Hold on to Summer: Freezing Seasonal Foods
I never want the spring and summer months to end. The warm weather is fabulous, but I get especially attached to the fresh foods coming from my garden, farmers’ markets and CSA. Luckily, thanks to freezing, I can keep some of those summer-fresh flavors year round.
To Blanch or Not to Blanch?
Blanching is a fairly simple process. Boil a large pot of water and give food a brief plunge (usually about 1 to 2 minutes). Then transfer it to a large bowl of ice water to stop the cooking, drain and your done. Blanching before you freeze a food stops enzymes from breaking down the food’s nutrients and brightens its color. This process also comes in handy for peeling things like tomatoes and peaches. You can use a paring knife to make a small “X” in the bottom of the fruit before you drop it in the boiling water. Leave in the water for only a few seconds and then move into the ice water bath. This will loosen the skin.
When prepping foods for freezing, vegetables benefit most from blanching; fruits are more delicate and usually don’t need it. The exception for fruits would be things that you need to peel — peaches and nectarines, for example — before popping them in the freezer.
Freezing Fruits
Blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries and whatever other berry you can think of should be washed, dried and placed in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Place the sheet in the freezer until the berries are hard and then transfer them to a bag — initially freezing in a single layer keeps them from sticking together. You can freeze cherries in a similar fashion but may want to remove the pit first.
Like I said, you need to blanch, peel and slice peaches and nectarines first because their skins get tough when frozen. For fruits with thicker peels and skins (bananas and pineapple), peel or cut away the skin, chop them up and they’re ready to freeze — no blanching required.
What about apples? Sure, you can freeze those too. Just make sure you slice them up and dip them an ascorbic acid solution first. Ascorbic acid (a.k.a. vitamin C) keeps the apples from browning. You can find the solution at garden stores, online or along with canning and jam-making goods at your grocery store.
Freezing Vegetables
Blanch veggies like summer squash, peas, green beans, carrots, asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower and tomatoes. For even blanching and cooking, cut everything into equal-sized pieces. You can leave corn on the cob or cut the kernels off after you blanch. And don’t forget about potatoes. I cut my potatoes and sweet potatoes into strips before blanching. After they’re frozen, they can go straight to the oven with canola oil, salt and pepper for easy oven fries. As for onions and peppers, you can skip blanching them — just chop them up (remove stem and seeds for peppers) and they’re good to go.
Freezing Herbs
Believe it or not, fresh herbs like basil, sage, mint, cilantro and parsley do freeze nicely. Wash and dry, chop them up or leave whole and wrap up tightly.
Other Ideas
Your freezing options don’t end at produce. Freeze breads, muffins, pancakes and cupcakes — just wrap them tightly and store. When you’re ready to eat them again, toast or place them in the fridge to defrost. Soups, tomato sauce, pesto, applesauce and chicken or vegetable stock are also great to keep in the freezer; store them for up to 6 months. I like stocks and pesto in ice cube trays — once they harden, I pop them out and store the cubes in freezer bags for single serving portions or whenever I need to add a hint of flavor to a dish like rice.
Freezer Storage & Defrosting Tips
Always use freezer-safe containers and bags; they are properly insulated to protect your food. Label and date your foods so you know what you’ve got and how long you’ve had them. Whether you blanch or just wash foods before freezing, make sure they are completely dry before packing them up — otherwise, they’ll get frosty and taste lousy. Store your frozen goodies in the back of your freezer; this is the coldest part. Bags of fruits and veggies that you keep in the freezer door are more susceptible to freezer burn, especially if you open and close your freezer often. When you place foods in freezer bags, seal and lay them flat in your freezer until the contents harden completely. This makes for easy stacking — it even works for soups and sauces.
Is It Just As Good As Fresh?
No, not always, but the nutrients remain. Frozen produce won’t have the same texture as fresh, so frozen stuff is best used in particular recipes. Once frozen, fruits can be used for smoothies, baked goods, pancakes, jams and sauces. Frozen vegetables can go straight to the steamer, microwave, oven or just toss them into simmering soups, sauces and stews. Frozen herbs work best when you add them directly to a simmering pot. Try crushing and adding frozen basil and parsley leaves to tomato sauce or sage into a hearty stew.
Curious to try out canning? Check out our basic intro.
TELL US: What’s your favorite thing to freeze for later?
i like to freeze fresh peaches for copplers and pies and for ove ice cream in the winter
I never knew you could freeze so many fruit and vegetable. I had thought the fruits would lose their flavor. This is very helpful and I will start my freezing tonight,
I use the freezor bags that uses the vacuum pump to remove all the air and they work perfectly. If you freeze something like peppers and you only want to use a couple, just take out what you need and then use the pump again and it's like the bag was never opened. Just be careful about anything that has juice such as stewed tomatoes. Let them freeze first and then use the vacuum pump.
I had two tomatillo plants last year, the plants were huge with thousands of buds that turned into tomatillos that were no bigger than a gumball. A terrific waste of time. I followed all the do's and don'ts but they must need more heat than the Bay Area, CA.
Nice article.
BUT you don't need to peel tomatoes before you freeze them. You can just freeze them as it is if possible with the green on. It keeps the flavor. Once you decide to use them just let hot water run over them for a minute and the skin comes right off.
You also don't need to peel bananas first. The peel is the cheapest freezer bag in the world. No frost bite. Once you defrost the banana it is mushy anyways. It is a waste of time and freezer bag to do otherwise.
I also like to freeze grapes. They make a really good treat for the kids in summer time. They just love it. They freeze them and use them as ice candy once they are frozen.
Have fun with it!!
I freeze and/or dehydrate 'tons' of peppers (all kinds – hot, sweet, banana, pimiento, you name it).
You must try freezing fresh Rasberries, there is nothing like the taste of them frozen, very refreshing,
Love them, and they are great antioxidents.
I found that if you remove some of the buds, the fruits become bigger. This applies to all fruits, as the individual fruit won't have to compete for water. For my tomatoes, I leave most of the buds because I want a lot of little ones because I eat them every day. But with my nectarines, I would prune a lot of the buds, because I wanted large juicy nectarines. Don't give up on them! Just go for quality rather than quantity.
Under blanching – your done? No you're done.
There's a sweet corn stand on almost every corner this time of year in Illinois. We'll pick up an obscene number of ears for almost no cash and follow the 5-5-5 rule: Boil for five minutes, soak in ice cold water for five minutes, then dry and freeze. When it's time to serve, you drop the frozen ear in boiling water for five minutes. An easy way to get a "fresh" sweet corn fix in December without having to take the kernels off the cob.
I freeze papaya I cut into small chunks & they give a great flavor in my morning smoothies along with small frozen chunks of pineapple sliced frozen bananas (this replaces ice cubes) I use 4oz milk & 4oz yogurt (plain or vanilla) what ever fruit I freeze goes into the smoothie (strawberries buleberries peaches)
We don't wash blueberries before we freeze… just roll around on a sheet to get the stems off, put in zip lock bags, pop into the freezer. Then just a quick rinse before we use them and they are good to go. Lots less time consuming that way – we do about 8 gallons a year – imagine freezing 8 gallons on cookie sheets – I don't know anyone with that kind of time.