Spinach storage for the winter. How to Freeze Blanched Leaves

Preparing herbs for freezing

by the most milestone, on which the quality of frozen greens depends, is the preparation and processing of the leaves. After harvesting, sort through the leaves, getting rid of sluggish and spoiled specimens. Having chosen the most beautiful and juicy leaves, rinse them under water. Then place them in a colander and pour boiling water over them. This is necessary so that harmful microorganisms do not remain on the spinach and sorrel leaves. Leave the greens to drain a little. Spread a clean towel on the table and lay the leaves on it, blotting them lightly to completely remove moisture. Spinach and sorrel are ready to be frozen. Let's look at several ways that different housewives use when freezing greens for the winter.

Freeze sorrel for the winter!

To begin with, should sorrel stalks be cut before freezing or not? It's a matter of taste, that's all. If you usually use them when cooking, then do not cut, if not, remove. Now let's move on to freezing. Most affordable option- use cling film or ordinary disposable plastic bags. Cut the sorrel the way you normally would. Divide the cut into portions. Each serving should contain as much sorrel as you always put in dishes, for example, in green borscht. If you do not distribute the sorrel into portions, but freeze it in one bag, it will be inconvenient to get the greens if necessary.

So, in each small bag, put a part of the cut. Wrap each serving tightly with sausage. And fix it in a convenient way - with an elastic band or a piece of tape. We advise you to sign the freeze. Do not be too lazy to attach a piece of paper with the inscription “sorrel” to each bag, otherwise after a while it will be difficult to determine what exactly is in the bag.

You can also use disposable plastic cups or ice cube trays to freeze greens. Some housewives put chopped sorrel in Plastic container. However, large containers are not always convenient to store in freezer, and separate the desired volume from total mass slicing frozen is difficult. As practice has shown, packaged frosts are more compact.

Place blanks in the chamber quick freezing for 2 hours, then transfer them to a regular freezer. Under these conditions, sorrel will be stored further. Frozen greens can be stored for up to a year, that is, it can lie just until next summer.

Freezing spinach at home

Spinach is very beneficial. It is recommended to include daily diet to all people, because it contains B vitamins and iodine. To preserve the harvest of its young leaves, harvested before flowering, freezing in a home freezer will help. Since this green is more often used in boiled or fried, it can be frozen as in fresh, and blanched. IN apartment conditions freezing is entirely up to you.

We prepare the greens in the same way as described at the beginning of the article - we sort, wash, dry. If you decide to freeze fresh spinach for the winter, then simply cut its leaves into strips or smaller, as you like. Prepare bags for packing greens. In each of them put a portion of cutting. Tightly twist the bag with the contents in the form of a sausage and fix it. Don't forget to label the spinach so you don't confuse it with sorrel or dill, for example.

Second option

For the winter, freezing can be done differently. This method differs from the previous one only in that the greens are pre-blanched. Fill a saucepan with water, add a little salt, and bring to a boil. Dip the washed spinach leaves in boiling water for 3 minutes. Then, using a slotted spoon, carefully place them on napkins or paper towels. Wipe the top of the leaves with a dry napkin so that there are no drops of water left on them at all.

Now you can send the spinach to the freezer by packing it into portions. You can use plastic containers equipped with a lid, cups or bags - as you like. The key is to keep the spinach dry and sealed. If you have chosen disposable plastic cups for packaging, then make sure to cover them with cling film. Only in closed spinach is sent for long-term storage and it is in such conditions that it will lie perfectly in the freezer for the winter.

Now you know what to do with a big crop of sorrel and spinach. In winter, when you want to cook some dish with the addition of these greens, you will have a fresh and healthy cut at your disposal. You will only have to get right amount and use it for its intended purpose. Spinach and sorrel leaves are often put in first courses, sauces are prepared with the addition of these components, and even added to minced meat for cutlets. Freezing sorrel and spinach for the winter is the most convenient and not time-consuming way to save beneficial features green for a long time.

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, in our diet spinach (as well as black Eyed Peas) entered relatively recently, but quickly gained confidence among culinary specialists. Spinach simmered in butter in a frying pan small fire, good as a side dish, soup base, additional ingredient for scrambled eggs and is indispensable in the preparation of various sauces for fish and meat. In addition, having a bright green color, spinach perfectly helps to achieve unusual color schemes. variety of dishes- from puree to pancakes.

Spinach - very useful culture, and when proper cooking- also very tasty

Useful properties of spinach

This leaf vegetable rich in protein, fiber, 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 additional product in various diets, including medical ones. low calorie, high content carotene, lutein, iodine make this green leafy vegetable attractive for baby food. In addition, conducted Scientific research show that spinach helps to cleanse the body and eliminate toxins.

Spinach is very good at cleansing the intestines from toxins.

Attention! Remember: spinach contains oxalic acid, the use of which in large quantities can do 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 a few simple recipes spinach preparations.
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

It is quite convenient to cut off spinach frozen in this way. 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;
Divide greens into ice cube trays and pour over 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 leafy vegetables a small amount 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 permits in the refrigerator, 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.

