freezing veggies

[Castle On A Cloud]

The local grocery stores are having some great sales on fresh veggies right now:) i am thinking it would be a good idea to buy, chop, and freeze a bunch. Does that decrease the nutritional value significantly? Do most veggies maintain their texture if i freeze them raw?? I ask cause I one froze chicken soup with cooked carrots... the carrots unfroze all chewy and brown...

[Castle On A Cloud]

anyone?

[2sunshines]

I chop and freeze green, red, yellow and orange peppers and they have always come out great.

I have also done zucchini and summer squash. I sliced, blanched, then froze them.

Also butternut squash. Cooked, sliced, and froze.

All of that worked well.

[Vicki_T]

I've blanched carrots and beans and then frozen them before and they've been fine. I also did broccoli and cauliflower in the same way, and these were less successful but I think I overcooked them a bit before freezing.

[Castle On A Cloud]

So for all veggies, I need to boil or steam for a little? I steamed for 5 minutes, but have heard you can boil for 3...

[Lady TS]

It depends on the veggie, as to how long you blanch them.

If you have a pan with one of those big strainers, like for pasta, it makes it lots easier. Just put your pan of water on to boil(not full-leave room for the veggies/strainer), chop your veggies and put them in the strainer, and when the water's ready you drop them in and start timing. When you're done, you just pull it out and let it drain and cool. Lots easier than fishing them out with a slotted spoon. ;)

The ones I do raw: peppers of all kinds(chopped/sliced as you plan to use them later), sometimes onions, whole tomatoes(I wash/core them first), zucchini/summer squash grated and measured for my zucchini brownie recipe.