Freezing Vegetables

I’m no expert cook, but I want to share a method I find makes life easy around the kitchen.

This works with lots of vegetables, but here I describe primarily onions.  I also use this method for a mix of green, red, and yellow peppers, and for zucchini and butternut squash, among other things.

Pile of onions, ready for chopping

First, a variety of onions.  Yellow, white, red, green, and vidalia.  Different breeds will have slightly different flavors and natural ingredients; the variety will be tasty and nutritious.

Onions after chopping with SlapChop

Chop, slice, mince, or dice depending on your needs.  See the Slap Chop fruit and vegetable chopper pictured above.  It can come in very handy, but be aware it can turn soft, hydrous fruits or vegetables like peaches or onions into mush if overdone, and it works not a whit on a sturdy, fibrous vegetable like the green onion.

Additionally, the blades dull over time and the space for chopping is limited.  I had to cut some of the onions in sixths to fit them in the mechanism without over stuffing it or jamming the spring.  However, in the right situation, the slap chop (there are many brands I’m sure) can save a great deal of time.

Onions in Ziplocs, ready to freeze

Slightly mushy onions go into gallon Ziploc freezer bags.  With all of the juices, this will turn into a solid block of onion ice if you’re not careful!  Take the bag out of the freezer and shake it thoroughly to break apart the forming icicle every four hours or so until stable.  Alternately (and this works wonderfully for manually diced onions that are less juicy and processed) lay the chunks across a cookie sheet and freeze, then scrape off into ziplocs.

Colorful diced peppers

As you can see, I do the same for diced peppers.  Another simple one is diced tomatoes with spices pre-added — just run water over it until the block slips out of the bag.

With a bag full of mixed peppers, a bag full of minced onions, and a bag full of diced tomatos in my freezer, a wide variety of recipes including chili or spaghetti sauce becomes little more than pouring out Ziplocs over a hot stove.

There are so many things you can use this method for; go to your grocery store’s freezer section for ideas – then go to the produce section for nutrition without preservatives.  Freeze mixed fruits to mix with vanilla ice cream or cereal.  Freeze fresh green beans so they don’t rot in the fridge.

There are other great advantages.  One thing is price.  Some items will actually be cheaper to just buy bags pre-frozen, but on something like onions or hashbrowns it can often be extremely cheap to keep your family in food for months.

Great trick for those who are wise and resourceful enough to have a garden — this can help you have ingredients for inexpensive meals throughout the winter.  Not a bad survival technique, if you ever head for the hills!

Use the bags as iceblocks for your  cooler on a camping trip.

Pour onions and pepper over a steak, with just a bit of butter – no other seasoning necessary for me!  The sky’s the limit!