4 essentials for freezing vegetables and herbs

We've all been there: a kitchen full of beautiful vegetables, but you won’t be able to eat them all before they go off. Fortunately, with these best practices for freezing herbs and veggies, you won't waste a thing.

Your freezer is a powerful tool for storing vegetables at their best.

• Always freeze fresh herbs and vegetables when they are at their peak.
• For best flavour and nutrition, vegetables – especially peas and sweet corn, which convert sugar to starch within hours of being picked – should be frozen as soon as they're harvested.
• Leftover cooked vegetables can be handy if you freeze them soon after cooking.

With a bit of prep work, you can efficiently move vegetables and herbs from the garden to the freezer in the way that will best preserve their flavour while also making them easy to cook with later.

• Grate zucchini coarsely (in a food processor or manually) and put it into a large strainer to drain, pressing out as much liquid as possible. Package in 250 or 500 gram (one or two cup) portions and freeze. Use in fritters, pancakes, bread, pies and pasta sauces.
• Cut bell peppers into quarters, remove the seeds and white membranes, and arrange them on a grill tray with the skin side facing up. Grill on "high" until the skins are black. Cover the peppers with an old tea towel. When the pieces are cool enough to handle, peel off the skins. Freeze in portion sizes for instant roasted peppers.
• Pick spinach leaves and remove the stalks. Blanch the leaves for a few seconds in boiling water or, alternatively, fry them in a little olive oil. Drain, squeeze out any extra moisture and freeze in serving-sized portions. Frozen spinach is a great stand-by for cooked dishes.
• Freeze herbs in ice-cube trays. First, wash and chop the herbs, then place a small portion in each ice-cube compartment. Cover with boiling filtered water and place the tray in the freezer. When solid, transfer the cubes to a freezer bag. Toss a cube or two into sauces, casseroles or soups for fresh flavours anytime.

To retain their colour, taste and texture, most vegetables need blanching before freezing.

• Use a large stockpot that has a double steamer insert. Boil about 15 centimetres (six inches) of water.
• Place the vegetables in a thin layer in each basket, put the lid on and begin timing. The smaller and more tender the item, the less time it needs in the steamer.
• To halt the cooking process, plunge the vegetables into a sink of ice water. You can freeze large quantities of water in milk or juice cartons the night before to ensure the water in the sink is really icy.

Many vegetables freeze successfully, but it's best to keep the following out of the freezer.

• Boiled white potatoes
• Raw potatoes
• Salads made with gelatine
• Salad vegetables, such as lettuce, tomatoes, radishes and cucumbers

With the help of your freezer, delicious vegetables and herbs can be at your fingertips year-round, ready to liven up any meal. A few minutes of prep work at harvest time will have you savouring the flavours of summer even in the middle of winter.

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