Simple recipes from frozen broccoli. How to properly freeze broccoli for the winter at home

Broccoli, delicious cabbage. And to enjoy it all year round, it is important to properly preserve it. It’s your choice whether to freeze it or marinate it.

How to freeze broccoli for the winter

It doesn't take much effort to freeze broccoli properly. However, there are a few basic rules.

Few people will be pleased to eat cabbage and find a piece of meat in it, in the form of some kind of worm. It is customary in Thailand to eat vegetables with insects. We'll get rid of them.

Place fresh cauliflower in a bowl and fill it with cold water and add salt, a tablespoon per 2 liters of water. Because of the salt, all the bugs will come out of the inflorescences. You don’t need to keep the cabbage in such a “bath” for a long time; ten to fifteen minutes is enough.

Now we wash off all the living creatures under the tap and put the inflorescences on a towel to dry. After we tear the cabbage into inflorescences, put it in bags and put it in the freezer. Be sure to remove excess air from the bag. Also, for more convenient storage, you can distribute the cabbage throughout the bag so that it takes the shape of a rectangle and becomes flat. This makes these bags easier to fold and more efficient use of freezer space.

Cabbage can also be frozen mixed with vegetables. You will get a kind of vegetable mixture.

Before freezing, broccoli can be blanched for three to four minutes in boiling water with the addition of citric acid. It is added at the rate of a teaspoon per liter of water. After hot water procedures, we put them in a colander and put them in bags.

Broccoli cabbage preparation for the winter, options for winter preparations

There are a huge number of winter preparations from broccoli.

Pickled cauliflower canned in jars will be an excellent snack on the table. After all, this method does not require much time to prepare, but the taste is nevertheless excellent.

Broccoli also feels good with other vegetables in winter salads. It goes well with sweet bell peppers, tomatoes and carrots.

Pickling broccoli for winter storage

A delicious, sweet and sour snack with a pleasant texture that will please everyone. Well, you need to take the following for it:

• Broccoli – one and a half kilos
• Bell pepper – four hundred grams
• Onions - five to six small onions
• Carrots – two hundred grams
• Hot chili pepper - small pod
• Salt - tablespoon
• Sugar - two tablespoons
• Vinegar - teaspoon
• Bay leaf - a couple of pieces
• Allspice and black pepper - five peas each

Cut the prepared carrots into circles, and the pepper into medium cubes. We place them on the bottom of sterilized jars along with spices and onions. On top of this whole thing, put the prepared broccoli and pour boiling water over it.

In this form, our cabbage should stand for five to six minutes. Then drain the water from the jars.

Let's prepare the marinade: dissolve salt and sugar in water and wait until it boils. Pour boiling marinade over the cabbage, roll it under the lids, turn it upside down and put it away to cool, wrapped in a blanket.

Canned broccoli with tomatoes

Ingredients:

• Broccoli – six hundred grams
• Carrots - three hundred grams
• Tomatoes - three or four things
• Garlic – 3 cloves
• Sugar – sixty grams
• Salt - twenty grams
• Water – one liter
• Vinegar 9% - thirty milliliters
• Citric acid – three pinches
• Bay leaf - one piece

We clean and wash the vegetables. Don’t forget to soak the broccoli in salted water and rinse.

Cut the carrots into round pieces and, together with the cabbage, put them in boiling water to blanch for about five minutes. Afterwards, place the vegetables in a colander and pour over ice water. You can add regular ice cubes if you have them in the right quantities.

Cut the pepper into triangles or rectangles, cut the tomatoes into slices two centimeters thick.

The marinade is prepared simply: Mix vinegar, citric acid, sugar and salt in water. As soon as it boils, pour into jars.

Now we put our jars in a large saucepan with water and heat them up. Once the water boils, count down about seven minutes and remove.

We roll up our jars, let them cool, and the broccoli with tomatoes is ready for long-term storage until winter, if you don’t eat it first.

Broccoli salad in sweet and sour marinade

We need to take:

• Broccoli – one kilogram
• Bay leaf - a couple of pieces
• Mustard seeds - half a teaspoon
• Black and allspice peas - five pieces each
• Water – one liter
• Citric acid - half a teaspoon
• Vinegar 6% - two hundred milliliters
• Sugar – sixty grams
• Salt - twenty grams

We wash the broccoli and separate it into florets. Next, it must be blanched in acidified water. Acidify it with citric acid. Blanch the cabbage for about five minutes.

