How to properly freeze spinach for the winter at home

Spinach is one of the few leafy vegetables whose flavor fully develops when cooked. Before freezing spinach for the winter at home, you need to carefully sort through the green mass and select only young, whole leaves. It is important that the product is collected before flowering begins, so its taste will be brighter.

Dry method

Freezing spinach for the winter is easiest done using the dry method. It differs in that the greens are stored whole leaves, without additional processing or cutting.

1. The leaves are washed under water and dried. Their roots and stems are cut off.
2. Greens are sorted by leaf size. The mass is laid out in small piles for portioned use.
3. The spinach is rolled tightly into a tube. The twist is placed in a plastic bag or secured with film.
4. Greens are placed in the freezer for quick freezing. Once completely frozen, it is placed in large containers for long-term storage.

The dry method allows you to prepare not only whole leaf plates, but also slices. Before freezing chopped spinach, chop the leaves finely. The finished mass is placed immediately into containers and sent to the freezer.

The main advantages of the method are the ease and non-labor-intensive process. The absence of heat treatment allows you to retain more nutrients in the greens. Among the disadvantages, it should be noted that the greens require subsequent heat treatment.

Blanching method

You can harvest greens not only fresh, but also after heat treatment. Before preparing spinach for the winter, it is scalded with boiling water or blanched. The blanching method involves boiling the leaves in a sieve for 1 minute.

Thanks to short-term processing, the color of the product is completely preserved, but nutrients are partially lost.

1. Spinach leaves are washed under running water and dried.
2. Greens are cut into strips 1 centimeter wide.
3. Filtered water is brought to a boil. The crushed mass is placed in a colander or sieve and immersed in boiling water for 30 seconds.
4. The scalded greens are taken out, cooled and excess liquid is removed.
5. The mass is laid out in containers and covered with tight lids. If the product is stored in bags, then excess air is released.
6. The frozen food is stored in the vegetable compartment.

If it is not possible to blanch the greens, you can boil them and freeze them along with the broth.

Blanched spinach has a number of benefits:

• the workpieces are compact in size and do not require much storage space;
• the semi-finished product is ready for quick consumption;
• Freezing preserves the natural color of the greens.

Among the disadvantages, only partial loss of vitamins after heat treatment is highlighted.

Puree preparation method

Another common method of preparing spinach for the winter is freezing the puree. This method involves heat treatment of greens.

1. The leaves are washed under running water. The stems of the greens are removed.
2. The leaf blades are cut into strips 1 centimeter thick and blanched for 30 seconds.
3. The remaining water is removed from the mass and transferred to a small container, where it is crushed with a blender until smooth.
4. The finished puree is distributed into portioned containers. These can be silicone molds or ice freezing boxes.
5. The puree is sent to the freezer for pre-freezing. After freezing, the ice cubes are transferred to large containers, covered with lids and stored for long-term storage.

Puree is great for adding to sauces and pastes. Its advantages are complete readiness for subsequent use and natural color. Among the disadvantages, a partial loss of taste and beneficial properties is noted.

Features of storage and use of frozen product

Spinach keeps well in the freezer. To preserve its beneficial properties and taste, you need to know how to freeze vegetables correctly.

1. For freezing, airtight containers with tight lids are used. It is allowed to wrap the greens in several bags and put them in cardboard boxes.
2. Spinach does not tolerate temperature changes. After quick freezing, it is placed in a food storage compartment, where it is kept at a constant temperature.
3. Greens do not tolerate partial defrosting. Many novice cooks are concerned about whether spinach can be re-frozen. Unfortunately, double freezing is not allowed. It is recommended to use small portion containers for the product.
4. The shelf life of harvested spinach is no more than 6 months.
5. The heat treatment time of the prepared product is reduced by half compared to fresh.
6. Frozen spinach is added to pies, casseroles, cutlets, omelettes, sauces and other dishes.