Over-blanching leads to partial cooking and causes loss of flavor, color, vitamins and minerals. For home freezing, the most satisfactory way to blanch all vegetables is in boiling water.
General instructions for water blanching follow:. Use a blancher with a blanching basket and cover, or fit a wire basket into a large pot with a lid. Put vegetable in blanching basket and lower into vigorously boiling water.
Place lid on blancher. The water should return to boiling within 1 minute, or too much vegetable is being used for the amount of boiling water. Change water frequently or use cold running water or ice water. When the vegetables are frozen solid, transfer them to freezer-safe Ziploc bags or containers, and pop them back into the freezer for storage. The great thing about this method is that your blanched vegetables won't fuse together in the freezer, and you'll be able to grab just a few frozen pieces whenever you like.
Method 2: Divide the blanched vegetables into portions that work for your needs. Then, package the portions in freezer bags, leaving as little air inside as possible. A vacuum sealer is perfect for this purpose, but you can also use a straw tucked in the corner of the bag to suck out the air!
This method works well if you have a good idea of how you're going to use your frozen vegetables so you are able to divide the vegetables into portions that are just the right size. This is also the preferred method for freezing leafy green vegetables such as kale or collards.
How to Blanch Vegetables Before Freezing Freezing is a great way to preserve fresh vegetables from a backyard garden or a local farmers' market when they are in season.
See Article. Frozen vs Fresh Vegetables from a Nutritional Perspective Learn how fresh vegetables compare to their frozen counterparts in terms of nutrition. Also known as parboiling, this quick and simple yet super useful technique is most beneficial in getting vegetables ready for canning or freezing because it improves the texture and keeps their colors bright. A lot of veggies, such as carrots, peas, and asparagus, benefit from blanching before freezing so they'll maintain their color and texture, but there are more reasons to make sure you add this method to your food prep.
In general for blanching all vegetables, start by filling a large pot with water, using 1 gallon of water per pound of prepped vegetables. Not all vegetables require blanching, but here are the most common veggies that benefit from the technique.
Blanching makes tomatoes easy to peel and protects their quality when freezing or getting them prepped for canning. Use peeled tomatoes for sauces and salsas, too. This same technique works well for peeling peaches. After you've prepped your pot with water, follow these steps:. Place corn, a few cobs at a time, in boiling water for 4 minutes. After corn has cooled in ice bath, remove and cut kernels from the cob.
Use immediately or store in freezer-safe bags. After you're finished blanching your vegetables and they're all nice and tender, you can enjoy them in your favorite recipes or you can freeze the vegetables to have fresh veggies at the ready.
Remember to label and date them before they go in the freezer. After the ice bath, they will be going into the freezer, and you do not want to store warm green beans in the freezer.
It is not a good idea to store any kind of hot food in the freezer, and it should be left to cool down and reach room temperature before freezing. Once inside the freezer, the difference in heat between the inside and the outside of the container will be so much that the food will start sweating. Condensation will form and this can damage the food you are trying to preserve. In other words, you will end up doing the opposite what do you want.
So, you want to wait until the green beans cool down all the way and reach at least room temperature before taking them out of the ice bath and putting them into a freezer safe container. You can store the green beans in an airtight freezer safe plastic container or in a resealable plastic freezer bag. The important thing is that no matter which container you use, it needs to be freezer safe. This will ensure that the container or bag protects your vegetables from freezer burn and is airtight.
There will be less chance of any leakage into or out of the container. Freezer safe containers will preserve your green beans over the long term. But how long are they good for?
Once you store your blanched green beans in the freezer, they will have a limited shelf life to them. Blanched green beans will last in the freezer in that freezer safe container for up to nine months.
Before you use them, however, be sure to let them thaw out.
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