6

Diets and healthy eating 16.08.2017

Dear readers, now is a wonderful time - summer. We see vegetables and fruits in abundance. Some people grow them themselves in their summer cottages. And some people buy in markets or stores. Surely many of you use summer season to the maximum, but also about the coming winter we must not forget. How nice it is to pamper your family with homemade preparations, right? But are all our preparations healthy? Not everyone. And one of the most useful ways to prepare food for future use is freezing. Today we will talk about how to properly freeze eggplants for the winter.

Thanks to deep freezing, eggplants preserve taste qualities, original appearance and vitamin composition. The only thing you need to do is follow certain rules when freezing eggplants, since this process is slightly different from freezing other vegetables. Natalya Groznova will share with us the secrets and subtleties of preparing this vegetable for future use. I give her the floor.

Good afternoon dear blog readers. As Irina already said, freezing is the best way to preserve eggplants for long time. Low temperature allows them not to spoil for months, retaining most of the vitamins and microelements. Therefore, this method is used by many housewives.

However, not everyone decides to harvest eggplants, fearing complex manipulations. Of course, the vegetable requires more attention than zucchini or Bell pepper, but the process itself is completely simple, as we will now see.

Is it even possible to freeze eggplants?

My first experience of freezing eggplants was not successful. I just cut them up and put them in a bag, thinking that deep freezing would destroy the bitterness. But this did not happen - the eggplants remained bitter, and I had to get rid of them.

A year later, I soaked the eggplants in a saline solution and only then froze them. Yes, the bitterness is gone. However, after defrosting, they turned into a puree-like substance, which is also unacceptable.

Now, before freezing, I remove bitterness and excess moisture from them and heat-treat them, after which the enzymes in the eggplants that lead to their spoilage are destroyed.

Remember that, unlike other vegetables, eggplants cannot be frozen raw, as the taste after defrosting will resemble bitter rubber. Therefore, they need to be processed: fried, baked, blanched, stewed.

Features of freezing eggplants

To avoid unexpected surprises after defrosting, you need to choose the right eggplants. However, the rules are the same as when choosing eggplants for canning or daily cooking - the vegetables must be clean, smooth, without spots, with shiny and elastic skin. The tail is fresh, green, not dried out. A dry stalk indicates that the vegetable has been stored for a long time. Any variety is suitable: dark purple, pink, white, striped. Buy young vegetables - they have a minimum of seeds, bitterness and harmful substances.

You should also follow the following rules:

• You cannot freeze vegetables without first soaking them. Soaking is done in salt water, which removes the bitterness. You can also sprinkle the slices with salt and then rinse them with running water. The soaking time depends on the size of the pieces - the larger they are, the longer the soaking process;
• Before laying for freezing, remove remaining moisture and oil from the workpieces with a paper towel;
• Sealing is required for storage. The eggplants should be wrapped tightly to trap any air. Then oxidation will not occur, and the vegetable will not absorb the odors of other foods in the freezer. The packaging must be reliable: a thick plastic bag or plastic container with a lid;
• when placed in the chamber, the packaging is signed, since when winter storage all packets become indistinguishable;
• the product is stored in sealed packaging at a temperature of at least -12°C;
• In order to preserve the taste as much as possible, the shelf life should not exceed one year.

Recipes for freezing eggplants for the winter

Now let's consider various ways frosts.

How to freeze fried eggplants for the winter

What you will need:

• eggplants – any amount;
• salt – 1 tsp. for 0.5 kg of vegetables;
• vegetable oil- for frying.

Preparation

Wash raw eggplants. Cut into circles 5-7 mm thick. If you cut them thinly, then when frying the skin will separate from the pulp, which will damage the integrity. I don't cut the peel, but you can remove it if you wish.

Cutting can be different: cubes 2 x 2 cm, bars 1.5 x 5 cm, straws 1 x 3 cm, thin long plates. It depends on what dish the vegetable is used for after thawing.

Place the sliced ​​eggplants in a bowl, adding salt to each slice.

