Ah, the poor zucchini.
This humble cucurbit ends up being the joke of many a gardener each summer season season. With comparisons to baseball bats and billy golf gear, its reputation for producing monster squash is well-known. Then there’s its propensity for producing steady as quickly as it’ll get going, leaving us with the annual question of what the heck to do with all that zucchini.
There’s always zucchini bread or zucchini boats laced with cheese and filled with sausage. Whereas these are good, you presumably can solely eat so many zucchini boats each week. Notably whenever you acknowledge whenever you’re consuming your little fleet, your plant is out throughout the yard rising you a complete navy.
Why not freeze it?
In any case, you presumably can freeze all forms of points out of your yard – onions, potatoes, even butternut squash.
Just a few of you are smirking. I remember the first time I froze summer season season squash. I dutifully cubed it, blanched it and froze it. Then I acquired to have the benefit of thawed zucchini mush with my dinner. Mmmm. It was further like soup than the tender squash we ate all summer season season.
Since that first failed attempt, I’ve stumbled onto my favorite strategy to freeze zucchini, and it doesn’t require you to blanch it first.
I may have talked about a variety of hundred cases that I’m always looking out for the best (i/e laziest) methodology of doing points in my kitchen. And that’s it.
I grate my zucchini and flash freeze it sooner than popping it in a freezer bag.
This leaves me with fully portioned, easy-to-grab zucchini every time I need it – no blanching essential.
I normally get requested why blanching is necessary and why frozen veggies are so mushy when thawed. So, let’s reply these questions sooner than we bounce into the small print of freezing zukes.
Why Do We Should Blanch Greens Sooner than Freezing Them Anyway?
Enzymes, that’s why.
Blanching greens slows or stops the enzymes answerable for meals spoilage. In the event you occur to don’t blanch greens sooner than freezing them, these enzymes will nonetheless be at work (albeit slowly), and finally, you get meals that has misplaced its vibrant shade and can even develop spots. Unblanched veggies can have weird off-flavors, too, leaving you with meals that’s wholly unappealing.
Nutritional vitamins are misplaced or broken down by these related enzymes. Blanching is a strategy to guard the nutritional vitamins in our meals. A few minutes in boiling water can lock in nutritional vitamins that may in some other case be misplaced throughout the freezer over time.
The strategy is often quick nevertheless does add an extra step that features quite a few work throughout the kitchen.
After blanching, you need to stop the cooking course of; to do that, it is a should to dunk your blanched veggies in an ice tub. After only a few batches, this will likely get messy and time-consuming, to not level out you need a good present of ice available.
A Bit About Ice Crystals
Regardless of your methodology, frozen greens and fruits will always be softer (sometimes even mushy) than when you froze them. This softer texture comes from ice crystals that sort when the greens are frozen.
Everybody is aware of that water expands as a result of it freezes. It is as a result of the hydrogen bonds in water broaden as they freeze, creating further amount.
Anyone who has fastidiously checked out snowflakes moreover is conscious of that water freezes in six-sided crystals. Naturally, these steady constructions take up further room than a liquid, which sorts to the type of its container.
Correctly, what happens when that container is, say, a plant cell?
As water freezes inside greens, the microscopic ice crystals pierce the cell partitions of the plant. Whereas your zucchini is frozen, all is correctly; it stays a rock-hard piece of cubed zucchini. However, whenever you thaw that little zucchini cube and the ice crystals develop to be liquid as soon as extra, the cell partitions lose their structural integrity.
You try standing up straight after being riddled with holes made by icicles.
If you take into account that zucchini is about 90% water, it’s simple to know why it’s so mushy as quickly because it has thawed.
Nevertheless Tracey, as soon as I buy store-bought frozen greens, they’re under no circumstances as mushy as these I freeze at dwelling.
Ah-ha, that’s a superb stage, and there’s a simple rationalization for that too.
The faster water freezes, the smaller the following ice crystals. As soon as we freeze greens in our dwelling, the tactic can take a variety of hours, main to greater crystals. Whereas with commercially flash-frozen greens, it takes minutes. Liquid nitrogen is employed to freeze points almost instantly.
All of that’s to say, it does not matter what methodology you utilize, when you freeze greens or fruits, they might always be softer when thawed.
With the science out of one of the simplest ways, let’s freeze some zucchini.
No-Blanch Frozen Zucchini
I discovered this trick further by likelihood than something. All through my first few makes an try at freezing batches of unblanched zucchini, I seen when it thawed; the shredded zucchini held up pretty correctly as compared with the slices and cubes I made.
I’m fully blissful to forego slices of tender summer season season squash throughout the winter for zucchini greater suited to bread, pasta, soups, stir-fries and fritters. So, I’ve been freezing my zucchini this trend ever since.
Instruments:
- Meals processor, mandolin slicer or subject grater
- Colander
- Baking sheet
- Parchment Paper
- One cup measuring cup
- Freezer bag
The Course of:
- Gather up your zucchini. Work quickly; whenever you’re freezing it, your plant could be out throughout the yard rising a dozen further.
- Slice off the very best and bottom of the squash.
- Use a meals processor or mandolin slicer to grate your zucchini. To ensure that you a killer core train, grate your zucchini with a subject grater. Since you labored off the entire zucchini bread you’re about to eat; you presumably can have an extra slice.
- Place the grated zucchini throughout the colander throughout the sink. As you add further, gently press it down and squeeze it slightly bit to remove further water.
- Using the one-cup measuring cup, pack it with shredded zucchini. Now plop it out on the parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
- Repeat until the sheet is roofed with zucchini hay stacks and put it throughout the freezer.
- As quickly as your zucchini stacks are frozen steady, take them off the baking sheet and put them collectively in a single freezer bag.
- Use a straw to suck out as rather a lot air as attainable from the bag sooner than sealing it and popping it once more throughout the freezer.
Voila! Now you might have pre-measured one-cup elements of zucchini everytime you need it.
I’ve seen only a few tutorials the place the grated zucchini is frozen specifically particular person freezer baggage in a single or two-cup elements. This appears to be like like quite a few plastic waste to me, to not level out quite a few further work sucking the entire air out of each bag and sealing it up.
Nope, not on this kitchen. We’re simple, subsequently freezing the zucchini first in pre-measured elements.
Everytime you need zucchini, you presumably can seize as many one-cup chunks as you need. And for points like pasta and stir-fries, you don’t should thaw it first; merely toss the frozen zucchini in whenever you’re cooking.
When preserving meals, it’s always an excellent suggestion to utilize a few methodology; that method, in case your freezer dies in any other case you lose a batch of zucchini relish to a foul seal, you don’t lose all of your harvest for the 12 months. Attempt Cheryl’s good piece for further strategies to guard zucchini.
Freezing zucchini this trend makes it simple to have the benefit of your bounty all 12 months prolonged, with out the time-consuming technique of blanching it first.
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