Can sorrel be frozen in the freezer for the winter?

The best thing we can do for our body in the cold season is to please it with a hot dish with fresh vegetables, for example, green borsch with sorrel. But how can you save the sorrel, you ask. As easy as pie! Harvesting sorrel for the winter is not as difficult as it seems. We have prepared for you three proven ways to preserve this green ingredient.

Sorrel - what is it?

Each of the readers must have seen sorrel many times. The fact is that this unpretentious plant can live anywhere: even in the garden, at least on the street by the road. Outwardly, it is unremarkable and resembles a plantain in appearance. The only difference is that the sorrel leaves are thin, smooth and have an oblong shape. Well, the main feature is that it can be eaten - and the taste of this plant is moderately acidic - and thus keep your body in good shape! You can either salt the sorrel or cook it raw - the immunity will still thank you.

By the way, in Russia, sorrel began to be eaten only in the XVIII century, despite the fact that it was in people literally under the nose, or rather, under the feet. For a long time it was not recognized as an independent plant. Meanwhile, in France, sorrel was used with might and main as the basis of the recipe for any folk dish. Probably, sorrel became the new culinary discovery in Russia with the light hand of French cuisine, very popular in Russia during the Enlightenment.

How to save sorrel for the winter?

Due to its taste, the plant is often used in hot dishes and in salads. The most popular recipe is cabbage soup or sorrel soup, a very tasty and, most importantly, healthy dish. To feast on such a soup all year round, craftsmen invented some methods. We’ll talk about them.

But before you prepare the product for conservation, you must do the following:

1. rinse the leaves thoroughly, and even better if you scald them with boiling water;
2. cut the stems;
3. sort out the leaves and get rid of those that are unfit for food (rotten, torn, dry). They may contain an infection that can switch to other plants.

Method 1: salting

This is the oldest and time-tested way to keep food fresh. Salting as a special storage technique has two distinctive features.

1. This is a quick recipe that does not take much time.
2. Dishes with the final product will not need to be salted, as the sorrel absorbs salt during storage.

So, to salt the sorrel for the winter, you will need:

• empty clean can;
• washed leaves;
• salt.

To start, cut the sorrel in the way that suits you best: it can be thin strips or small pieces. Put a little sorrel in the jar to close the bottom. Then sprinkle generously with salt on this layer. Lay a new layer on top, again sprinkle with salt. Fill the entire container in this way, alternating the sorrel with salt.

Some helpful salting tips.

1. The thickness of the layers depends on how salty the product you want to get in the end. The thinner the layer, the more salty the winter billet will be.
2. The jar should be stored in the refrigerator.
3. The smaller you chop the plant before pickling, the more juice it will give.

That's all! The finished workpiece can be added to soups, salads or eat just like that. Enjoy your meal!

Method 2: Freeze

A universal recipe for preserving a product is freezing it for a period of time. Cold prevents the growth of bacteria, prevents the breakdown of substances and stores vitamins. So, how to freeze sorrel for the winter?

Cold preparation of sorrel is carried out according to the recipe even easier than salting: you just need to cut the leaves of the plant, put them in bags and leave them in the freezer. This recipe allows you to save maximum useful substances in the leaves, which is important for maintaining the body's immunity in the autumn-winter-spring period.

What you need to know before freezing sorrel?

• Remember that such preservation is one-time, that is, after defrosting the product should be eaten immediately.
• Secondary freezing is pointless, since with it the plant completely loses its benefit, while accumulating only toxins.
• Before freezing sorrel, do not forget to sort out the leaves and discard rotten, unfit for food.

Method 3: Preservation

Canning is the most innovative way to harvest sorrel for the winter. Preservation was officially presented in the XVIII century by the French scientist Upper, who decided to participate in the competition for the best way to keep food fresh and won it with his ingenious invention. Judges were particularly struck by the shelf life of the products: the fruits and vegetables on which the experiment was set did not go bad for more than eight months!

What did Upper do? He invented canning (from the word conserve - to store), the recipe of which consisted of the following steps.

1. The product was placed in a can, from which air was pumped out through a tiny hole.
2. The jar was boiled in hot water, the temperature of which exceeded the boiling point. This was done in order to destroy harmful microorganisms.
3. The jar was cooled and left for storage.

The recipe quickly spread throughout the world, and now it’s hard for us to imagine that spinning cans every summer is not an old Russian tradition, but only the invention of one chef from Europe.

So, to save sorrel for the winter, we need leaves, salt, boiling water and jars.

1. The first step is to sterilize the banks, that is, to rid them of bacteria invisible to the eye. Do the same with the leaves - you can scald them with boiling water.
2. Cut the leaves into strips and tamp in a jar.
3. When the jar is filled to the top, put on top half a teaspoon of salt (calculation for 1 liter).
4. Pour boiling water into a jar and close the lid.
5. Before you freeze sorrel in a jar, you need to cool it. The bank should be inverted at room temperature until completely cooled.