Photo by Melissambwilkins
Dear Jenn,
Hello again! I have another question about freezing. Have you frozen rice before? Does it work well?
Also i get a lot of frozen veggies from the store and next year I want to start up a garden and freeze what ever i have left over. Do you have any suggestions? I am particularly interested in how to freeze onions-I have been gettng frozen onions at the store (i am very senitive when chopping) and they are always so soggy out of the bag from the grocers.
Thanks again, Kim.
Kim,
I just love getting questions like this! Cooking at home is SUCH a money saver, so little shortcuts and techniques that make that easier are great frugal skills to have.
Yes, rice is easy to freeze! Simply cook your rice, let it cool and then freeze it in the correct portion size. To reheat just add a bit of water, maybe a tablespoon or two per cup, cover and microwave. In this particular case you want to be sure to cover the rice-you need the water to steam it as it is defrosting it.
Gardening is another great way to save money in the frugal household-and of course you want to be able to store the food that you don’t eat fresh. Every vegetable reacts differently to being frozen, so the specific directions will depend on what you want to freeze. I highly recommend requesting the book “The Busy Person’s Guide to Preserving the Harvest” from your local library. It has great info!
Another great source of information is your local Cooperative Extension Office. They LIVE to answer these sorts of questions, so give their website a glance and call them if you have any specific questions. I use the Cornell Cooperative Extension website a lot!
Another great resource is the National Center for Home Food Preservation-they have an entire section devoted to freezing.
The basic rule of thumb is that MOST vegetables need to be blanched (ie cooked briefly-usually by boiling for a minute or so, but also occasionally by steaming, again very briefly) then cooled before freezing.
Onions on the other hand are a bit different. You can pretty much just chop them up, lay them on a cookie sheet to freeze, then toss them into a big zippered bag when solid. Take them out frozen and toss directly into whatever you are cooking to avoid the “sogginess” problem. Easy Peasy.
I hope that helps Kim!
Jenn
And readers-if you have any advice or experiences that would help Kim, please share in the comments!
We put up a lot of purple hull peas in the south. They are a larger cousin of the black eyed pea. At the time of harvest, all we do is shell them and put them in freezer bags. When they are needed, you wash and look them for any bad ones, and then cook as usual.
When you’re shelling 9 or 10 bushels, it is a big time saver, and there is no loss in taste or texture.
I have heard that if you put an onion in the freezer for a bit before you cut it up it helps whith the “tears”.
I know this is a little late, but thought I’d share the tip anyway. My canning buddy and I discovered this completely by accident. During the summer we were chopping tons of onions for onion jam and marinara. It was hot, so we had a fan blowing on us while we were chopping. Our husbands came in and sat in the next room unbeknownst to us. After a bit their eyes were getting aggravated and they couldn’t figure out what they got into outside that was causing the irritation. We on the other hand were surprised at how smoothly our onion chopping session had gone with little to not tears. I guess they were down wind of the fan and all the irritants blew by us…
That’s a great tip Annie (although I feel sorry for your poor husbands!)