How to Freeze Zucchini?
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Imagine yourself with a dozen zucchinis – you would try to prepare something delicious from it, isn’t it? Now, imagine yourself with not a dozen or two but kilos of zucchinis, what would you do? You can prepare something out of it for a day, then another alternate day but for how long will you be able to store it?
You could make zucchini muffins, then the next day you could prepare zucchini soup, you can also prepare some sweets out of zucchini, followed by some noodles, salad and whatnot. But for how long will you keep incorporating this particular ingredient?
Winters are in full swing, so how about freezing the zucchini your kitchen garden is giving you. Your kitchen garden, your hands and your life is full of this amazing food. Now let us freeze zucchini for you in these simple steps.
How to freeze Zucchini at home?
Chop it
First things first, chop your zucchini into the various sizes you want. Prepare bags of chopped zucchinis of different sizes. This will make your work easier and you would not have to re-chop your veggie once it is frozen.
Blanch Before Freezing
The next step is to blanch your vegetable. The main trick lies in this crucial step. You do not have to blanch it for several minutes. Dipping it in hot boiling water for a minute would do your work. This means that you do not soften the zucchini too much so that it gets spoiled while cooking. The surface subsequent to freezing actually isn’t exactly equivalent to when the zucchini was new, yet blanching implies the pieces will remain quite firm even after you defrost it.
More than that, it helps to cook the zucchini to an extreme and can make it soft subsequent to defrosting, regardless of your earnest attempts. All you need to do is to let the water come to bubble boil. In the meanwhile, keep your chopped veggies in a bowl ready. Let the water boil for a couple of minutes. Put the chopped zucchini into it for exactly one minute. Count it on your fingertips or put a timer for a minute. Switch off the knob of your gas-stove and strain your veggies. Your blanched zucchini is ready to be put into the freezer.
Don’t Add Salt
Quite often many chefs prescribe adding some salt to the water prior to blanching to give the vegetables some additional flavor on their way to the table. But in case of zucchini, the salt ingested into the vegetable would mellow the cell dividers and make the zucchini soft. So hold the salt for the time being; rather add it when you make your main dish.
Freeze It Twice
If you freeze the zucchini subsequent to blanching, it will freeze hard ice over the zucchini. So the trick is to hold the zucchini for some time before you put it into the freezer. Let it cool at room temperature, or you could even put the zucchini into the refrigerator for better results. This will ensure that there is no ice frozen on the veggies when you take it out.
At the same time, you can also put zucchini onto a silicone mat separately, just for better freezing. This freezes each block of zucchini exclusively, so they can be put away as a free pack in a cooler sack or compartment — a lot simpler to scoop out precisely what you need for your formula. In addition to the modest pieces, defrost all it rapidly during cooking.
Cooking With Frozen Zucchini
Frozen zucchini is the best to be used in any kind of recipe. There is no need to thaw the slices. You could simply and directly use frozen zucchini into your fried rice pot, soup pot, can use it directly in cold salads and sandwiches and can also make steamed veggies with frozen zucchini.
Conclusion
The only time taken is while chopping zucchini. Once blanched and frozen, it will not take any time in cooking. Try this at home and see how easy your effective cooking becomes with zucchini. Your veggies are now all frozen and ready to be taken out and be served. So are you ready to serve great food with frozen zucchini?
