How to freeze spinach for the winter and what to cook from it. How to freeze spinach at home: a selection of the best ways to preserve the beneficial properties of greens

Fresh green spinach served at the table helps to diversify the taste of dishes. In the summer, it is grown in garden beds or bought from market vendors to be cooked later. However, not everyone knows how to store spinach for the winter. This becomes a necessity if a lot of greenery grows in the garden, which cannot be used immediately for cooking. After all, you want to use vitamins all year round.

How to store spinach: preparing greens

In order to keep spinach for a long time, first process it appropriately, and only then do whatever you want with it. Turn on the water and carry out certain manipulations with the leaves:

• Fill a deep container with liquid - a bowl or saucepan will do and rinse the spinach from all impurities there, sorting through the leaves with your hands.
• Remove the greens from the water, in which all the specks and debris should remain. Now rinse the branches thoroughly under the tap again.
• Dry the spinach using paper towels. Place the leaves on them and leave everything for 20 minutes until the drops of water are completely dry.

If desired, dried greens can be removed in a saucepan, covered with a lid and put in a dark place where it is cool enough. In this case, the spinach will be fresh for another 1-2 days. After the specified time, you should not cook food with it.

How to store spinach in the refrigerator?

Staying warm or in the sun has a detrimental effect on cut greens. It is best to put it in the refrigerator. However, you need to take care in advance about what to pack the spinach leaves in. There are several options:

1. Plastic container. Put fresh leaves in it and close it tightly with a lid. In this state, the greens will be up to 3 weeks.
2. Glass jar. Dry greens are put into it, lightly tamping the twigs, and closed with a lid. Their shelf life is 2 weeks.
3. Plastic bag. Before laying the spinach for storage, it is wrapped in moistened thick paper. Then the leaves are placed in a bag, and they are there for up to 3 weeks in a fresh state.
4. Ice molds. Chop the branches. Divide the mass into molds and fill everything with water. While cooking, take the spinach ice cube out of the freezer where they will keep all winter.

Spinach is called the king of vegetables - because of its usefulness and ability to enrich even the most flavors.

Both frozen and fresh herbs look great in tarte fillings, ravioli, and the creamy sauce is just the perfect addition to traditional pasta.

So, today on our table is frozen spinach and a recipe for stewed greens with cream with step by step photos.

And immediately good news: I just love the easy, nutritious meals that you can build from everything that is in the refrigerator.

Our pasta in a creamy spinach sauce will be just that.

Frozen spinach - recipe for a side dish

Let's start with the ingredients:

1. 1 package frozen spinach (400 g)
2. 3 small onions
3. 200 g cream of any fat content
4. 30 g butter
5. 250 g pasta (enough for a full meal for three people)
6. Salt, pepper, nutmeg to taste

Step 1:

Step 1. Cooking the necessary ingredients

Spinach is not specifically defrosted. Just put it on a plate and do other components.

Step 2:

Step 2. We are waiting for the onion to become translucent and acquire a pleasant creamy aroma.

Melt the butter in a frying pan. Chop the onion in half rings and fry until golden.

Step 3:

Step 3: Cook Spinach Until It's Soft

We also send pieces of spinach there. Cover with a lid and simmer for 10 minutes.

Step 4:

Step 4. Add the cream last

Pour in the cream in a thin stream. Let's simmer a little.

Salt, pepper, add spices. I chose nutmeg, but basil, dill, fennel, parsley and citrus zest go great with spinach greens.

As an additional dressing, to make the taste more sour, you can use a couple of tablespoons of lime or lemon juice.

Step 5:

After another five minutes, turn off the finished dish. This is how cooked spinach in a creamy sauce looks like:

Step 5. Appetizing and healthy spinach is almost ready.

Step 6:

Step 6. Mix the finished sauce with boiled pasta

Now it remains to put the pasta on a plate and decorate the dish beautifully, because food should bring ecstasy not only to our taste buds, but also to bring up aesthetic beauty.

If desired, you can diversify the serving of soft cream cheese with balls - it will give a few more flavors.

Tip: If you don't want the pasta to deposit on the sides, choose only a product made from durum wheat. This pasta is cooked for ten or more minutes. The bigger, the better.

