How to freeze pumpkin for the winter at home: freezing recipes

Is it possible to freeze pumpkin?

The clear answer to this question is: “Yes!” If your family has small children, then, of course, frozen pumpkin should always be on hand. It keeps well in the freezer for 9-10 months. However, some features and subtleties of freezing should be taken into account.

Preparing pumpkin for freezing

First of all, you need to wash the vegetable. Then cut in half and remove the seeds with inner fibers. Next, the pumpkin is cut into slices and the skin is removed from them.

Advice: Don't throw away the seeds. They can be washed and dried in the oven.

You can learn how to quickly carve a pumpkin from the following video:

Recipes for freezing raw pumpkin

You need to keep in mind that raw pumpkin frozen in any way ends up flabby and watery, so recipes with preliminary heat treatment are often used.

1. How to freeze pumpkin cubes

For this method, the pumpkin is peeled and cut into arbitrary cubes, the size of which depends on how you are going to use it in the future. For manti, the cubes should be made small, and for further boiling and chopping - larger.

The cubes are laid out on a cutting board or tray lined with polyethylene. Lay out the pumpkin pieces and put them in the freezer for several hours so that the vegetable freezes. Then the pumpkin is transferred into portioned bags or containers and stored.

2. Frozen pumpkin, grated

For this preparation, peeled raw pumpkin is crushed on a coarse grater. Then they put them into bags - one at a time, flatten them to remove as much air as possible, and put them in the freezer.

Advice: When freezing pumpkin in this way, do not forget to label it, otherwise when frozen it can easily be confused with grated carrots.

3. Freezing pumpkin for the winter using a vacuum

For this method, a vacuum sealer and special bags are used. For more information about this method, watch the video.

See video: Preparing pumpkins for the winter. Vacuum the pumpkin.

Recipes for freezing cooked pumpkin

Heat processing of pumpkin before freezing is most preferable, as the texture, taste and aroma of the vegetable are preserved.

1. How to freeze boiled pumpkin

There is no need to remove the hard skin from the pumpkin pieces before boiling. This can be done easily once the pumpkin is ready.

There are several ways to cook pumpkin for subsequent freezing:

• Boil in water. To do this, place pumpkin slices in a large saucepan of boiling water.
• Boil in the microwave. Place the pumpkin slices in a refractory container and cook in the microwave at maximum power.
• Steam it.

Cook the pumpkin for 10-15 minutes, checking its readiness with a fork. Place the softened vegetable in a colander to allow the liquid to drain as much as possible.

Then the pieces are crushed to a puree state and placed in molds, bags or cups. After complete cooling, the filled containers are placed in the freezer.

2. How to freeze baked pumpkin

Young mothers will really like this method, since baked and then chopped pumpkin will be an ideal complementary food and filler for children's porridges.

There are two ways to bake pumpkin:

• In slices. There is no need to peel the pumpkin. The pulp is removed after the pumpkin is baked. Baking time – 1 hour.

• Cubes. Here the vegetable is completely peeled and cut into pieces. Baking time – 40 minutes.

Grind the baked pumpkin with a blender, fork or potato masher. Pumpkin chopped with a blender, of course, has a more delicate consistency.

Pumpkin puree is placed in plastic cups or ice trays. It is better to use silicone molds. The puree is frozen for a day, and then the small cubes are poured into one bag or container, and the cups are packed on top with cling film. After this, the workpiece is sent back to the refrigerator.

Watch video: Frozen pumpkin