After the hot bath, take the cabbage out of the water and put it in jars.

The marinade for cabbage is prepared quite simply: pour water into a saucepan, add salt and sugar, you also need to add vinegar infused with spices (add the vinegar to the spices and leave for about an hour).

And so, the marinade is ready, the vegetables are in jars, it’s time to mix everything. Pour boiling marinade over our cabbage, close the lids and send to sterilize in boiling water for about twenty minutes. After the specified time has passed, we take out the jars, screw on the lids, and place them under the blanket.

Broccoli with bell pepper and cauliflower

We need:

• Broccoli – one kilogram
• Cauliflower – one kilogram
• Carrots – one kilogram
• Tomatoes – one kilogram
• Garlic – twelve to fifteen large cloves
• Onions - kilogram
• Greens - one medium bunch
• Vinegar 9% - two hundred milliliters
• Sugar – thirty-five grams
• Salt – thirty-five grams

Before cooking, the cabbage must be kept in salted water and then rinsed under running water. After finishing the water procedures, we disassemble the cabbage into inflorescences.

Cut the carrots into large circles. Cut the onion into rings or half rings, chop the pepper into strips.

We dilute the existing vinegar with three liters of water, add sugar and salt and boil for two to three minutes. While the marinade is boiling, put herbs, spices, and vegetables, of course, into sterilized jars. Pour boiling marinade over them and roll them under the lids.

These are the recipes I came up with for this delicious, curly cabbage. Hope you enjoy it. Enjoy your meal!

Now the season of fresh vegetables is in full swing, so don’t forget to prepare for winter - delicious goodies in the markets still cost pennies, and they also contain maximum vitamins. This time we will talk about an excellent product from the pp list - delicious, dietary cauliflower, or rather about how to freeze cauliflower for the winter correctly in ordinary home conditions.

Cauliflower and PP

In general, there are hundreds of ways to prepare cauliflower for the winter, freezing is almost the only one that is suitable for PP adherents. Preservation, especially with vinegar and sugar, does not fit into the principles of proper nutrition.

After freezing, almost all vitamins and minerals remain in the vegetable. Also, low temperatures do not affect the taste, smell and appearance.

Just imagine - it’s frosty and snowy outside, and you’ve prepared delicious mashed potatoes, a delicious omelet, or even ! It's beauty!

By the way, another reason why I always have cauliflower in the freezer for the winter is that freezing this vegetable makes it possible to diversify the list of low-calorie foods. Calorie content is only 25 kcal per 100 g!

I will remain silent about the fact that regular consumption of cauliflower prevents vitamin deficiencies, gastrointestinal disorders and even malignant processes (there is a unique substance in this fruit), let more experienced people talk about the benefits and harms. Here is a short educational video:

Freezing according to all the rules: selecting and preparing

So, how to properly freeze cauliflower? It would seem that there is nothing complicated here - I cut off the inflorescences and put them in the freezer. But no, Selecting and preparing cauliflower for freezing is very important:

• Only dense, fresh specimens of white or slightly cream color are suitable;
• Ideally, the heads should be “hidden” in the leaves, but simply the presence of small leaves is good - it’s easy to determine freshness by them;
• the younger the cabbage, the juicier and tastier it is;
• If there are even a few dark spots on the inflorescences, do not take them, this is rot, which will very quickly affect the entire head. Well, or immediately cut out these areas and freeze.

The initial preparation of cauliflower is simple:

1. remove leaves, separate into inflorescences, rinse. The optimal “piece” size is 2-3 cm;
2. pour cold salt water for 20 minutes (about 1 tablespoon of salt per 1 liter) so that the bugs, if any, crawl out;
3. rinse again and dry on towels or in a sieve (colander).

Let me remind you that everything that concerns cauliflower - how to freeze, how to prepare - is quite applicable to broccoli

Which freezing method to choose

Inexperienced housewives and pp-ers always have a lot of questions related to the process of freezing this vegetable - is it necessary to blanch cauliflower before freezing or is it better to cook it, how to freeze cauliflower so that it does not darken and lose its taste, how to make it so that remove the unpleasant smell of cooked vegetables...

