How to freeze different vegetables?

balmaiden

Why would washed and maybe scraped/peeled veg not be clean?

tandraig

blanching is done to kill off any mould spores, insects or pesticides/growspray on the veg, rather than to improve flavour - it doesnt! just makes the produce safer to eat, especially if you follow the latest fashion of just dipping veg in boiling water and serving very al dente!

kitschkitty

The greengrocer told my mum that not blanching carrots, but just freezing them whole
avoids the horrid chewy carrot syndrome so commonly seen in pre prepared frozen carrots.

balmaiden

Yep, Kitschkitty, can second that one carrots are definately crisper not blanched.

No insects left once they have been washed/peeled/scraped. No pesticjdes used in our home grown veg. Mould? well I have not heard about blanching used to kill mould spores, not doubting it , I will be looking into that.

mummyroysof3

ive been cooking and cooling all mine before freezing

charlotte x

Vixie_Pixie

we blanched all our excess allotment veg before freezing and it was fine. Still tasted great 2 months later I guess its personal choice really

tandraig

I am not saying there is any scientific evidence that blanching removes mould insects etc - just what my dad, and other very experienced allotment owners told me should be done with excess produce. but it makes sense to me - get the veg as clean as poss before freezing. especially if you dont boil veg to death like my mum does!

Trinny

Hello there

I have the Mary Berry Freezer cookbook - an old edition from the 1990's. the first few pages include info on freezing - and the instruction to blanch most things - for a limited variable time - depending on the fruit /veg. Some stuff - like bananas can be frozen in their skins - no good for fruit salad - but ok as smoothies or banana cake afterwards, others need to be blanched to stop em perishing, others still - like apples are better stewed and frozen. Onions are best made into something - like soup or casserole and then frozen.

You should be able to get a copy of this book in the library - otherwise there is an excellent freezer thread here somewhere - no idea how to link though:o sorry

Trin

thriftykitty

Hi, I always see yellow stickered veg in my local supermarket and was wondering if I could buy a load if I see it and freeze what I don't use? Also how would I go about it?
Any particular tips or tricks for certain types of veg?
Have searched but not found any threads on this.

CCP

I've found that most veg freeze well - the only ones that don't are things with a very high water content, like cucumber, courgette, lettuce etc. (Although I can't imagine why I'd want to freeze lettuce anyway, now I think of it. )

I find the best solution for me is to prepare the veg - wash, peel if necessary, chop into the appropriate size - then stick it in the freezer, in bags, in portion sizes. Then when I want the veg all I need to do is take out the bag and cook from frozen.

It works for me, anyway.