Is it worth freezing vegetables?
In the October issue of "Recipe for the Garden" I read an interesting article by your reader about freezing fruit and vegetables. I would like to add a handful of my own experiences to this topic.Right now, in the winter, I most appreciate the taste and nutritional value of my frozen crops. It is true that my husband and I worked a lot with them in the fall, but the effort paid off.
Which vegetables to freeze?Apart from bags of specific vegetables, such as beans, cauliflower, broccoli or carrots, we also prepare sets of various mixtures. Among them are:
- Ukrainian borscht, i.e. diced beets, potatoes, carrots, parsley, celery and green beans;
- Leczo - consisting of slices of small zucchini, peeled tomatoes and paprika strips;
- vegetable soup with finely chopped greens;
- vegetable sets for salads,
- fruit mixes for compotes.
We also store boiled grated beetroots, which after defrosting taste great warm and as an ingredient of beetroots with horseradish. We also successfully freeze cabbage leaves (they come in handy when making cabbage rolls) and sliced mushrooms, the smell and taste of which are second to none in the middle of winter. Green parsley, basil or dill must also be there. This season we also did some successful experiments. We froze cucumbers for cucumber salad and radish, and melon for salad.We put them in small bags and now they add variety to our winter diet. And they taste great, as if they were brought from the garden a moment ago.
The vegetable mixes prepared in this way are convenient to use. They only require prior defrosting or immediately throwing them into a pot or pan.
Jadwiga Antonowicz-Osiecka
