless mass from vegetables and fruits, you must follow the following rules for effective freezing:

• The products must be washed very well, dried and seeds and seeds removed.
• Certain types of vegetables are blanched, that is, boiled for several minutes.
• For long-term storage, the temperature should not rise above -18 degrees.
• Do not freeze watery berries and some types of salads.
• The berries can be spread out in one layer, then start the fast freezing mode. After this, the product is collected in a bag.
• Vegetables are also first frozen in layers.

Advice! When buying frozen vegetables, you should pay attention to their composition. Many manufacturers add food additives to their products to add brightness.

Secrets of Blanching

You can blanch vegetables as follows:

• Water is filled into the pan. A colander is installed inside.
• Vegetables are placed in a colander.
• The container is lowered into the water.
• The pan must be covered with a lid.
• Blanching time varies from 2 to 5 minutes. Then the products are packaged into bags.

Advice!If air gets into the bag, even at low temperatures the vegetables can spoil.

Types of freezing

There are two types of freezing you can use at home:

• Blast freezing involves placing dried fruits and vegetables in a freezer at a low temperature. In this case, the “fast freezing” mode is used. During a sharp cold snap, the liquid does not have time to turn into large crystals, which allows the majority of microelements to be preserved.
• With the dry method, vegetables and fruits are laid out in a thin layer and placed in the freezer. When they harden, they are packaged in bags and placed in the freezer.

Advice!Frozen food should not be washed, as water can spoil the taste.

Preparation

It is important to prepare vegetables properly before freezing. Products should be selected only when they are ripe and have an intact surface. Vegetables must not only be thoroughly peeled and washed, but also thoroughly dried and the pods, seeds and stalks removed.
The greens must be soaked in water several times to remove any remaining soil. Then it needs to be washed under running water and dried.

Advice!Vegetables after freezing can be stewed, fried and boiled. If vegetables are being prepared for a child, it is better to steam them or choose regular cooking. In this case, a significant portion of the vitamins are preserved in the products.

What to freeze in?

For freezing, you need to use different containers, which must be dry and clean. Vegetables must be well isolated from any air and contact with other products.

You can choose compact plastic containers, which are very convenient, but they require a lot of space. Ordinary plastic bags or special ones for this procedure with clasps that are particularly durable are also used.

When using regular bags, excess air must be removed from the bottom after filling with vegetables or fruits.

Juice boxes, plastic cups and bottles are used to freeze liquid foods and puree mixtures.

A piece of masking tape with an inscription made in marker should be attached to each package. On it you need to indicate the type of product and the date of freezing. It is also convenient to use lists of products that are in the refrigerator with dates of preparation. In this case, the list must be divided into categories.

It must be remembered that when placing a large amount of fresh food in the freezer, the air temperature increases. Therefore, you need to use no more than 1 kg of products per 8 liters of chamber.

Advice! To create a sealed package, it is recommended to use adhesive tape or special clamps. Portions for freezing should be small so that you do not need to defrost an entire container due to a small amount of product.

How to freeze different vegetables?

You can see which vegetables can be frozen for the winter in the video at the bottom of the article. Different vegetables and fruits require a separate approach.

bell pepper

Bell peppers are most often frozen, as they are a tasty and healthy preparation. It can be prepared whole, after removing the seeds and core. This vegetable can also be cut into half rings or cubes.

It should be taken into account that pepper has a rich aroma, so it must be tightly sealed in the package. Because, otherwise, all products will be saturated with its smell. For processing, you should choose meaty varieties.
When freezing in a bag, the slices should lie in an even layer. To do this, the packaging needs to be flattened a little. It is also worth using containers.

Advice! Vegetables must be thawed in the refrigerator before use. Thawed foods quickly lose a significant amount of moisture, as well as taste.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes must be washed thoroughly before harvesting. Plum and finger tomatoes are best suited for freezing. They can be frozen whole. To do this, the product is laid out in a layer on a tray or pallet, pre-frozen, and then collected in a bag. Large vegetables can be cut into several pieces.

You can also make a puree from tomatoes. To do this, they are crushed in a blender or grated. The mixture is poured into plastic glasses or bottles and tied with film on top.

