Freezing Vegetables: Tips to store common vegetables
This method is applicable for many types of vegetables however, there are few for which you would need to avoid this technique. These veggies include green onions, cucumbers, radishes and tomatoes.
Asparagus:
Begin by washing the same and sort it out by size. Always snap off the ends and cut the stalks in 2-inch length. Once blanched, cool and dry to pack it. The small stalks may require 2 minutes in boiling water where as the large stalks would require around 4 minutes.
Beets:
Wash the beets and remove the top portion of the beet. Leave the taproot and cook in boiling water. Small sized beets would take half an hour for blanching where as medium sized beets would take 50 minutes at least.
Carrots:
Wash the carrots, trim and peel them. You can even cut large sized carrots. For water blanching, you would need 4 minutes for the process.
Potatoes:
The potatoes would need to be cut or grated as per your requirement. Then you would need to either cook it in water or sauté it in oil. Whole potatoes would need 5 minutes for blanching where as the pieces would require around 2-3 minutes.
Broccoli:
Use only the dark green stalks and wash and peel the same. Trim stalks and remove the heads. You might also need to soak it in saltwater solution to remove the insects. Then split them lengthwise and blanch. Once cooled, drain the same. It would require 3 minutes for water blanching.