Not so long ago, the freezing of vegetables was considered something extraordinary, because even not everyone had refrigerators. What to say about the freezers?
But times are changing, and housewives have the opportunity to freeze not only, say, Bulgarian pepper, but also more capricious vegetables. For example, greens.
Although often hostess lurk failures in the form of a spoiled product. After all, not all vegetables can be subjected to freezing. Practice shows that it is pointless to freeze bananas, radishes, cabbage, chicory, lettuce leaves ... These vegetables die when they freeze. But vegetables and fruits are frozen precisely in order to preserve vitamins in them.
So is it worth translating products in such a barbaric way?
Take at least a salad ... Most often it is consumed raw, because there are no vitamins in it! But at the same time, its leaves are so delicate that, whenever possible, to save the salad for the future, the hostess will have a bad luck.
But what if, for some reason, before the hostess is a mountain of sockets or cabbage lettuce? After all, it is impossible to eat them right away, and they, too, will not be in the refrigerator for long.
You can try to freeze. But as practice shows, it is easy to freeze lettuce leaves, but after defrosting, they soften, turning almost into “porridge”, and no one wants to eat them.
How to freeze lettuce leaves
For freezing only the freshest, crisp and elastic salad just picked from the bed is suitable.
Rosettes with lettuce leaves are sorted, removing wilted and yellowed leaves, cutting off the roots. Then dip the salad in cold water and rinse well. The sockets are laid out on cotton fabric and dried well, preventing wilting.
After that, each outlet is tightly wrapped in foil, and that, in turn, is sealed in a plastic bag and stored in a freezer.
Since the salad becomes limp after defrosting, it is used practically in a frozen form, cutting the rosette across with thin ribbons and adding it to the salad in this form.
Many housewives believe that it is good to freeze arugula, but it is better not to freeze lettuce. You can try to freeze the salad endive or escariol. These chicorn salads are cold-resistant, and their leaves are not damaged even during spring or autumn frosts.
How to freeze blanched lettuce
Since endive and escariol are suitable for extinguishing, washed lettuce leaves are cut into strips before freezing, put in a colander and blanched in boiling water for about two minutes. Then put the colander in cold water, quickly cool and leave in a colander to glass all the water.
After that, the salad is laid out in plastic containers - “at one time” - well closed and put into the freezer.
Such a salad is added, without defrosting, when stewing vegetables, when cooking green soup or as an independent dish, bringing to readiness using the same stewing method.
How to freeze boiled lettuce
Most often, the salad is used in its raw form, but some of its varieties can be boiled or stewed. For example, from the green leaves of endive or escariol, a tasty and healthy side dish for main dishes is obtained. Here it is possible to freeze it. To do this, the washed green lettuce leaves are cut with ribbons and stewed for 10 minutes in a small amount of salted water. Then they are laid out in a colander, drained of excess water and then packed in plastic containers. As needed, the salad in containers, without defrosting, is heated in a microwave and used as a garnish.
The same principle is used for boiling the Vitluf lettuce. To do this, they are thoroughly washed in cold water, then poured with a small amount of water - just to cover the vegetables - and stew for 10-15 minutes. Salad is thrown back in a colander and allowed to drain.
After that, sealed in small vacuum bags or suitable containers and freeze. Before using, stewed lettuce leaves are heated in a microwave and dressed with butter.
How to freeze mashed leaves of lettuce endive or escariol
Prepared green leaves of lettuce pour a little water, salt and stew until soft. Then they are wiped, laid out in hermetically sealed plastic containers and frozen.
Before use, mashed potatoes are heated and dressed with butter.
But, despite all the tricks to freeze lettuce leaves for the winter, it is best to use it fresh.