Advice! Cooking food after freezing takes half as much time as fresh food.

cucumbers

Cucumbers can also be frozen. In this case, it is worth selecting young vegetables with a diameter of no more than 5 mm with small seeds. They can be used to prepare salads. The preparation is performed as follows. Cucumbers are cut into slices, placed in bags and placed in the freezer.

Advice! Vegetables should be placed in boiling water without defrosting. Also, do not store frozen food for too long. Their taste changes.

Cauliflower and broccoli

Broccoli should be divided into florets and then soaked in salt water for half an hour. This will rid the vegetable of insects and larvae. The product is then washed with water and placed in boiling water for three minutes. After this, the broccoli should be kept in cold water for several minutes and placed in a thin layer in bags.
Cauliflower is also divided into inflorescences and placed in salt water. Blanching is done before freezing.

Advice! You can freeze a whole forkful of cabbage. To do this, you need to put it in the freezer without packaging, and then transfer it to a bag.

Zucchini and eggplant

Before freezing, zucchini must be peeled and seeded and cut into cubes. They can then be used for stews and soups.

It is better to cut the eggplants into slices. The product is covered with salt for half an hour to eliminate bitterness. Then the juice is washed off and blanched in boiling water for several minutes. After this, the slices are transferred to cold water and dried. A layer of circles is laid out on the board. It needs to be frozen for several hours, and then the product is transferred into bags.

Advice! You can freeze baked eggplants. To do this, they are kept in the oven and then peeled. Thawed vegetables are suitable for caviar and salads.

Beetroot and carrots

Beets are perfectly stored in the cellar. But to save time in winter, you can freeze some grated beets. The vegetable mixture is placed in special ice trays or in a thin layer in bags.

It is better to choose sweet and young carrots for freezing. For soups, the vegetable is cut into circles and frozen. For frying, grate it. Small root vegetables can be frozen whole.

Advice!When frozen once, the vegetables crumble and do not look like sticky lumps.

Green pea

Fresh peas cannot be stored for more than a day after harvest. It needs to be cleared of pods and placed in boiling water for half a minute. The peas should then be cooled and frozen in a single layer. The frozen food is then placed into bags.

Advice! You cannot purchase deformed packages of frozen products in the store.

Features of freezing mushrooms

It is better to cook mushrooms before freezing. At the same time, they will shrink in size and take up little space. In addition, it is easier to prepare a dish from a boiled preparation.
Oyster mushrooms and champignons can be cut into slices and frozen. Such mushrooms are stored for a long time. They can be added to sauces, julienne or baked pies.

Advice! If the power goes out unexpectedly, don’t panic and take everything out of the freezer. Vegetables and fruits can last for 5-6 hours without any changes.

How to freeze greens?

You can freeze any greens for the winter. Before the freezing procedure, it must be sorted, washed and dried with a paper towel. Then the greens are finely chopped and placed in bags. Portions can be placed in containers or plastic cups. Before freezing, the greens are sprinkled with salt.

It is convenient to use herbal cubes for sauces and soups. They are prepared as follows. Finely chopped greens are placed in ice molds and filled with water. The cubes can then be removed and packaged into bags.
Frozen greens must be labeled.

Advice! In the form of cubes, you can prepare herbs for making tea: lemon balm, raspberry, currant or mint leaves.

Secrets of freezing berries and fruits

Fruits and berries can be frozen not only using the dry method, but also prepared in syrup or sprinkled with sugar. The fruits can be stored for 8–12 months. For freezing, it is recommended to use ziplock bags.
Fruits must be frozen using the fast freezing mode. Individual frozen layers are gradually poured into bags.

Advice!Peaches can be frozen without sugar. To do this, they must first be placed in lemon water. Water and lemon are taken in a ratio of 4 to 1. You need to remove the pits from apricots and plums before freezing.

Vegetables do not have to be prepared separately. You can prepare popular mixtures.

The following options can be used:

• A mixture of vegetables and mushrooms. Carrots, mushrooms, corn, green peas, onions, rice and peppers are frozen together.
• The Mexican mixture consists of green beans, corn, eggplant, red beans, carrots, celery and green peas.
• To prepare country-style vegetables, freeze corn, potatoes, carrots, green beans, broccoli and carrots together.
Vegetables do not have to be prepared separately. You can prepare popular mixtures

Vegetable mixtures are prepared immediately without defrosting. Frozen soups are placed in boiling water, and the mixtures are stewed in a frying pan or steam.