I’ll say right away - There is no need for any dancing with tambourines in this matter! Everything is logical and understandable.

There are few recipes for freezing cauliflower for the winter - already boiled, blanched or raw inflorescences are sent to the freezer.

Each method has its own characteristics, advantages and disadvantages.

Freeze raw. Is it possible and how?

Freezing raw cauliflower or broccoli - the fastest way to prepare for the winter, but it only has a lot of disadvantages. After defrosting, the vegetable will still have to be boiled, and the taste may deteriorate. This especially often happens if the freezer or refrigerator does not have a No Frost system and antibacterial protection. The damp one will take up a little more space.

The process can be described in two phrases:

1. pour the prepared (washed, dried) inflorescences into a bag;
2. we put it on the shelf in the freezer.

You can freeze it by first laying it out on a plate and then packing it in a bag. This is convenient to do if you prepare vegetable mixtures, combining, for example, with zucchini, carrots, green peas - you get an excellent ready-made base for delicious soups and stews.

Freeze boiled cauliflower

This preparation recipe is considered a classic.

It is convenient, simple and straightforward - before you freeze cauliflower or broccoli in the freezer, you need to cook it.

Then it’s easy to use this already cooked one.

What you will need:

• water - 3 l
• salt - 2 tsp.
• citric acid - 1\3 tsp.

How to do:

1. Boil water in a deep saucepan, add salt and acid. With lemon, cauliflower will not darken, and its taste will not change.
2. Place the prepared inflorescences in boiling water. Decide for yourself how long to cook cauliflower before freezing - 5 minutes is enough (it turns out crispier). If it’s 10 minutes, then after defrosting you can even eat it right away, adding it, for example, to some salads.
3. We put the boiled workpiece in a colander, let the water drain, cool it and put it on the freezer shelves, packing it in containers or bags.

Why do you need to boil the water first and then just lower the inflorescences? This way, less nutrients will go into the broth.

Blanching method

Freezing with preliminary blanching is the optimal solution.

What you need:

• cauliflower - 2-3 medium heads
• water - 5-6 l
• salt - 3-4 tsp.
• citric acid - 1\3 tsp.
• ice - by eye.

How to blanch:

1. The process at first resembles boiling - boil water, add salt and acid.
2. We lower the prepared cauliflower or broccoli inflorescences.
3. But then it’s different. After boiling again, cook for no longer than 3 minutes.
4. At this time, fill a separate bowl with cold water and add ice.
5. We remove the boiled inflorescences from the boiling water with a slotted spoon and immediately transfer them to cold water.
6. After 2 minutes, place the cooled pieces on a towel and then freeze.

It is better to cook broccoli and cauliflower in enamel pans - their coating is inert and will not react in any way to the acids contained in them.

It is better to store frozen vegetables in the freezer for no longer than 9 months, then both the beneficial and taste properties deteriorate.

Before cooking frozen cauliflower, it is not necessary to defrost it, unless you will be frying it in batter (which is not very suitable for pp-shnik).

People who care about their health must include vegetables in their menu. Among healthy and tasty foods, broccoli ranks not the least. To preserve all the beneficial properties, it is frozen. During the preparation of such a product, vitamins and minerals are not lost. It is important to know the features of cooking frozen broccoli. .

Required Products

• broccoli – 350 grams;
• spoon of olive oil;
• butter – 10 grams;
• black pepper

Cooking process

Take a bag of frozen buds and open it. If you have time, let the broccoli thaw and remove any excess liquid.

Pour 5 centimeters of water into the bowl. When it boils, add salt and place the broccoli in it. 10 grams of salt per liter of water is enough. After boiling again, leave the cabbage to cook for 2-3 minutes.

Drain the finished inflorescences in a colander. Let the excess liquid drain.

Cook broccoli in the microwave in the same way. It just may take more time to prepare. Therefore, it is advisable to check the readiness of the product. In this form, broccoli can already be used as a ready-made dish. For fried lovers, you need to do a few more manipulations.

Heat a saucepan and add a piece of butter and a spoonful of olive oil.

When the oil has dissolved, add the broccoli to the saucepan. Fry, stirring constantly. Lightly add salt during frying. Cook until the florets are soft.