Bon appetit! And traditionally a few words about why spinach is so cool and why it needs to be eaten in large quantities at any time of the year.

Spinach is deservedly considered the king among vegetables.

5+ health benefits of spinach

1. It has four times the recommended amount of vitamin K (and you will also find vitamins A and C, calcium, iron, beta-carotene, the list goes on and on)
2. For the ability to cleanse the body and have a good effect on the work of the digestive tract, the French called him a "broom for the stomach"
3. Imagine, despite 20 calories per 100 grams, it is nutritious, stimulates satiety and fights cholesterol.
4. Prevents the formation of cancer cells
5. Most greens are grown in China, and in the USA they even make cartoons about him and erect monuments - the pirate Popeye, having eaten spinach, literally acquired heroic strength
6. 90% water and ideal for vitamin vegetable smoothies
7. Persia is considered the birthplace of the vegetable (from Persian the word "spinach" literally translates as "green hand")

Spinach is literally made for smoothies

Frozen spinach - 5+ recipes with photos

pkhali

Those who have been to Georgia know that pkhali, light with spices, is prepared there literally from everything.

Cabbage, eggplant, nettle, grape leaves, broccoli, are used.

Thanks to proper processing, almost all useful substances are preserved in the dish, and a small list of ingredients makes it also cheap.

You can put on pkhali and frozen spinach.

pkhali

For the recipe, we take:

1. 500 g frozen vegetable
2. 50 g walnuts
3. 2 garlic cloves
4. Half a teaspoon of wine vinegar
5. Dry adjika on the tip of a knife
6. Two stalks of green onions
7. Half a bunch of basil, dill and cilantro
8. A piece of chili pepper for spicy lovers

Cook spinach for five minutes in salted water, discard in a colander, let drain and squeeze.

Finely chop greens and garlic.

Grind walnuts in a blender or crush with a rolling pin.

We combine the ingredients in a deep bowl, season with adjika and vinegar, salt.

Tip: By the way, in ancient times, spinach juice was used as ink. So any dish you add it to will automatically acquire a green tint.

French tart with cheese and spinach

Spinach is perhaps the only leafy vegetable whose taste is revealed only during the cooking process. The unique, very rich green color makes it a great product for culinary experiments. It is suitable for baking, and for a wide variety of hot and cold dishes. Spinach is also valuable for a healthy diet, because its leaves contain a record amount of vitamins and minerals. But there is also a significant drawback: it deteriorates very quickly and loses all its unique characteristics. The only storage method that will allow you not to lose the original qualities of greens is to freeze spinach for the winter.

Preparing spinach for freezing

You can freeze only spinach leaves in perfect condition. But it is much more important not to carefully discard the damaged leaves, but to collect or buy greens of the correct degree of maturity. Spinach produces flowers very quickly and has a limited shelf life. You can freeze only leaves that are collected before flowering, when flower stalks have not yet formed on the plant. Please note that spinach leaves should be young, rich in color, not sluggish.

Before sending spinach to the freezer, it must be prepared:

1. Remove coarse petioles from all leaves, discard damaged leaves and dry areas.
2. Rinse the inspected spinach thoroughly under running water.
3. Dry the leaves and choose the best way to freeze.

Ways to Freeze Spinach

Unlike herbs and other favorite greens, this super-valuable leafy vegetable can be frozen in five ways at once. When choosing how to freeze spinach for the winter at home, you need to weigh both the advantages and disadvantages of each of them for you personally. So, not all methods allow you to fully preserve useful substances and may differ in the convenience of storage and further use of frozen herbs in cooking.

Freezing Whole Leaves

This method is rightfully considered the simplest and least laborious. Greenery preparation is kept to a minimum. But on the other hand, the further use of spinach will require the same manipulations as working with fresh herbs. Whole leaves retain more vitamins and minerals, but they also need more storage space. The color of the spinach will retain only partially.

How to freeze spinach with whole leaves:

1. Carefully tie the dried leaves into small bundles, sufficient for a single use.
2. Wrap a freezer tray or cutting board with cling film. Spread the spinach over the base so that they do not touch each other.
3. Freeze the greens, transfer them to bags or a container, trying to injure the leaves as little as possible.