Leave for half an hour and wait until droplets of moisture appear on their surface. They indicate that the bitterness has left. You can also dip vegetables in salt water and leave for an hour. To do this, dissolve 1 tbsp in 1 liter of water. l. salt.

Eggplants contain a small amount of bitterness - solanine, a poison that is large quantities harms the body. It is produced even more if the vegetable is exposed to light for a long time. Therefore, keep eggplants in a dark place. When cutting a vegetable, pay attention to the cut - if it immediately darkens, it means that the vegetable contains a lot of solanine, which gives a bitter taste. Light cut - feel free to cook eggplants.

Wash the eggplants thoroughly under running water and dry with a paper towel. Leave them on a wire rack to dry thoroughly.

Next, we subject them to heat treatment, in this case frying. Pour vegetable oil into a frying pan and heat well. Place several eggplant rings and fry over medium heat on both sides until golden brown. Salt is possible, but not necessary.

Transfer the slices to a wire rack in a single layer and leave to cool slightly. If desired, blot with a paper towel to remove excess fat. Then, on the same wire rack or on a cutting board wrapped in cling film, place a batch of eggplants in the freezer for 1-1.5 hours. The temperature should not be higher than -12°C.

We pack the frozen eggplants in sealed bags, removing the air, and send them for storage in the chamber. It is better to place them in several small portion bags so as not to expose the vegetables to air when in Once again you will need to take them out for cooking.

For convenience, weigh the packages. Label them with the weight, cut shape, date, and cooking method. Vegetables can also be compactly folded into a plastic container.

How to get air out of a bag? Insert the cocktail straw into the slightly opened bag and suck in the air. When the plastic sticks tightly to the vegetables, quickly remove it and close the bag.

I have been using this freezing method for many years. In my opinion, it is the most successful. But there are other options that may suit you better.

How to freeze baked eggplants for the winter

Grease a baking tray or other convenient form with vegetable oil and place the vegetables in one layer. Heat the oven to 180°C and bake the vegetables for half an hour. If necessary, turn them over to the other side so that they brown evenly.

How to freeze stewed eggplants for the winter

Place vegetables in a saucepan or frying pan with heated vegetable oil. Add salt and simmer, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden brown. Let cool completely and freeze.

How to freeze blanched eggplants for the winter

Place the vegetable pieces into a saucepan with boiling salted water and lemon juice (1 tablespoon). Boil for 5 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and place in ice water. Cool completely and dry. Vegetables are ready to be frozen.

How to freeze boiled eggplants for the winter

To remove bitterness, pierce the vegetables deeply with a toothpick and place them entirely in salted water. We increase the holding time by 3 times, since the vegetable is large and this process will require more time.

The whole eggplant is cooked. To do this, place it in a pan of boiling, lightly salted water and cook for 20 minutes. Using a slotted spoon or fork, remove the vegetables from the boiling water and leave to cool. After cooking with their skins on, they become “wrinkled.” Let's cut them up in the right way and dry the pieces well with a towel. We send vegetables for freezing.

How to freeze whole eggplants for the winter

Whole eggplants are frozen in the same way as sliced ​​ones. The prepared (washed, without bitterness) vegetable with peel and stalk is fried in a frying pan, boiled, baked in the oven or grilled until soft. When frying and baking, do not forget to turn over. Place the finished fruits on a plate, cool to room temperature and wrap each eggplant separately in cling film. If desired, remove the peel first. Place in the freezer for the winter. All!

We also bring to your attention a video that shows three ways to freeze eggplants for the winter.

How to defrost eggplants

Place a portion of frozen eggplants in the refrigerator for several hours to gradually melt. Bring to complete defrosting at room temperature. Microwave I don't recommend using it. However, most often eggplants are used in dishes without defrosting. They cannot be re-frozen.

What to cook from frozen eggplants?

I am sharing my recipes that are very loved in my family:

• caviar - for its preparation, fruits are used with any heat treatment and cut into any pieces, since vegetables are still crushed into puree;
• towers of eggplants and tomatoes with cheese - they require eggplants cut into slices. Before cooking, they are completely defrosted and placed with tomato slices, sprinkled with cheese;
• rolls - fried or baked eggplant tongues are defrosted and a cheese mixture with garlic and herbs is wrapped in them;
• pot roast – frozen eggplant cubes are placed in pots with meat and other ingredients and put in the oven.