Place broccoli in a dish. Sprinkle with black pepper for taste.

Tender inflorescences are served as a side dish for meat dishes, and used in salads, soups and casseroles. Broccoli is prepared independently and in combination with other vegetables and foods.

It can be delicious by adding it to a pasta recipe or vegetable soup to get more nutrients. Can freeze broccoli at home and use it in food in winter. This cruciferous vegetable is rich in vitamin C, vitamin A and sulforaphane, a compound that may protect against cancer. If you cook broccoli sprouts, then they contain 20 times more of this compound than an adult plant. There are different ways to cook delicious frozen broccoli.

Cooking

1. Pour enough water into the pan to cook frozen broccoli. Use ¼ cup of water for each cup of vegetable as frozen vegetables contain some moisture. Add a pinch of salt and bring it to a boil before cooking the frozen broccoli.

2. Cook frozen broccoli for five to eight minutes after the water returns to a boil. Check with a fork for readiness; the fork should go in without resistance.

3. Drain the cooked cabbage in a colander, add chopped garlic, herbs to taste and sprinkle with cheese before serving.

Frying

1. To cook roasted broccoli, defrost it in the refrigerator only until you can separate the frozen florets from each other.

2. Place it in a heated frying pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil in one layer and cover with a lid.

3. It will take approximately 10 minutes to cook the cabbage. Stir the vegetables once or twice. Add seasoning to taste during the last few minutes of cooking.

Baking

1. To cook frozen cabbage in the oven, defrost the vegetable enough so that its individual parts separate from each other.

2. Grease a baking sheet with vegetable oil and preheat the oven to medium temperature.

3. To cook frozen broccoli in the oven, prepare the dish using the recipe as desired and bake it for 30 minutes.

There is hardly a person today who would be indifferent to broccoli - a healthy, nutritious and tasty vegetable. If you own and grow your own broccoli, then why not take advantage of your freezer and store this product for the winter? Of course, fresh vegetables can always be purchased at the supermarket, but grown in your own city, they have all the beneficial properties and do not contain chemicals.

Frozen broccoli

How to freeze broccoli for the winter at home? The answer to this question will be discussed in detail in this article. Knowing all the intricacies of the process, you will be able to complement your dish with bright, beautiful broccoli florets.

How to freeze broccoli - where to start?

If you have never used frozen vegetables, you will certainly be surprised by the simplicity and ease of using such products. Don't worry about them sitting in the refrigerator for a long time, since the vitamins and minerals stay in place. What dishes are broccoli added to? Most often these are soups, sauces and side dishes. The bright green color of the vegetable will decorate your dish, adding piquancy to it.

To properly freeze broccoli, it is important to follow a few rules:

• . In order for a product to be preserved in the freezer, it must be properly selected. Look for dense buds with no damage, rot, spots or yellowing areas. The product should also be bright green in color.

• . Like any product before freezing, broccoli also needs to be processed. To do this, you need to divide the cabbage into small inflorescences, removing small leaves. This is not at all necessary, since many housewives deliberately leave the leaves and use them for cooking. The separated inflorescences should be placed in a bowl of water and allowed to stand for a while. After this, you can rinse the broccoli under running water and place it on a towel.

• We destroy invisible larvae and nitrate residues. If you buy a product on the market, there is a high chance that it has been treated with special chemicals and nitrates. To get rid of them, they use a well-known method - salt water. To do this, pour water into a small bowl and add 5-6 tsp. salt. Everything is thoroughly mixed. Broccoli is immersed in saline solution for 1 hour. After this, the vegetable must be rinsed in cold water.

• . Why boil broccoli? This is necessary in order to destroy the substance that interferes with the preservation of the taste and smell of the product. Place small broccoli florets into boiling water for 2 minutes. But the most important point is yet to come - you need to quickly cool the product. To do this, pour the inflorescences into a colander and lower them into ice water.

Broccoli freezing process

In order not to forget exactly when you froze the product, it is important to stick a note on it. You can store broccoli in the refrigerator for no more than 1 year, otherwise the vegetable will begin to deteriorate. So, now you know how to freeze broccoli for the winter in at home. We hope that our tips will be useful to you.