Freezing chopped spinach

The problem of subsequent cutting of frozen greens can be completely avoided by the method of preliminary grinding of leaves. This is still the same way of “dry” freezing, but the spinach is pre-cut. The disadvantage of this method is the need for freezing in individual containers or bags. Some of the nutrients are lost, as is the taste with color, but it is easier to use such spinach.

Freezing Chopped Spinach:

1. Prepare containers or bags, each of which will fit a serving of spinach, intended for use at a time.
2. Cut the dried leaves into strips or even smaller and arrange them in containers or bags.
3. Freeze the spinach on the quick setting and transfer to the storage sections of the freezer.

spinach ice

In many ways, this method is similar to freezing crushed leaves. But due to the fact that the greens are filled with water, all the spinach juice is preserved, coloring pigments and chlorophyll are not lost, the color remains saturated. Yes, and vitamins are preserved to a greater extent.

Spinach Ice Freeze Technique:

1. Grind the sorted and prepared spinach, chopping it into strips or smaller to your liking.
2. Arrange the spinach in low containers or ice cube trays.
3. Pour the greens with drinking or boiled water so as to completely cover it and send it to a quick freeze.
4. Transfer the ice to a container and send to other sections of the freezer.

Freezing blanched spinach

This method allows you to get spinach ready to use, as well as fresh after blanching or lightly sautéing. In fact, this is ready-to-eat and add spinach to dishes. Some of the nutrients are lost during processing, but spinach retains its full color and is much easier to use.

To freeze blanched spinach:

1. Cut the dried leaves into strips about 1 cm wide.
2. Bring water to a boil and blanch the chopped spinach in it for 30 seconds.
3. Let the water drain completely from the greens and cool the spinach.
4. Arrange the greens in containers or bags in "one-time" portions. Release the air and freeze the spinach.
5. Once frozen, transfer spinach to storage compartments.

On a note: instead of blanching the spinach, you can boil it lightly in a small amount of water and freeze it along with the broth. Or just scald it with boiling water.

Freezing spinach puree

This method is perfect for those who like to cook mashed potatoes, soups or sauces from spinach, add it to first courses: no additional processing of greens is required, just separate a portion and add it to the dish. But vitamins are lost with this method, as is the taste of the spinach itself. But the color is well preserved.

How to freeze spinach puree:

1. Blanch the prepared spinach in water for 20-30 seconds.
2. Grind the spinach in a blender until smooth, if necessary, grind it through a sieve.
3. Bring the puree to a comfortable thickness with broth or broth.
4. Pour into ice cube trays and freeze.
5. Transfer the spinach ice to a container and store in the freezer.

On a note: spinach can not be blanched, but immediately chopped raw in a blender, but with subsequent freezing it will lose its bright color.

How to store

For spinach, temperature stability is key. Immediately after freezing, it must be placed in the food storage sections, in no case leaving it in the quick freeze mode.

Store spinach in airtight trays or in several bags (you can combine polyethylene and paper box). Keep stored greens out of the light and keep spinach from partially defrosting, and never re-freeze.

How to use frozen spinach

After freezing, spinach retains almost all of its characteristics for 6 months.

Spinach does not need to be thawed before eating.: due to prolonged defrosting and thawing, it will lose most of the nutrients, and the color will not change for the better. It is better to use frozen spinach, taking it out just before adding it to the dish.

Cooking time for frozen spinach should be halved compared to normal.

Frozen spinach leaves are used in the same way as fresh ones. With it, you can:

• add bright color to omelettes, sauces and smoothies;
• prepare a healthy breakfast;
• create casseroles and pies;
• add vitamins to cutlets, other minced meat dishes;
• diversify vegetable dishes;
• make unforgettable meat, poultry, fish and seafood dishes.

Friends often ask me if spinach is frozen: many people love this plant and want to cook with it in the cold season. I also like it: it has a lot of vitamins, useful elements, and the dishes with it are very tasty. So when asked if spinach can be frozen, I always answer: “It is necessary!”.

At one time, I was also puzzled by the question of how to freeze spinach for the winter, studied different options for freezing it and chose the one that suits me best. Some people grind spinach leaves to a puree state and send them to the refrigerator in this form.