Using proper freezing methods, you can prepare a large amount of vegetables and fruits for the winter, and also save time for preparing many dishes.

Modern people use frozen foods - with varying degrees of frequency, but quite regularly, this is a fact that you cannot argue with. Ready-made puff pastry, Pacific fish, blueberries in the winter, convenient bags of broccoli and even regular ice cream - we all eat processed and frozen foods, and this can be quite difficult to combat, even if you are an ardent opponent of deep-prepared food.

However, you must admit, this is convenient - at almost any time of the year you can afford what you could not even dream of before: soup with green peas, strawberry pie, pasta with mussels are always available thanks to supermarkets. A what can you freeze for the winter?, if there is still room in the freezer, at home?

Homemade frozen semi-prepared meals- this is, first of all, convenient: there is nothing simpler than pureed soup from vegetables that can be found in the freezer. Secondly, of course, it is useful: when frozen, most products retain the vitamins that they can boast of. Third, be economical: compare prices for, for example, sweet peppers now and at the end of winter, and you won’t need any other arguments.

What can you freeze for the winter?

10 simple and affordable ideas.

1. Soup set

Yeah, strange as it may sound, it’s the soup set that can serve as the basis for a rich vegetable broth that now costs several times less. Celery root and coarse parsley sprigs (now they are already coarse, thick and tasteless, but still very aromatic and healthy), cauliflower bases after you have prepared a stew from it, substandard bell pepper (here is the one with the ugly side cut off and slightly dried out, withered top), a couple of thin carrots that are difficult to grate (have you also had a poor carrot harvest this year?), parsnips, pumpkin, tomato - peel everything, cut into two or three parts if necessary (vegetables should be large), mix and pack into freezer bags. In winter, by taking out a portion of this preparation, you can easily cook an incredibly aromatic and healthy vegetable broth - a cheap and excellent base for any soup.

2. Eggplant

Now is the season for blue ones. If you have already tried to freeze eggplants and were disappointed, do not rush to move on to the next paragraph - there is an option in which these vegetables will not taste bitter, will turn out tasty and very, very interesting. To freeze eggplants, you must first... bake them. In the oven or over a fire, cook them until soft, then cool, peel the skin, cut into pieces (or rather tear them) and freeze. In winter, you have the base ready for a wonderful (all you have to do is defrost it and puree it in a blender along with a couple of cloves of garlic, a spoonful of olive oil and a handful of herbs), a component of vegetable stew, cream soup, tart.

3. Greens

Of course, greens! Lots of parsley, cilantro, dill, basil, tarragon and everything, everything, that you can add to soup, pasta, stewed potatoes, pie filling, stew. To properly freeze greens, wash them and dry them well, then chop them and place them in plastic containers. Cover with a lid, put in the freezer, and use as needed. Simple, cheap and flavorful.

4. Tomatoes

Few people know that tomatoes can be frozen. And yet - it is possible and necessary! Now, at the peak of the season, they are cheap, they are tasty and as aromatic as possible, which means we go to the market, buy tomatoes, return home, wash them, cut the skin, scald with boiling water, peel, and then puree with a blender. Pour into bags (containers or disposable cups) and freeze. In winter, you will thank yourself when you can cook amazingly delicious borscht, season stewed cabbage with fresh tomato puree, prepare an unreal pasta sauce and stew fish in a cheap tomato marinade.

5. Beans

Now it is not only cheap, but also young, soft, juicy. Once you dry it, the cooking time will increase significantly. If you freeze, you will always have a portion of young legumes on hand for soup or. Cheap and convenient.

6. Watermelon

Now that the markets are flooded with this miracle berry, buy a couple of watermelons, peel and seeds, cut into large pieces and freeze. In winter, you can get a taste of summer by simply placing the mixture in the bowl of a food processor and turning it into wonderful watermelon ice cream or adding a couple of cubes to any smoothie.

7. Carrots

Do you also have nowhere to store your carrot harvest? Do you have no cellar or sandbox? Peel it, grate it and place it in containers. From now on, preparing soup will become an even faster process, because you won’t have to waste time manipulating carrots! Among other things, autumn carrots are much cheaper than winter and even more so spring carrots.