For salting fresh spinach cut into pieces

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 for a long time in cool place. 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

Do you want to prepare for the winter universal green gas station for soup? 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 love different greens cook 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 hits on it. sun rays. 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 covered 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. Prepare this amazing leafy vegetable and color your winter diet bright colors of summer.

Spinach blanks for the winter: photo

Spinach is a real treasure trove useful substances. For its beneficial properties, it is called a “broom” for the stomach and intestines, which means that it helps not only cleanse the body, but also promotes weight loss. How to freeze spinach long months, not limited to short summer season? Choose the method depending on which dish you plan to use it in.

Total cooking time - 2 hours
Active cooking time - 20 minutes
Cost - very economical
Calorie content per 100 gr - 24 kcal
Number of servings - 10 servings

How to freeze spinach

Choose where to send you the table:

Ingredients:

Spinach - 400 g
Water - 100 ml.
Butter - 50 g

Cooking:

When choosing spinach for freezing, you need to make sure that there are no leaves damaged by insects, rumpled or sluggish. Regardless of how you choose to freeze spinach, the first step is to thoroughly rinse the greens and lay them out on a towel to dry. You can gently soak the spinach paper towel, but be aware that spinach leaves are very fragile. Then you need to cut off or cut off all the petioles, they will not be needed.

Spinach leaves can be frozen by rolling into a dense sausage. In this form, they will not take up much space, but the range of applications is the largest. Sauces, side dishes, pasta, rice, omelettes, fish, meat rolls with such spinach will turn out almost like fresh. I recommend trying or.

You can cut the greens arbitrarily, not very large, but not small.

Expanding the square food film, in the center we lay the greens and carefully fold into a tight sausage. Then we tamp the greens from both sides, tightly wrapping them like candy. In order to know exactly what is in the bundle, and not to be confused with other greens, under upper layer film should put a leaf with the marking. The paper will not get wet from greenery, but it will not fall off in the depths of the refrigerator either. Store in the freezer for 10-12 months.

When you need a handful of spinach, cut off the necessary piece from the sausage, and wrap the slice with a piece of cling film. Let the spinach rest at room temperature to thaw. Although most recipes do not need to defrost spinach.

To do this, put a handful of spinach in a blender and chop. The greens should not turn into porridge, but at the same time be finely chopped enough to make it convenient to lay out in the cells of the form. You can cut the spinach with a knife or scissors.

Spread the chopped herbs over ice cube trays. We fill clean water and put in the freezer. When the spinach ice is ready, you can put it in bags or small trays and store it in the freezer.

For sauces, pasta, risotto, spinach can be frozen in the form of mashed potatoes, bay butter. Finely chop the greens, put in a sieve and lower for 30 seconds. into boiling water. We shift to a blender, add a spoon or two of water from the pan and grind until a puree state.

Pour spinach puree into ice cube trays.

Butter can be melted in a microwave or saucepan, or butter can be used room temperature. Stir in spinach and freeze. We store in a bag or tray.

Here are three simple ways how to freeze spinach and keep those green leaves for the long winter months.

For preparations, it is best to use young spinach, with tender leaves, preferably the very first harvest. Harvested before the first flowering, it is especially tender and not bitter, without flower arrows.

At home, it is convenient to use not one, but several at once different ways frosts - so you will have at hand a semi-finished product suitable for preparing a particular dish: toppings for pies, casseroles, soups or other first courses, sauces, smoothies, and so on. I bring to your attention three of the most convenient ways how to freeze spinach at home step by step photos, recommendations and detailed instructions. To make it easier for you to choose suitable option note the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Preparing spinach for freezing

Regardless of the method chosen, pre-wash the greens, sort and dry. You need to wash very carefully, as there is a lot of fine sand on the leaves. You can dip the spinach bundles into a bowl of cold water for half an hour, and then thoroughly rinse in running water every leaf. Remove all wrinkled and withered leaves. And one more important point: for dry freezing (without blanching), it is imperative to dry the greens on a cotton towel to get rid of excess moisture, otherwise it will turn into ice in the freezer.

Method number 1. Dry freezing of leaves

Cut off roots and stems. We sort the leaves, select whole, approximately the same size and put them in piles of 10-15 pieces - small portions for one time use. Trying not to damage the integrity, tightly twist the leaves into rolls and fix with cling film. In this form, we send it to the freezer, put it on a pallet at some distance from each other. After complete freezing, we transfer to containers for long-term storage so that the bundles are as little injured as possible.

In the same way, in its raw form, you can freeze not whole leaves, but shredded ones. To do this, cut the leaves into segments about 0.5 cm thick or smaller. Arrange in bags, containers or other storage containers designed to use 1 serving. We send it to the chamber for deep freezing.

Pros:

The method is simple and labor-intensive;

The leaves are fresh, they are not cooked, which means they retain more vitamins and minerals.

Minuses:

The workpiece takes up a lot of space in the freezer;

Further use of greens requires the same manipulations as working with fresh spinach;

Partially lost natural color.

