The freezer is our friend and really helps us make the most of our Raw Food Hub Produce Box each week! Having the freezer stocked with beautiful organic produce, whole, chopped, stewed, blanched, cooked into ready meals, or baked into treats, not only minimises food waste but makes meal prep feel so much easier. We know it's well into Autumn and we love flowing with the seasons... but we can't help but want to hang onto the last bites of Summer.
In today's blog we're sharing our freezer tips for vegetables and bread, in Part 2 it's all about fruit, smoothies and treats, and in Part 3 we're stewing fruit and making crumble.
Chopping ONIONS and GARLIC, and freezing in portions is a great time saver if you love to cook each night as we do. I'm a wuss when it comes to prepping these delicious things so having them ready makes meal prep feel much less eye-watering.
We love fresh HERBS and SPICES and it's terrible to see them wilting in the fridge. So when we found we could freeze GINGER and TUMERIC whole, then grate with a micro-plane as we need it, it was a game-changer.
We also love to make simple PESTO with the leaves of green herbs (and stems if they are not too tough), olive oil, salt and perhaps some nuts, seeds, pinenuts or Parmesan. We'll freeze these in an ice cube tray in portion sizes, ready to stir through pasta, a dip, or melt over roasted veggies.
Freezing extra VEGETABLES like corn, celery, carrots, peas, broccoli and greens is easy, and the taste of your gorgeous organic produce versus store-bought frozen vegetables is incomparable. It might take a some experimenting to find the containers, size of chopping and portions that suit you, but once you do, you'll never go back.
CORN kernels, chopped from the fresh ear of corn, freeze so well as they only need a few minutes cooking when added to a stir fry, Mexican dish or soup.
GREENS, CARROTS and cruciferous vegetables such as BROCCOLI, CAULIFLOWER, and BRUSSELS SPROUTS like a steam before freezing, otherwise, they may become tough. We steam or boil them until lightly cooked, then drain and plunge into a bowl of cold or iced water to stop the cooking process. We drain again and lay them out on a clean tea towel to dry and then freeze in containers.
We also chop ONIONS, CARROT, CELERY finely in the food processor and save in portions to use as the base for soups, stews, and Bolognaise.
One of our favourite tips from our Synchronicity Farm & Raw Food Hub Facebook family is saving all of our vegetable scraps as we go in a container the freezer. When we have leftover bones from a roast (or keep it vegan and just use the vegetables) we'll add to a large pot, pressure cooker or slow cooker with plenty of water, a bay leaf, peppercorns or spices such as star anise and cook for a few hours. The vegetable scraps are strained out to create a beautiful stock which can be saved in the freezer in portions.
We love receiving our loaf of Lars' Viking BREAD or K'Pane SOURDOUGH each week. To keep it as fresh as possible, we'll slice it that day and place half or so in the freezer in sets of two or four, ready to toast. The frozen bread is great for lunch box sandwiches too as it keeps simple fillings like peanut butter or cheese fresh as it slowly defrosts. We also save the ends for a few weeks in the freezer and then chop and toast in the oven with seasonings for croutons or blend in the food processor into breadcrumbs.
Sometimes all of our AVOCADOS ripen at once so we pop them whole in the freezer and then use them for dips. We couldn't believe how perfect they were when they defrosted quickly in the fridge. Frozen avocados make a delicious sandwich spread, guacamole with lime, onion and sour cream, an alternative to butter or oil in baking recipes such as muffins, and incredibly creamy icing, smoothies or nice cream with coconut milk, honey and cocoa.
So these are our top savoury freezer tips and we'd love to know, what are your favourite ways to hold onto Summer in your kitchen?
We absolutely love seeing your recipes and meal prep ideas through the week, photos, videos, unboxings and seeing what your family loves most too! Post them on Facebook and if you are thinking about signing up for a Subscription Organic Produce Box, find out more at www.rawfoodhub.com.
Hi I'm Izennah, a Graphic Designer, Health and Nutrition Coach. Lifelong allergies and endometriosis lit my passion for Allergy Living and Simply Natural Food, Home and Products. If you are a small business, I'd absolutely love to work with you to create Social Media content, Photography and Design. See my work at izennah.com, email me at izennahhogan@gmail.com or join me on Facebook and Instagram.