One of the easiest things to do when you have more fresh produce than you know what to do with is to freeze it. A surprisingly large variety of fruits and veggies can be frozen “as is” or you can wash and chop them into a form that’s easy to pull out and cook with down the road.
This won’t take long and will make cooking that much easier when it’s time to use these yummy foods. Cutting fruits and vegetables also allows you to pack them in tighter, giving you more space in the freezer.
Let’s run through a couple of things you may choose to freeze. Berries are one of the easiest fruits to freeze and they are best frozen whole. Keep them in the freezer, then pour them out as needed to top oatmeal, make smoothies, or bake a pie.
Other fruits like peaches, bananas, and pineapple for example freeze really well, but it’s much easier to peel, and chop them first. Apples and pears don’t freeze well unless you turn them into pie filling first. Grapes can be frozen, but don’t thaw well. If you have too many grapes, toss them in the freezer and eat them frozen.
Lots of veggies can also be rinsed, chopped and frozen. Green beans, peas, squash, broccoli, cauliflower and the likes freeze very well. If you see it in the frozen food section at the grocery store, chances are it will freeze well. Just rinse the produce as it comes out of the garden or from the farmers market, chop it and put it in freezer bags.
You can even freeze potatoes if you peel and grate them first. Peppers and onions do well chopped and frozen. Don’t forget to label everything really well.
Tomatoes can be a bit tricky. If you don’t have the time to do anything with them right away, chop and freeze them and then use them in green smoothies, to make salsa or to make pasta sauce and tomato soup down the road. If you have a bit of extra time on your hands, I find you get much better results cooking the sauce or soup now and then freezing it.
This also makes it much easier to put together a meal down the road. Grab a container of frozen tomato soup, slowly heat it up on the stove while you make a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches and dinner is done. And there’s nothing more convenient than a batch of tomato sauce to pull together a quick dinner.
Fresh herbs can also be frozen, but they can be a little tricky. The easiest way to do it is to wash and chop your herbs and scoop them into ice cube trays. Top them with water, chicken broth, or olive oil and freeze until solid. At that point you can pop them out of the ice cube tray and put them in a freezer bag for longer storage.
Rinse and repeat as needed. Throughout the year whenever you want to brighten the flavor of a dish, just add one of the frozen herb cubes to the pot.
Last but not least, try making your favorite freezer friendly meals with the leftover produce. Soups and stews work really well as do pot pies and casseroles. Cook up a big batch of chili or vegetable soup. Serve some for dinner and freeze the rest for a rainy day.