In principle, you can cook thawed eggplants in the same way as fresh ones. But in fairness, it should be noted that in terms of taste, frozen vegetables are still inferior to fresh ones. Therefore, if you have the opportunity to buy fresh eggplants in winter, then do just that. If not, then use my advice. Well, what if you have your own useful tips, which you did not find in the article, how to freeze eggplants for the winter and what to cook from them later, then write in the comments. I think everyone will be interested!

Eggplant is one of the unusual vegetable crops. The fact is that it does not have any characteristic aroma at all, but at the same time it perfectly absorbs the smell of a nearby product. In this regard, several recommendations have been developed for the correct procedure for freezing eggplants. One of the advantages of freezing is the preservation of a huge amount of useful and nutritional elements in vegetables, which are not always preserved in canned form. How to properly freeze eggplants at home, what is needed for this, we will consider below.

Which eggplants are suitable for freezing?

The summer period is precisely the time when people are involved in the process of creating various preparations for the coming winter. Previously, housewives preferred canning, trying to pack the entire harvest in three liter jars. It's no secret that preservation at home is a rather lengthy process. First you need to cook the vegetable, then you need to sterilize the containers for future canned goods, and finally, you need to roll up the vegetables.

The advent of refrigerators with large freezers gave housewives widespread access new opportunity. Now you can freeze delicious preparations, while saving time and saving more useful vitamins and microelements contained in vegetable crops.

If you are not into gardening, but prefer to buy everything necessary products at the market stalls or supermarket, you are strongly advised to look for tips on how to select quality eggplants and whether they are suitable for freezing.

Fortunately, eggplant is one of those vegetables whose appearance can easily tell whether the product is of high quality. First, visually evaluate the eggplant. A large fruit, as a rule, contains a huge number of seeds inside, which in this case is not very good. Hence, give preference to medium sized eggplants. They have a more delicate and juicy taste. The surface of such a fruit should be clean, even and smooth. Dark spots on the eggplant peel indicate that this is a vegetable that was not grown in the most favorable conditions.

Appearance The stalk plays a huge role in determining the quality of the product. First of all, it must be present. Its absence may be a signal that you have encountered a dishonest seller who wants to hide the signs of an overripe vegetable. Fresh eggplant has a bright green stalk. A mature and spoiled vegetable is characterized by a dry and wrinkled stalk.

As a rule, overripe eggplant has a bitter taste. While fresh and young vegetables do not have bitterness, but, on the contrary, are famous for their pleasant, delicate taste. Purchasing fresh eggplants will greatly simplify the freezing process, since you will not have to perform any manipulations to remove bitterness from the vegetable.

So, in order for freezing a vegetable to be successful, it is important to choose a suitable specimen. Recommendations for selection are similar to the rules for selecting eggplant for canning or preparing a regular dish. It is necessary that it be a clean, smooth, dent-free vegetable with a glossy and elastic skin. The wide variety of varieties offered may confuse you, but this does not matter. Eggplants of dark purple, pink, beige colors, as well as striped vegetables are suitable for freezing.

Preparation

The preparatory process is one of the main stages in the process of freezing vegetables, in particular eggplants. Therefore, it is not recommended to ignore it. Otherwise, when defrosting eggplants, you may encounter various unpleasant situations. Let's look at the features of preparing eggplants in more detail.

• First of all, under no circumstances should you freeze a vegetable without first soaking it. It is necessary to remove the bitter taste from the pulp of a member of the nightshade family. Eggplant, previously cut into slices or squares, is soaked for several hours in salted water, which helps remove bitterness. There is also a faster method. To do this, cut the vegetable into circles, sprinkle them generously with salt and leave for about twenty minutes. After this, you should rinse them thoroughly under a strong stream of cold running water.

Remember that the soaking time for the eggplant will depend on how finely you cut the vegetable. A large slice will take longer than a small one.

