Freeze Cauliflower And/or Broccoli
From your carefully tended garden dozens of heads of healthful broccoli and cauliflower spring forth. You can't possibly eat it all but you're loathe to dump it in the compost. What to do? Freeze it. It's easy.
Steps
- Harvest the vegetables on a day you have plenty of time to prepare them.
- Wash the vegetables thoroughly in cool water while you start a pot of water to boil -- add a large pinch of salt to the water.
- Trim and peel broccoli stems.
- Cut broccoli and cauliflower into separate florets of a size that appeals to you. Many cooks prefer pieces about {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} long by 1 1/{{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} wide.
- When water is at a rolling boil, fill the strainer with veggies and plunge them into boiling water. Wait about 3 minutes at a rolling boil, then dump them in the ice bath for 30 seconds or so to stop the cooking.
- Drain the veggies and put them into freezer bags. Zip them up and label them with a Sharpie marker with the name and date. Stow in the freezer for up to 6 months.
- Finished.
Tips
- Blanching before freezing preserves color, flavor and texture. Blanching slows the enzyme action that can cause frozen vegetables to deteriorate and lose nutrients and taste. Vegetables frozen without blanching are still safe to use, but there is a significant loss of quality, particularly if they're stored longer than a few months.
- An alternative choice is to boil the broccoli or cauliflower until barely fork-tender, then ice bathe them and freeze as described above. This method allows you to cook them for a shorter time upon thawing, but you'll lose a bit of their bright color.
- When you want to use your produce, just dump the frozen veggies in boiling, salted water or steam them until fork tender.
Warnings
- Caution - steam is hot and unpredictable. Exercise caution when moving the vegetables into and out of hot water.
Things You'll Need
- A sharp chef's knife.
- A Large saucier or saucepan.
- A metal strainer about the same size as the pan.
- A bit of salt.
- An impeccably clean kitchen sink filled with ice water.
- Your produce.
- A role of 2-quart zipper-lock-type freezer bags.
- A freezer.