But I prefer to freeze spinach with whole leaves. Both the one and the other way have the right to life, you choose. Well, today I want to tell you how to freeze spinach at home with whole leaves, without mashing. It's quite simple, you'll see for yourself now.

Ingredients:

• fresh spinach.

How to freeze spinach for the winter:

We need spinach leaves - fresh, beautiful, juicy. We wash them carefully, cut off the stems: for freezing, we only need leaves.

Spinach leaves do not freeze in such a fresh form: they are quite elastic, they do not bend well. To make them soft and supple, put them on the bottom of the pan and pour boiling water over them so that all the leaves are covered. If you have a lot of spinach, then carry out this operation in several stages. Soak the spinach in boiling water for a couple of minutes.

Then we take out the spinach leaves from the water and put them in a colander to drain excess liquid. If you freeze spinach with water, then ice forms on the leaves, and we don’t need it at all. If you don't want to wait too long for the water to drain, you can dry the spinach leaves with a paper towel.

We spread the spinach leaves 3-4 pieces one on top of the other, in a pile.

And roll it up tight. Feel free to squeeze the roll with your hands, it should not be loose.

That, in fact, is all, it remains only to put the spinach rolls in a bag or a plastic container and you can send them to the freezer. And in the cold season, cook the most varied and delicious dishes from frozen spinach.

Now you know how to freeze spinach for the winter and you can cook delicious and healthy dishes with it at any time of the year, for example

Quick preparation of spinach for the winter: freezing and other simple recipes for cooking at home

Spinach is a product whose taste is appreciated by few. But having understood and loved it, it is no longer possible to refuse this vegetable, so harvesting spinach for the winter (freezing and other recipes for cooking at home) becomes a particularly pressing issue.

Unlike European countries, spinach (as well as asparagus beans) entered our diet relatively recently, but quickly gained confidence among culinary specialists. Spinach simmered in butter in a frying pan over low heat is good as a side dish, soup base, an additional ingredient for scrambled eggs and is indispensable in preparing various sauces for fish and meat. In addition, having a bright green color, spinach perfectly helps to achieve unusual color solutions for a variety of dishes - from mashed potatoes to pancakes.

Spinach is a very healthy crop, and when cooked correctly, it is also very tasty.

Useful properties of spinach

This leafy vegetable is rich in protein, fiber, contains minerals (zinc, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, selenium, manganese), vitamins (B, C, A, E). It should be noted the special stability of vitamins A, C in spinach: during heat treatment, they are destroyed much less than in other vegetables.

Spinach is used as an additional product in various diets, including medicinal ones. Low calorie content, high content of carotene, lutein, iodine make this green leafy vegetable attractive for baby food. In addition, scientific studies show that spinach helps to cleanse the body and eliminate toxins.

Spinach is very good at cleansing the intestines from toxins.

Attention! It should be remembered: spinach contains oxalic acid, the use of which in large quantities can harm.

Only one thing upsets - a rather short period of storage of fresh spinach at home. Therefore, lovers of green vegetables should stock up on them in the summer. There are several simple recipes for harvesting spinach.
Freezing Spinach

This method of preserving vegetables and berries as freezing is becoming increasingly popular. Quick, easy, and the food is almost fresh.

To freeze spinach for the winter:

Thoroughly wash the spinach leaves;
cut petioles;
dry the leaves on a towel;
twist the spinach leaves into a tube and wrap with cling film;
send to the freezer (in the quick freeze compartment).

Portioned freezing of spinach will speed up the cooking process in winter

From spinach frozen in this way, it is quite convenient to cut off small pieces for cooking. The cut will also need to be wrapped with cling film for further storage.

Spinach Harvesting: Unusual Cubes

A slightly more time-consuming, but at the same time more effective way to freeze a leafy vegetable is to freeze ice cubes with herbs. For this you need:

Follow the standard procedures:

rinse, dry, cut off excess;
cut the spinach leaves into medium-sized pieces;
put greens in ice molds and pour boiled water;
put in the freezer;
after the initial freezing, transfer to containers for long-term storage in the freezer.

The cubes prepared in this way can be used for soups, sauces, stews. For pasta and risotto, spinach can also be frozen, but instead of water, use melted and chilled butter.