• Before placing the eggplant slices in food containers for future freezing, it is recommended that the vegetable be thoroughly dried. There should be no moisture on the surface of the slices.
• For high-quality freezing, sealed conditions are required. Vegetable slices should be wrapped tightly to prevent air from entering. This will prevent the eggplant from oxidizing and absorbing foreign odors emanating from foods lying nearby in the freezer. Food containers must be reliable and durable. It is advisable to have a lid. If it is not available, the food container must be wrapped in a plastic bag or cling film.
• It is recommended to label each container, since during the period of winter freezing all vegetables become less distinguishable in appearance.
• Provided that vegetables are stored in a tight, airtight container, the temperature maintained must be at least twelve degrees below zero.
• To maximize the preservation of taste, it is advisable not to eat eggplants that have been stored for more than twelve months.

Methods

Today, there are quite a few ways to freeze eggplants for the winter. Let's look at the most widely used ones. For the first recipe you will need: eggplants, salt (calculating one teaspoon per half a kilogram of eggplants), olive or sunflower oil for toasting.

To begin with, the vegetables are thoroughly washed. They are then cut into slices whose thickness does not exceed seven millimeters. When thinly sliced, the peel is separated from the pulp during the frying process. It is not advisable to allow this to happen for freezing. Then the slices are placed in any deep container, sprinkled generously with salt and left for an hour. As soon as you notice moisture appearing on the surface of the eggplants, drain them in a colander and rinse thoroughly cold water. The de-bittering process is complete. Place the slices on paper towel and let them dry.

Then follows the process of heat treatment, namely frying. The frying pan is generously poured with the oil of your choice and heated. Then you should place the slices in a frying pan and fry them on both sides so that you get golden crust. Sprinkling with salt is optional. Pat the fried vegetable slices with a paper towel to remove excess oil.

The cooled eggplant is placed in the freezer for one to one and a half hours. Do not forget that temperatures above twelve degrees below zero are undesirable. After time has passed, the slightly frozen slices can be packaged in food containers and placed in the freezer.

You can freeze not only raw eggplant, but also baked. To do this, grease the baking sheets with the oil of your choice and spread the eggplant slices evenly. Then you need to preheat the oven to one hundred and eighty degrees and leave the eggplant to bake for thirty minutes. Turn the vegetable slices periodically to prevent them from burning. After the finished eggplant has cooled, you can put it in the freezer.

Here's another option. Place eggplant slices in a saucepan or frying pan with already heated oil. They must be salted and left to simmer, stirring regularly until they brown and become soft. After cooking, the vegetables must be allowed to cool, after which they can be placed in the freezer.

Another interesting way To make frozen eggplants is to first blanch them. To do this, you need to place the pre-chopped vegetable in a container with salted boiling water and added freshly squeezed lemon juice. Leave the vegetables to cook for five to ten minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove the slices and transfer them to cold water. Wait for the eggplant to cool completely. After this, be sure to dry it by blotting it with a paper towel. After this, the vegetable will be ready to be placed in the freezer.

How to use them in winter?

The defrosting process requires compliance with a certain sequence. Under no circumstances should you defrost eggplant in the microwave. Move the required portion of vegetables from the freezer to the refrigerator. Remember that the process should be gradual. Once the vegetable slices begin to thaw, remove them from the refrigerator and leave them to warm up at room temperature.

Repeated freezing of unused eggplants is undesirable, since the vegetable loses most of its accumulated vitamins.

There are many options for using frozen eggplant. It all depends on your imagination and food preferences. Here are some interesting and healthy recipes with frozen eggplant.

