How to freeze zucchini in rings and cubes, fried and blanched, grated and mashed. TOP-6 recipes with photos of preparing zucchini for the winter at home. Video recipes.
A rich harvest of zucchini, and what do you not know to do with them? Are you tired of cooking soups, pancakes and stews? Prepare zucchini for the winter and freeze them in the freezer. As you know, frozen vegetables, when properly stored, retain almost all vitamins, useful properties and taste. Cold moisten, you can use them for a variety of dishes. In this article, we will learn in detail how to properly freeze zucchini for the winter at home in different ways.
How to freeze zucchini - the subtleties and secrets of cooking
- For freezing, it is better to use young juicy zucchini, preferably freshly picked.
- If freezing zucchini for children, do not use overripe or unripe vegetables, with the slightest damage or signs of rot.
- Vegetables with a hard skin are not suitable for harvesting for the winter, because the flesh is too tough in them, and after defrosting it is tasteless.
- If you are using overripe fruits, remove the large seeds with adhering flesh, and also cut off the tough skin.
- Depending on the purposes of further use of the fruits, they are frozen in several ways: cubes, rings, bars, blanched, fried.
- Always dry the sliced zucchini thoroughly before freezing. This will extend their shelf life, and they will not freeze with one piece of ice.
- You need to pack zucchini in small bags for one time, because subsequently, it will be difficult to separate the required amount, and defrosted vegetables cannot be re-frozen. The portions should be such that they are not divided, but simply removed from the bag and immediately sent to the dish.
- When placing vegetables in a bag, be sure to release air from it. This will extend the shelf life of the workpiece.
- To keep frozen vegetables throughout the winter season, control the temperature of your freezer. The optimal indicator is from 18 to 23 degrees below zero.
- Under the right conditions, zucchini can be stored for about 1 year.
See also how to freeze pizza squash.
How to freeze fresh zucchini in cubes
Zucchini, cut into cubes is a very popular preparation option, because this is one of the universal ways. Zucchini cubes can be added to soups, vegetable stews, stews, pizzas, and more.
- Caloric content per 100 g - 23 kcal.
- Servings - Any Amount
- Cooking time - 20 minutes
Cooking frozen fresh zucchini in cubes:
- Wash the selected fruits with cold water and dry with a paper towel.
- On one side, cut off the stalk, on the other the tip where the flower was.
- If necessary, peel the skin if it is dense and tough.
- Cut vegetables into 1-1.5 cm cubes and place them on a clean paper towel to dry and absorb excess moisture.
- Divide the dried fruits into single portions and put them in special plastic bags, from which you release the air.
- Close the bags tightly and send them to the freezer to freeze.
How to freeze fresh zucchini in blanched cubes
Any frozen vegetables can be purchased at the store during the winter. But here is the question, in which one cannot be sure “are you buying a quality product or not?”. Therefore, freezing zucchini for the winter at home can be carried out in the form of blanched diced cubes.
Cooking frozen zucchini in blanched cubes:
- As in the previous version, wash the zucchini and cut the stalk.
- Cut them into cubes and dip them in boiling salted water (1-2 tsp for 1 liter of water).
- Boil them for 3 minutes until they turn bright green and soft.
- Chill vegetables quickly. To do this, using a slotted spoon, transfer the boiled fruits to a container with cold water, where leave them for a few minutes so that they cool quickly.
- Using a slotted spoon, transfer the zucchini to a colander to drain the liquid.
- Then lay them out on a towel to remove any excess water and the vegetables will dry out.
- If the zucchini is poorly dried from excess moisture, during the freezing process they will stick together into a single lump.
- Divide the dried fruits into portions and pack them in plastic bags, which are sent to the freezer for freezing.
How to freeze fresh zucchini with rings
You can make a casserole in the oven from zucchini frozen in rings in winter or use it for frying. To do this, they must first be defrosted, blotted with a towel in order to remove moisture from them as much as possible so that they do not shoot in the pan and fry. Frozen fruits according to all the rules, fried will turn out to be as tasty as in summer.
Cooking frozen fresh zucchini in rings:
- Wash the zucchini in cold water and pat dry with a paper towel.
- Cut them into 1cm thick slices and place them on a clean towel to dry.
- Wrap the board with plastic wrap so that the fruits do not freeze and put the zucchini rings in one layer so that they do not come into contact with each other.
- If you are freezing a lot of zucchini, lay them out in several layers, shifting each layer with polyethylene.
- Freeze the zucchini for a few hours to freeze it.
- Divide the frozen zucchini into portions and place in plastic food bags.
- Send them to the freezer for later storage.
How to freeze fresh grated zucchini
This semi-finished product can be used for zucchini muffins, cutlets and pancakes. If desired, zucchini chips can be simultaneously frozen with grated carrots.
Cooking frozen fresh grated zucchini:
- Rinse the zucchini with cold water, cut off the stalk and the place where the flower is attached, and also peel them. If necessary, cut out the seeds if they are large.
- Grate the zucchini on a coarse grater.
- Place the grated mass in a sieve and leave to drain the juice.
- Pack the zucchini shavings in plastic bags, dividing into portions.
- Send them to the freezer to freeze.
- The leaked juice can also be frozen in an ice cube tray. They can be used for stewing stews or making soup.
How to freeze fried zucchini
Frozen zucchini is not very popular, but many people use this method. Frozen fried zucchini must be removed from the freezer and heated in a pan or microwave without defrosting. Then they can be greased with your favorite sauce and consumed.
Cooking frozen fried zucchini:
- Wash the zucchini with cold water and cut into thin slices. Although the cutting method can be different, depending on what dish they are prepared for.
- Salt the chopped fruits, if you wish, you can dip them in flour.
- Heat vegetable oil in a skillet and fry over medium heat until golden brown.
- Put the fried zucchini on a paper towel so that it absorbs the excess vegetable oil.
- Cover the board or baking sheet with plastic wrap so that the fruits can be easily removed, and lay them out in one layer, or in several layers, shifting them with foil.
- Place the fried zucchini in the freezer for a few hours until completely frozen.
- Then remove from the freezer, divide into portions and fill in plastic bags.
- Send them to the freezer for later storage.
How to freeze squash puree
Zucchini puree is not the most popular way to prepare zucchini for the winter at home. However, vegetables prepared in this way are suitable for use in preparing baby food, as well as for cream soup or pancakes.
To make frozen squash puree:
- Rinse the zucchini in running water, dry with a paper towel and chop into cubes.
- Boil water in a saucepan, place vegetables in it and boil until half cooked.
- Throw the zucchini in a colander so that all the moisture is glass, and grind them with a blender to a gruel state.
- Prepack the puree into one serving in small plastic containers or silicone muffin tins and place in the freezer.
- Defrost cooked vegetable puree exclusively at room temperature.