Recipe for harvesting spinach for the winter for sauces

Grind the washed and drained spinach with a blender or in a food processor to a puree state;
arrange the greens in ice molds;
melt the butter in a water bath or in the microwave, cool;
pour the puree in molds with oil and put in the freezer.

When cooking pasta, risotto and sauces, these cubes can be added to the dish a couple of minutes before the end of cooking.

Do not re-freeze spinach - it will lose its taste

To save time when making spinach-based soups, some recipes call for freezing the already cooked vegetable.

Spinach: Freezing Soup Base

Want to save time making green soup? Recipe for practical housewives:

Rinse the leaves, cut the petioles, cut the spinach with noodles;
boil a leaf vegetable in a small amount of water, cool;
freeze the broth along with herbs in portioned plastic containers.

To prepare green spinach soup in winter, you only need to boil potatoes and other vegetables to taste and add spinach broth frozen with greens.

You can freeze both fresh and boiled spinach.

Spinach preparation

If space in the refrigerator allows, you can mash boiled spinach and then add it to various dishes. For this you need:

Wash spinach, trim, cut into small pieces;
boil for about 5-6 minutes in lightly salted water;
put the spinach in a colander, let the excess liquid drain;
grind the leaves to a puree state;
boil spinach puree;
the readiness of the product is determined by its density (if a drop does not drain from a spoon, it’s ready);
Arrange in banks and send for storage in the refrigerator.

Spinach salting

Spinach, like other leafy vegetables, can be pickled and canned. The salting recipe is simple:

Rinse the leaves, dry, cut the petioles;
tear the leaves into small pieces;
Spread the spinach leaves in jars in layers, sprinkling each layer with salt.

Sliced ​​fresh spinach for pickling

Important: layers of spinach must be made of medium thickness, tightly tamping each. The total amount of salt will be up to 10% of the weight of the harvested spinach.

Store salted spinach in the refrigerator. The condition of the workpiece should be monitored and the appearance of mold greenery on the surface should be avoided. To prepare green borscht, you can salt spinach with sorrel in equal proportions, adding a little parsley and dill.

spinach canning

Spinach prepared according to this recipe can be stored in a cool place for a long time. To preserve a leafy vegetable, you must:

Spinach - 1 kg;
water - 1 l;
salt - 1.5-2 tablespoons.

Cooking:

Rinse the leaves, cut, dry;
blanch in fairly hot (but not boiling) water for about 5 minutes;
put the leaves in a colander or on a wire rack and let the excess liquid drain;
lay out the greens in jars (pre-stereo-realize them);
compact the green mass;
pour out the liquid from the cans;
prepare a brine: add salt (about 2 tablespoons) to boiling water, bring the solution to a boil;
pour leaf vegetable with brine;
clog banks.

You can blanch spinach for no more than 5 minutes.

All greens in one jar: canning spinach with onions and parsley

Want to prepare a universal green soup dressing for the winter? Use the following recipe.

Required Ingredients:
spinach - 1.5 kg;
water - 0.6 l;
green onion - 0.3 kg;
salt - 20 g;
dill, parsley - 20 g each

If you like different greens, prepare it with spinach

Cooking:
rinse all greens thoroughly;
finely chop parsley, onion, dill;
cut spinach leaves into noodles;
put chopped greens in a saucepan, pour water, add salt;
boil everything for about 10 minutes;
spread the resulting mixture into jars;
sterilize half-liter jars with spinach for 20-25 minutes, then cork and send to cool.

Drying spinach

If there is no room in the refrigerator or too lazy to mess with conservation, spinach can be prepared for the winter simply by drying the leaves. To do this, it is washed, dried and laid out on clean sheets of paper in a warm room, trying to avoid direct sunlight. The best option for drying herbs at home is to use an electric dryer. Spinach is dried for several hours at a temperature of 30-35 ° C, stored in glass jars under a lid in a dark place.

Dried spinach is great for soups.

The processes of harvesting spinach are quite simple and labor-intensive, they take very little time. Harvest this amazing leafy vegetable and brighten up your winter diet with the vibrant colors of summer.

Spinach blanks for the winter: photo