How to prepare arugula for the winter: freezing, drying, preserving and growing on a windowsill

How to freeze arugula for the winter: a lot of ideas and tips for preserving valuable greens and variety on the menu - for caring hostesses.

Can arugula be frozen

Fresh arugula is an unusually tart spice that is added to many dishes of vegetables, fish and meat. Appetizers, side dishes and soups gain a delicate mustard flavor and nutty notes thanks to this greenery.

Arugula is not as popular in our country as dill and parsley, and all because of the specific taste, but it is very useful because it contains essential oil, iodine, zinc, iron, manganese, magnesium and a number of vitamins. Arugula is considered to be a medicinal plant, and this herb is also low-calorie and useful for losing weight.

In the absence of the opportunity to grow this useful plant all year round, the hostesses invented several interesting ways of storage. One of them is freezing.

Will the taste remain
Freezing, especially shock, does not harm arugula in any way, this greens will retain a maximum of vitamins and its unusual taste, except that it will not look as spectacular in a salad as a fresh analog.

How to Store Fresh Arugula

Fresh leaves of arugula are stored for about 10 days. To prevent mustard grass from deteriorating ahead of time, keep it in the refrigerator in a plastic container. Some housewives place leaflets with cuts down in clean water.

Preparation for freezing

Freezing is the best way to extend the shelf life of medicinal herbs. How to prepare arugula leaves:

1. Choose only healthy leaves of arugula, no spots, better than average size.
2. Be sure to rinse the greens from dust and dirt in warm water.
3. Dry the arugula thoroughly before freezing. To speed up the process, put the leaves on a napkin or towel so that they absorb moisture. Excess water forms a coating of ice, and this spoils the look and taste of frozen arugula and other types of greens.

Tip
If you grow arugula yourself in the garden, then collect leaflets for harvesting in the early morning, until they hit the sun's rays. Such greens are the most crisp, tart and healthy.

How to freeze and thaw arugula, how much to store

How to freeze fresh arugula, instructions:

1. Freeze whole leaflets or smaller pieces. In the latter case, tear the greens with your hands.
2. Use airtight freeze bags or plastic containers.
3. Stack the leaves so that they take up less space. Also, do not forget to squeeze out excess air from the packaging.
4. Pack the arugula in small bundles so that the servings are enough for one use. After defrosting, the greens are not stored for a long time, eat it immediately.
5. Sign the freeze date on the pack to use the arugula on time.

There are more original ways to freeze healthy greens, for example, make additives to salads and side dishes on its basis:

1. Chop finely, or rather, pick up arugula leaves. Some housewives mashed greens in a blender, getting an even slurry. Melt quality butter. Mix greens with oil, add grated fresh garlic, salt if desired. Pour the mixture into ice containers. Now you will have an aromatic additive to mashed potatoes, vegetable salad, boiled cereals and other dishes.
2. Mix arugula with olive or other vegetable oil, mustard, etc.
3. Make healthy mixes from different types of herbs, spices and oils.

Shelf life

Keep frozen arugula can be up to 1 year, but on condition that the product is frozen once. Repeated freezing leads to the loss of valuable properties, color, aroma and shape.

Defrost rules

Thawing is carried out gradually, if these are fresh leaves without additives. Move the bags to the refrigerator first, and then keep them at room temperature. Billets with oil can be added to salads and other dishes immediately after extraction from the freezer.

Do not be surprised that the bright green arugula will fade slightly after being removed from the freezer. This will not affect the taste and benefit.

Drying seasoning at home

You can save arugula for a long period using drying. Such greens are added to the dishes as seasoning.

Arugula is dried, previously washed with dust. The leaves are crushed both before and after drying, to whom it is more convenient.

How is the drying process:

1. Place prepared arugula leaves on a newspaper sheet or baking sheet covered with paper.
2. For drying, choose a warm and ventilated room, but the greens should not be in direct sunlight - so all the benefits disappear.
3. The moisture from the leaves will evaporate for about 7-10 days. Stir the arugula periodically so that it dries evenly.

Advice from purity.bigbadmole.com/en/: it is best to prevent greens from touching the metal surface to avoid oxidation. That is why paper is used. Also, do not cut the arugula with a knife, it is better to tear the greens with your hands. This applies not only to blanks, but also to recipes with fresh leaves. Grass cut by a metal knife does not look so beautiful, metal reduces the useful properties of spice.

Faster way to procure dried arugula and other spices are an electric dryer or an oven. The dryer has special functions for greens.

Using the oven, the rules:

1. The temperature is 40-50 degrees.
2. The door should be ajar.
3. Place the arugula on a baking sheet with a thin layer.

Dried spices are stored in sealed glass jars. The shelf life of such a blank is 12 months. Periodically check the jars for the presence of an unpleasant odor, mold, pests.

Use of arugula in conservation

Harvesting with arugula diversifies your winter menu. It can be salted separately or added to vegetable salads or marinade. For salting, sprinkle the cleaned greens with salt (per 100 g of leaves - 1 tbsp. L. Salt) and place the mixture in clean glass jars. The salad is stored in the refrigerator or in the cellar for no more than one year.

The preservation of this green is not as popular as the usual freezing, but it is worth a try, especially if the harvest season has turned out.

Grow arugula on the windowsill: tips

Some housewives took a chance, planted arugula seeds at home and did not lose: fresh green shoots with tart leaves grew on the windowsill. You will need a deep container, universal soil for greens and high-quality seeds, which are sold in gardening stores.

Growing homemade herbs is difficult because the plant needs a lot of heat and long daylight hours. Use special lamps, protect plantings from drafts, do not neglect top dressing, and then vitamin greens will be present in your menu fresh all year round.

Cook several types of sauces at once, dry a jar of seasoning and leave five to ten bunches of fresh herbs for freezing: let the arugula in your winter menu be a universal addition to dishes.