Freeze and Preserve

My door bell rings late in the afternoon as I hear his voice: “come down, I have a box for you.” Malik brings me goods from my parent’s house in my hometown Marjeyoun, Located in the south Lebanon. It is always a pleasure feeling the excitement and surprise in opening the box and finding out what is inside. My gift today was a bunch of crispy, green broccoli. I usually give some out to friends and family and I freeze the rest to be able to make use of them in the coming seasons.

How to efficiently freeze your seasonal vegetables:

Broccoli:

• Boil water and add a dash of sea salt
• Drop the broccoli in and keep for 3 minutes
• Prepare cold water in a separate bucket
• Transfer the broccoli into the cold water and keep for 3 minutes
•  Transfer the cooled broccoli into a sieve
• Arrange the vegetables onto a clean kitchen towel and let dry for a few hours
• Place each one on a tray and freeze
• Fill the frozen broccoli into freezer bags

The broccoli is now frozen in a way that keeps its taste and color preserved properly for future use.

Essential Tip – When freezing:

You will most probably forget what is in your freezer. This is a problem I face on a daily basis. You will have freezer filled with plastic bags and no clue what exactly is in them since many vegetable look the same. Therefore, I always keep a list of the things in my freezer, taped on my fridge. I also label the names of each item on a white sticky note and place them on each bag to avoid confusion.

“Do what you can, where you are, with what you have.” Jahna