How to freeze peppers for the winter for various dishes

Bell peppers are perhaps one of the most popular and colorful garnishes for any dish. During the season, it is easy to buy at any market or store. But in winter it is very expensive and is often sold limp. There is no longer talk of any benefit from it. How to preserve this beautiful and vitamin-packed vegetable? Experienced housewives prefer to freeze peppers for the winter. To do this, you need to correctly select and peel the fruits, and then use blast freezing.

Preparing peppers for freezing

The quality of your dishes will depend on your initial choice. A good pepper has dense, fleshy walls and a skin without dents or signs of lethargy, rot or disease. Even if you carefully cut off the damaged area, this does not guarantee that pathogenic bacteria will not be in the rest of the pulp.

The following operations must be carried out with the selected peppers:

1. Wash thoroughly under running water.
2. Using a sharp knife of a suitable size, carefully remove the core and all the white parts of the fruit: if left, they will give the pepper a bitter taste.
3. Rinse the peppers again to remove any remaining seeds under running water.
4. Let dry.

Advice
purity-en.htgetrid.com magazine points out that excess moisture will prevent proper freezing. To help the peppers dry faster, blot them with paper towels: they will easily absorb the drops without leaving fibers on the vegetable.

Freezing chopped peppers

Peppers are used in various stews, soups and salads, so it makes sense to freeze them immediately chopped:

• straws are usually used for soups or pizza,
• cubes - for salads and stews.

Among other things, this way the workpiece will take up significantly less space in the freezer. So, to freeze this bright vegetable already chopped you need:

1. Cut the pre-peeled pepper into halves.
2. Check to see if there are any grains left and clean them out if necessary.
3. Cut into strips or cubes depending on what dish you need the vegetable for.
4. Pack the resulting pieces into freezer bags and place in the freezer.
5. After a couple of hours, shake the bags to prevent parts of the pepper from sticking to each other.

Advice
If space in your freezer allows, first lay out the slices on a flat surface so that the pieces do not touch each other, and forget about it for a couple of hours. Only then pack into containers. This is the best way to get frozen bulk.

Freezing whole peppers

Unlike most vegetables, bell peppers freeze well, either sliced ​​or whole. This is possible due to the fact that it is hollow and has no core.

To ensure that the preparation does not take up much space in the freezer, the fruits need to be properly prepared:

1. When peeling the pepper, do not squeeze out the stalk, but cut off the top, as if removing the lid. You should end up with a nice “cup” with a smooth top wide edge.
2. Cut out the core with a sharp, suitable knife and wash the fruit.
3. Rinse and dry with paper towel as recommended above.

Next, to save space in the freezer, you need to stack the peppers on top of each other.To prevent them from freezing and subsequently being easily separated, the resource purity-en.htgetrid.com offers two methods of freezing.

The first method will require stealing space in your freezer for a while:

1. Carefully arrange the peppers on a flat plate or tray so that they are not touching each other, at least not tightly.
2. Place everything in the freezer for a couple of hours.
3. When the surface of the peppers becomes firm, remove them from the freezer.
4. Without wasting time (so that the peppers do not start to defrost), carefully stack the vegetables on top of each other, like glasses. Try not to force yourself: the more tightly you fold the vegetables, the more difficult it will be to separate them.
5. Place the resulting pyramids in a bag and store them in the freezer.

The second method is much more time-saving, but you will need several plastic bags and scissors:

1. Cut the plastic bags so that one pepper cup fits, leaving a small supply of cellophane. Round pieces with a diameter of about ten centimeters are suitable, but it all depends on the size of the peppers.
2. Wrap the outside of the peppers with the resulting pieces of cellophane and insert them into each other.
3. Place the resulting pyramids in bags one at a time so that the barrels do not stick together during the freezing process.
4. To get the required number of peppers, pull the edges of the cellophane layer.

Freezing stuffed peppers

There is a way to save even more time when preparing stuffed peppers: freeze the vegetable already with the filling. The main difficulty is that the fruit ceases to be hollow. Because of this, it takes longer for them to freeze, and there is a higher risk that the peppers will lose their shape and taste after defrosting.

To prevent the stuffed vegetable from spoiling after thawing, there should be a minimum of moisture in the filling.The magazine purity-en.htgetrid.com recommends placing the lightly fried or blanched minced meat in a sieve or pressing through cheesecloth, allowing the juice to drain, and only then stuffing the peppers.

Advice
Experienced housewives recommend pre-blanching the peppers in boiling water so that they become softer and do not crack when the minced meat is compacted into them.

How to cook with frozen peppers

There is no need to defrost chopped peppers if the pieces will be used in dishes that require heat treatment. Thawed slices are more suitable for salads and cold appetizers.

It is also recommended to defrost stuffed peppers before cooking. Otherwise, it will take more time for the filling to cook/warm in the core, and the thin walls of the vegetable will become soggy and lose their taste.

How to defrost correctly

Like any other frozen preparations, you need to move the peppers to the refrigerator for several hours. You can complete defrosting at room temperature. There is no point in accelerating the process with microwave waves, warm water or the heat of batteries - the product will become limp and will most likely spoil.

Bell peppers are definitely one of the most favorite vegetables on the home table; they are full of juice, vitamins, and have a refreshing, pleasant taste. To enjoy the vegetable all year round, it is enough to freeze the fruits during the season. The main thing is to follow simple technology.