How to freeze eggplants for the winter

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-12 17:37

Most people love eggplant, but, unfortunately, this product in our latitudes grows only in season and cannot stay fresh all year round. Freezing methods for the winter at home will come to the rescue. Let's learn how to freeze this vegetable quickly and effortlessly.

Basic rules: what to look for

Before starting freezing, it is important to understand that the eggplant is porous and absorbs moisture and odors. In addition, it can turn out to be tough, bitter and tasteless if you do not follow all the stages of preparing the vegetable for this procedure.

If the eggplant is prepared and processed correctly, then its taste and structure will remain for more than six months.

How to choose the right vegetables for freezing:

1. Eggplants should be ripe, without damage, visually beautiful, with a glossy skin.
2. A high-quality fruit must necessarily be weighty, about 300-400 grams. The length should vary between 13-15 cm.
3. Do not choose oversized eggplants as they contain a lot of solanine. This substance makes the vegetable taste too bitter.
4. The stem of the eggplant should be fresh and green.
5. When cut, the pulp should be light, without veins and large seeds.
6. It is important that the selected vegetables do not have strong odors.

If these simple rules are not followed, all the work will be done in vain, plus the hostess will lose time, because a low-quality vegetable will simply be unsuitable for cooking. It will have to be thrown away. Consider the best methods for freezing fruit.

The simplest is blanching

To freeze vegetables for the winter fresh, you need to follow the instructions:

1. Choose ripe fruits, wash well under running water, cut off the butts with tails.
2. Cut each fruit into slices 5 to 8 mm thick.
3. Place the eggplants in a large bowl and then sprinkle well with salt. The container should be large, this will allow you to mix the workpiece well.
4. After half an hour, discard the vegetables in a colander to get rid of the secreted juice. With the help of such a trick, bitterness will go away along with salt and moisture.
5. Next, you need to boil water in a saucepan, dip a colander with eggplant there, hold it for 2 minutes and remove. Then you should rinse the product under running water and put it on a dry towel. You need to wait 10 minutes for the eggplant to dry.
6. On a separate wooden board, it is necessary to put the prepared fruits in one layer and send them to the freezer. After freezing, the pieces should be transferred to a bag or plastic container.

The finished product can be stored for six months at home, while the eggplants will look beautiful and will not lose their taste.

Cooking without heat treatment

This option for freezing eggplants involves pre-soaking in water with salt. In the future, the product frozen in this way can be added to soups, vegetable stews, sauté, pilaf, scrambled eggs, salad and pizza.

To freeze eggplants for the winter using this method, you need to follow the recommendations:

1. Take the right amount of vegetables and salt (based on 1 liter of water, 400 grams of fruit and 1 tablespoon of salt).
2. Rinse the eggplants thoroughly under running water and remove the stalk.
3. Next, you need to cut the fruits into cubes of the same size.
4. Prepare the brine. Stir the salt in warm water and transfer the vegetables to it. Leave for 2-3 hours, this time will be enough for the eggplants to salt.
5. Drain the water, place the eggplants on a board, wait until they are completely dry, and only then put them in bags.

As a result, the fruits will be tasty, like fresh.

Freezing eggplants for making rolls and frying

From a frozen product in winter, it will turn out to cook a delicious snack at home - rolls with filling. And in order to freeze eggplants in this way, you need:

Choose ripe and whole fruits. Wash them well, cut the stalk and dry. It is not necessary to peel the peel, but if you wish, you can remove it. Cut the eggplants into slices, the thickness of each should be about 5-7 mm. One vegetable will make about 5-6 strips

• Put the sliced eggplants in layers in a bowl, sprinkle each with a little salt. Thanks to this, the eggplants will let the juice go, and with it the bitterness will come out.
• After 30-40 minutes, the vegetables need to be rinsed well and dried.

We send the slices to the freezer, and after they freeze, they need to be laid out in bags or containers and sent back to the freezer

Store the product in the freezer. The main rule is that after defrosting, it is advisable to use up the vegetables, since eggplants do not tolerate re-freezing. Because of this, it is not recommended to make large portions.

How to properly defrost food

It turns out that it is not enough to know how to freeze fresh eggplants for the winter; you also need to know about the peculiarities of defrosting vegetables. The best option is the method of gradual defrosting at room temperature. It is easy to do this at home: just put the product in a container and wait a few hours.

The second method is also very simple: you need to pour cold water into a bowl and place a bag of eggplants there. Using a microwave is not recommended. This will cause the vegetables to disintegrate, become crumbly and unusable.

To make the eggplants tasty and not lose their shape, you should choose ripe and whole fruits. Frozen vegetables can be stored for more than three months.

Each freezing method is simple and straightforward. In the cold season, many delicious snacks can be prepared from such vegetables.