Is the salad freezing for the winter?
Tender and fragile lettuce leaves can be frozen for the winter and stored in the freezer, but accuracy and knowledge of a couple of tricks will be required.
Salad leaves in the freezer
Only fresh lettuce leaves with strong veins are selected for freezing. Withered, wrinkled and warped will not suit us. The color of the leaf is pale green, neither yellow nor spotty.
Tip
It is important to wash the salad before freezing, as this will not succeed after thawing. Whatever one may say, the salad leaf wilts a little after defrosting and loses elasticity.
How to freeze fresh lettuce:
- Remove excess roots, rinse the greens in running water.
- Shake leaflets from excess droplets. Spread everything evenly and pat dry with napkins. Moisture should remain at a minimum, otherwise the salad will not lie for a long time.
- It is better to dry the leaves faster: after cutting from the beds, they quickly wither.
- Prepare convenient containers with lids, plastic trays, bags with fasteners in advance. Even a cling film is suitable, the main thing is that the packaging is durable and does not allow odors to pass.
- Make portions convenient for single use. The leaf lettuce is not subject to repeated thawing; after removing it from the chamber, it must be used immediately.
- Having placed a portion of greens in a bag or container, try to remove as much air as possible.
- Hide the bags in the freezer. If it is provided in your technique, set the temperature below the standard –18 degrees.
- The shelf life of a fresh green leaf in sealed packaging is up to 1 year. Try to sell the salad faster, as it loses vitamins from long-term storage.
- When extracted, such a salad will no longer be openwork like fresh, but it will retain its taste and nutrients. Add leaves to vegetable mixtures, use for green smoothies, appetizers, sandwiches, soups, omelets and fillings.
Tip
The magazine purity.bigbadmole.com/en/ strongly discourages cutting roots and chopping salad leaves with a knife. The metal causes acidification of the juice, the edges of the lettuce darken and look untidy. Grind the salad with your hands only - just tear it into convenient pieces.
Oil-filled salad
The oil helps preserve the rich green color of the salad leaf, and also preserves vitamins and a delicate taste. Billets with oil are convenient for decorating salads, side dishes, meat and fish dishes. Use the familiar leaf variety, lollo rosso, watercress, etc.
How to freeze a leaf salad with oil, recipe:
- Rinse, shake the leaves from the drops and finely chop everything with your hands.
- You can grind greens into a paste using a blender, then you get a uniform green sauce.
- Melt the butter so that it does not boil or burn.
- Place the salad puree or leaflets on the ice containers. Fill with oil so that it does not reach the edge of the mold a little.
- Vegetable oils are also suitable: olive, corn, sunflower.
- Freeze the ice pan, and when all the compartments are frozen, squeeze the cubes and put them in a common bag.
- Return the bag to the freezer. Dressing with salad and oil is ready, use it for six months.
Small cubes of freezing can be done without oil additives. Just mash the greens or puree with a blender, then distribute them on the tins. You do not need to defrost salad leaf gradually: it quickly thaws in the finished dish.
Freezing slightly spoils the appearance of a salad leaf, but allows you to enjoy healthy greens with a summer taste all winter. A few simple rules will help preserve all the main advantages of the salad.