With halfway through summer, the hot time comes for housewives - the season of harvesting everything that has grown so generously in our summer cottages.

One of the many types of harvest preservation that I personally use is freezing vegetables and fruits.

Many may find disadvantages to this method: for example, frozen cucumbers, zucchini or tomatoes turn into a porridge-like puree after defrosting, but this is only if they are not frozen correctly...

Basic rules for freezing vegetables and fruits

1. You can freeze whatever your heart desires. The only thing I make an exception for is . In the process of freezing these vegetables, all their beneficial qualities and phytoncidal effect are lost. But these products can be stored for the whole winter anyway.
2. If the electricity suddenly goes out, there is no need to panic and go into the freezer. Without our participation, frozen fruits and vegetables will be safe for another 5-6 hours.
3. To serve frozen berries or fruits in their natural form on the table (for example, as a dessert), do not defrost them using emergency methods (no need to heat them) - this will cause them to lose their taste and appearance. They need to be defrosted for an hour at room temperature, after removing them from the freezer.
4. If you need to cook frozen fruit compote or frozen mushroom soup, you do not need to defrost them, but immediately remove a portion from the freezer and put them in boiling water.
5. Frozen greens should be added to first courses when they are ready and the stove is turned off.
6. Only fresh and ripe vegetables and fruits should be frozen. Overripe ones will fall apart into a puree when defrosted.
7. It is advisable to freeze products in portions designed for one cooking.

Freezing greens

Wash and dry the herbs and sprigs of herbs, spreading them on a clean towel. Then cut it into 1 cm pieces and place it tightly in the prepared packaging - bags or molds. If you are not using special bags (with a zipper), then tie the bags not with a knot, but with a loop, which will then allow you to easily untie it.

It is advisable to sign the greens with a marker. After all, frozen greens can be confused (for example, parsley with cilantro or celery).

Freezing ice with herbs and fruits

You can also prepare spiced ice for future use. To do this, put herbs in molds for freezing ice and add a small amount of boiled water. When the contents of the mold are frozen, remove the cubes from the mold and put them in a bag.

Preparing greens this way takes more time, and there is more storage space in the freezer.

Another chic feature could be fruits and flowers frozen in ice, which you can then throw into. To do this, take the most beautiful raspberries or strawberries (possibly with sepals), violets or pansies and freeze them in a silicone mold with fruit syrup or plain boiled water.

How to freeze vegetables

Frozen green peas

A prerequisite for freezing green peas is their milky ripeness. The peas should be removed from the pods, packed in plastic bags and placed in the freezer.

If you freeze peas in bulk and then pack them, the peas will not freeze, which makes them convenient to eat.

Frozen green beans

The pods of asparagus beans must be peeled from the tails and cut into pieces.

The prepared pieces should be blanched in salted boiling water for 2-3 minutes and drained in a colander. If this is not done, the beans will turn out fibrous and not tasty.

Pack the dried pieces and place them in the freezer.

Frozen sweet peppers

The most beautiful pepper must be washed, cleaned of seeds and stalks. Dry. You can cut them into 4 pieces into strips and put them in a bag - this will be an addition to side dishes, soups, and stews.

Or you can fold a whole pepper into a nesting doll one on one - this will be a preparation for stuffing peppers. And if you have minced meat on hand and a little time, we stuff the peppers and also put them in the freezer, but this is a ready-made semi-finished product.

Pepper seeds can also be used: wash and dry. Dry pepper seeds can be ground in a coffee grinder and an excellent natural seasoning is ready. It will come in very handy when you get ready to cook Adjarian khachapuri.

Frozen Cauliflower

Cauliflower, disassembled into inflorescences, must be blanched for 2-3 minutes in boiling salted water. Dry, pack and store in the freezer.

This cabbage is always a hit in winter soup or stew. And especially for stews, I practice freezing the whole set in portioned bags: cauliflower, carrot pieces, peas, leeks.

Frozen tomatoes, zucchini and cucumbers

Although I wrote that freezing these vegetables is not very popular, I still do it, albeit with some little tricks and secrets.

