Make the most of your summer gluts and freeze your fruit and veg.
Not all fruits and vegetables like to be frozen. Root vegetables for instance tend to spoil and loose their texture if frozen but freezing in a stew, soup or even pureed can add life to your crop.
If you are planning to store your veg for a while, that's if you have a big freezer, it is worthwhile taking the time to blanche the veg first. It only takes a couple of minutes. Here is what to do:-
- Add veg to a large pan of boiling water. Allow veg to be in it for 2 to 3 minutes.
- Sieve out veg and immerse straight into a bowl of ice cold water. Leave for several minutes.
- When cold enough take out the veg and spread out on some kitchen towel then pat dry.
- When dry divide into portion size and add to a freezer bag with date clearly labelled.
Like some vegetables some fruits do not like to be frozen either. Strawberries are one of them. When freezing strawberries cut them into small pieces or puree them beforehand as they tend to go mushy once frozen because of the high water content. You can still use them to make delicious pies, coulis, smoothies or even ice cream.
Most smaller fruits are easy to freeze. Here is what to do:-- Spread the berries out in a single layer on a tray
- put them into the freezer
- once frozen then portion them into freezer bags and date clearly.