Usage:

The blank is suitable for preparing any dishes: soups, stews, fillings for pies, casseroles, scrambled eggs, etc. It is used in the same way as fresh herbs.

Method number 2. Blanched spinach

As in the previous method, you can freeze both whole and shredded leaves, but not raw, but pre-blanched. To do this, put the spinach in boiling water for 20-30 seconds, after which we cool it in ice water to stop the cooking process. Let all the water drain completely, form small balls, squeezing the spinach in your hand.

In a similar way, blanch the spinach, cut into thin strips. Alternatively, you can not boil, but simply pour boiling water over the shredded leaves for half a minute, and then pour over ice water. We form small balls, freeze, then lay out in portions in containers or bags, releasing all the air from them. We put it in the department for storing vegetables.

Pros:

Compact dimensions of the workpiece;

The semi-finished product is completely ready for use;

Spinach retains its natural color.

Minuses:

When blanching, some of the vitamins are lost.

Usage:

Suitable for cooking first of all first courses, in particular green spinach soup. It is added to hot dishes without defrosting and any additional processing.

Method number 3. Spinach puree

Blanch the spinach in boiling water for 20-30 seconds, then pour over with ice water. Blend with a blender until a smooth puree. If desired, you can grind through a sieve. We lay out in silicone molds or into ice cube trays and place in the freezer. Transfer the spinach ice to a container for easier storage.

Pros:

The product is completely ready for use;

Spinach retains color very well.

Minuses:

When blanching, vitamins and taste are partially lost.

Usage:

Ideal for making sauces, pasta, risotto. It does not need defrosting, it is added a couple of minutes before the dish is ready.

How to freeze spinach, ways to save spinach for the winter

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Spinach is a treasure trove of nutrients and health benefits. human body substances. This plant has collected such trace elements as saturated and unsaturated fatty acid, fiber, B vitamins, beta-carotene and many others. It improves metabolism, which contributes to weight loss. For many housewives, this garden crop is indispensable ingredient countless dishes: sauces, soups, flour products. In addition, spinach has an interesting and pleasant property: in the process of cooking, it becomes very rich and pleasant taste, when compared with fresh leaves. If it is necessary to preserve favorable properties, it is recommended to freeze a certain amount of the plant, which will allow it to be used at any time of the year if desired. So he can keep for a long time, and the freezing process itself is quite easy.

Freezing spinach for the winter: the easiest way

1. Sort, separate low-quality leaves, rinse and dry them. To dry, you can use thick napkins or waffle towels.
2. Cut the leaves into thin long strips, and then arrange them in plastic trays or bags in portions, for the convenience of defrosting them in the future.
3. Send the spinach sorted into containers into the freezer. If possible, set the fast freeze mode.

Water flooding method

Repeat the previous steps with one difference: before freezing, pour the product located in the trays with cold boiled water to the top of the product. Freeze according to the shape of the tray. When defrosting, boil in melted water.

Freeze blended spinach

1. Drain excess water from a steamed or boiled plant, grind in a blender or rub through a sieve.
2. Arrange the resulting puree in trays, plastic cups or bags, let it cool to room temperature, cover with lids or wrap with a thin layer of cling film, freeze. If as a result it is not necessary to obtain a dense puree, the boiled product can not be filtered.

It turns out frozen spinach sheet cutting or portioned mashed potatoes, the volume of which is quite enough for any culinary delights. Frozen product stores most its useful properties, and does not deteriorate for a long time.

How to freeze boiled spinach

1. Pour chopped spinach with water (10-15% of the mass of the leaves themselves), cook for 5-7 minutes.
2. Allow to cool to room temperature. If the output is needed thick product- it should be filtered, packaged and frozen. The remaining broth can be used at your discretion (for example, cook vegetable soup). Decanting the decoction is an optional procedure; after cooling, the vegetable can be frozen with a decoction. Instead of boiling, it can be processed with boiling water for 4-5 minutes, while lowering the leaves into boiling water using a mesh or colander.

Other ways to preserve the product for the winter

Freezing is not the only way to store this plant. There are several other methods.

salting

Salting: Rinse and chop the spinach leaves, place tightly in sterilized jars, while salting it and laying it tightly. Required amount salt - 10% by weight of the leaves. In addition to spinach, other products can be salted in this way: parsley, sorrel, dill. Each of these ingredients is perfect for making soups and borsch. In a separate tray, you can prepare them together, in the ratio: spinach and sorrel - 50:50, dill and parsley - up to 20% of the total mass. You need to store in the freezer of the refrigerator or a cold cellar, and at the same time not for very long, trying to control their condition. When mold appears on the surface, the products cannot be eaten, especially without reliable heat treatment.

canning

Wash spinach, or a mixture of it with herbs, chop, pour a small amount of boiling water into separate saucepan(25-30% by weight of products, or up to their top point). Spinach also contains oxalic acid, which may well replace salt. Boil vegetables and greens for 8-10 minutes, pack in clean sterilized jars, close, wrap and let cool. This is a fairly reliable and long-term storage method.