Tomatoes

Do not rush to throw away cracked or spoiled ones - they can also be frozen. To do this, peel them, cut them into slices, place them on a tray in one layer and freeze them. Then we pack the frozen vegetables into portioned bags and use them in the winter to make pizza, borscht dressing, and pasta sauce.

cucumbers

You can freeze a cucumber, but you can only use it for one purpose - making winter okroshka.

Attention! If you defrost cucumbers in a separate container, you will end up with cucumber pulp, which you will have to throw away. In order to get beautiful defrosted vegetables, place a portion of frozen cucumbers to defrost directly into the prepared okroshka.

Zucchini

Zucchini can also be frozen to make a stew. One secret to freezing: grate the zucchini on a medium beet grater and squeeze out the juice, which they will release after a while.

Frozen berries and fruits with sugar

Raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, currants, and gooseberries are suitable for this method of freezing fruit.

• We wash the berries, dry them and mash them in a mortar or grind them in a blender.
• Mix the berry puree with sugar until it is completely dissolved.

Sugar should be added to taste, but not more than 500 grams per 1 kilogram of berries.

We put the resulting mass into plastic containers and put it in the freezer. You can make puree from one type of berries, or from a mixture of them, it all depends on your taste and how you will use the frozen berries (to make compote, jelly, yogurt or other dessert).

Frozen watermelon

Frozen pink ice cubes made from watermelon puree will surprise the most experienced housewives in winter. The watermelon can be cut arbitrarily, cut out with cookie cutters, or made into beautiful balls with an ice cream spoon.

In winter, we throw a watermelon cube into a cocktail or a glass of champagne and we are guaranteed summer memories!

Frozen melon

You can freeze melon, but you need to remember its slightly specific taste - frozen melon is a little bitter. But still, if you have a tasty melon, try freezing it. Just like watermelon, cut the melon pulp into cubes and freeze.

But try using it in alcoholic cocktails - the alcohol will mask the bitterness of the melon, but the aroma will be unique.

As you can see, freezing fruits and vegetables in a home refrigerator is not at all difficult, you just have to remember the small nuances of freezing each product. I wish you a generous harvest in your garden beds and unique dishes and drinks in the winter when you start using freezing from the refrigerator!

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, sweet peppers, cauliflower, broccoli and so on. It is on them that we intend to focus our attention and make preparations for the winter.

Vegetables

You can freeze any vegetables that are not too watery. Ideal candidates for freezing are cauliflower and broccoli, as they have sufficient density and do not tolerate other harvesting methods well.

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

To prevent the cabbage from becoming tough after defrosting, it must be blanched in a small amount of boiling water. Cauliflower florets should spend about two minutes in boiling water, while tender broccoli florets will need just a minute.

Afterwards, the cabbage should be doused with ice water to stop the cooking process, and then dried as much as possible and transferred to a bag.

Another candidate for freezing is sweet peppers, which are perfectly stored both chopped and whole. In both cases, the pods are first washed, then the seed box is cleaned, and then cut or folded together and packaged in bags. It is better to stack whole peppers in small piles to make them easier to defrost.

Zucchini and eggplant are among those fruits that also require preliminary preparation. Both vegetables should be washed, chopped, and then blanch the pieces for about a minute. Late eggplants, which can be found on 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 on the cob, as well as other legumes, can be harvested using a simple method in which the kernels are simply separated from the cob or pod and then bagged. To prevent the legumes from sticking together into a single lump, they must be frozen on a board or dish, and only then poured into a bag.

Greenery

Almost any greens 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 package. You can store the greens in one bag or divide them into several small portions into individual bags so that you can quickly dress up a soup or stew when needed.

Sorrel and spinach leaves can also survive simple freezing if stored in a modern freezer and in the most sealed packaging possible. Otherwise, it is also better to blanch the leaves in boiling water for literally 30 seconds, pour over ice water, squeeze and place in a container or bag. Rough greens like kale leaves are blanched for a minute and then frozen in a similar manner.

Another way to keep greens fresh is to turn the leaves into a sauce and pour it into ice cube trays. This is what we decided to do with a bunch of basil. The basil leaves need to be mashed into a paste along with a few cloves of garlic and a little oil. Place the pureed basil in molds, freeze, and then pour the cubes into a bag. A couple of these cubes, and your pasta or sauce will instantly be filled with the taste of fresh herbs.

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