How to properly freeze broccoli for the winter at home

Choosing a vegetable to freeze

The best time to harvest broccoli is June-July. If you buy cabbage in a store, then it is during this period that buying a fresh vegetable will be the most profitable.

Only mature green heads of cabbage should be selected for freezing. To the touch, the inflorescences should be dense, without rot, dents or yellow inflorescences.

You should start freezing as quickly as possible, that is, if you cut broccoli in your garden, then you need to freeze it on the day of collection, and if you purchased it in a store, then on the day of purchase.

A video from the channel “JitZdorovo ru” - Frozen Food will tell you about the beneficial properties of frozen broccoli. Broccoli

How to Prepare Broccoli for Freezing

First of all, the vegetable should be freed from green leaves, and the head of cabbage should be disassembled into inflorescences, removing the hard parts of the plant with a sharp knife.

Then the cabbage needs to be washed in water.

To get rid of insects that have settled in the tops of the inflorescences, you need to soak the cabbage in a saline solution.To prepare it, you need to dissolve 4 tablespoons of table salt in 1 liter of cold water. Soak the broccoli in salt water for about half an hour. After this procedure, the inflorescences are washed again in clean water.

How to freeze broccoli for the winter

Before placing broccoli in the freezer, the cabbage should be blanched. This procedure will preserve the taste, color and all beneficial properties.

There are two ways to blanch cabbage:

• For a couple. To do this, you can use a double boiler, a slow cooker, or use a steaming container in a regular saucepan. Steam broccoli for 4-5 minutes.

• In water. To do this, immerse the vegetable in boiling water for 1-2 minutes. It is better to put the cabbage in boiling water immediately in a sieve, so that later you can quickly remove it from the boiling water. It is important to blanch the broccoli in small batches so that the cabbage boils faster and does not overcook.

After the broccoli has been cooked, it should be immediately placed in ice water to cool. To keep the water at a lower temperature, add several trays of ice into the bowl.

Advice: To preserve the bright green color of broccoli, you can add the juice of half a lemon to cold water.

After the cabbage has cooled completely, lay it out on cotton towels. It is very important that as little liquid as possible remains on the inflorescences before freezing.

Dried vegetables are placed into portioned bags and sent to the freezer for storage. Make sure that only one serving of cabbage is placed in one bag.

How to freeze broccoli for a child

The basic principle of freezing broccoli for complementary feeding of a baby is as described above.

If the baby has allergies, then broccoli should be soaked in clean, cool water for at least 2 hours. And then in a saline solution for 30 minutes.

Broccoli can be frozen in florets, or you can immediately boil and puree it. To prepare the puree, you need to cook the cabbage for 10-15 minutes under a closed lid.

Broccoli puree is placed in plastic cups, which must first be doused with boiling water. The containers are tightly covered with cling film on top and placed in the freezer.

See the video from the channel “FOOD TV” - How to Boil Broccoli Properly || FOOD TV Learn to Cook

Frozen broccoli can be stored for 9 to 12 months. Freezing for a child must be marked with the date the food was placed in the freezer.

Watch the video from the Tomsk Kitchen channel - How to cook frozen broccoli