• Eggplant caviar is undoubtedly useful product. It has a soft and delicate taste and is practically odorless. To prepare this dish, you must first defrost the vegetables (according to the above recommendations) and beat the eggplant slices with a blender to a puree consistency. If desired, you can add spices and black pepper.
• Eggplant tower with cheese- a unique dish with which you can surprise unexpected guests. It cooks quite quickly, provided that the eggplants have been defrosted in advance. So, for this dish, choose a preparation of eggplants, cut into circles. Cut some tomatoes into round slices. Then alternate eggplant slices with tomato slices, creating something that visually resembles a tower. To make the structure more durable, pierce it in the middle with a canapé stick. Finely grate your favorite cheese and sprinkle it on the dish.
• Another great way to use eggplant stock is to make a roll. For this recipe, it is advisable to choose a workpiece cut into thin slices. Fried or baked plates must be thawed. At this time, you can start preparing the filling. Give free rein to your imagination and cook whatever you like. For example, a cheese mixture goes well with eggplant. Its preparation will take no more than ten minutes. Finely grate your favorite cheese and add a pre-chopped clove of garlic to it. Stir. Chop herbs, such as parsley or dill. Add to cheese and garlic mixture. Place the contents on a slice of defrosted eggplant and wrap it to form a roll. The delicacy is ready to eat.

• Your household will be pleased with a delicious roast prepared with the addition of winter preparations. As in previous recipes, the eggplant slices are thawed. After this, they are placed in pots. Then the diced meat is added. You can add other vegetables (to your taste). The contents are sprinkled with one tablespoon olive oil. Herbs, spices and salt are added. The pots are placed in the oven for an hour and a half at a temperature of one hundred and fifty degrees. After a while, the result is a tasty and healthy roast.
• Frozen eggplants can also be used in recipes that call for fresh vegetables. At the same time, the content of useful vitamins winter preparation in no way inferior to vegetables freshly picked from the garden.

To learn how you can freeze eggplants for the winter, see the following video.

This vegetable should not be underestimated. If you think that it is enough to just cut it into cubes and put it in the freezer, you are deeply mistaken. After defrosting, the blue pieces will be bitter. This means that nothing worthwhile can be prepared from them.

There is an opinion that freezing eggplants for the winter at home involves exclusively soaking the vegetable in a saline solution. Ostensibly to get rid of that same annoying bitterness. But this is not an option either: the defrosted product will have a consistency more like puree than individual pieces of your favorite vegetable. For caviar, of course, this will also work. But you can’t fry the little blue ones with garlic and you can’t season them with sour cream. You can store eggplants for the winter in the freezer different ways. The main thing is to correctly implement the harvesting method you have chosen.

Reasons to love the blue fruit

There are many different names for eggplant: Pakistan, licked, blue, demyanka, and badorzhan. But the essence still does not change from changing the names, and the fact remains: this vegetable is not only tasty, but also healthy. However, not without contraindications, of course.

Why is it useful...

Dark-fruited nightshade, which is the scientific name for eggplant, is rich in micro- and macroelements, without which the human body is unable to function normally. But its value lies not only in this.

• B vitamins. This vitamin group famous for its beneficial effects on nervous system person. Therefore, eggplant is a natural pill for stress and depression, which people are especially susceptible to during the cold season.
• Folic acid. The high content of this acid makes blue ones a must eat product for pregnant women. The substance promotes high-quality intrauterine development of the baby and partially relieves the burden on the mother’s body.
• Vitamin C. It turns out that for regular prevention of viral diseases, it is enough to eat two eggplants a week. High vitamin C content helps strengthen immune system and protects against viruses.
• Zinc and manganese. These two microelements are necessary for everyone. But especially for those who have recently suffered a stroke and are at the rehabilitation stage.

The blue ones contain vitamin PP. It is especially useful for those who are trying to get rid of nicotine addiction, making it easier to quit smoking cigarettes.

...and why it’s harmful

A favorite delicacy of many - eggplants fried in large quantities of vegetable oil - unfortunately, they do not provide any benefit. During the heat treatment, pieces of vegetables become thoroughly saturated with toxins released from the oil, which later enter our stomachs along with the vegetable. Therefore, when intending to cook frozen eggplants, think seven times about how to do it in order to preserve all the usefulness of the vegetable. There are two more nuances that you need to know about.

1. Solanine. Another disadvantage of blue ones is the ability to accumulate a poison called solanine, which is contained in potatoes with green sides and provokes vomiting and diarrhea. Solanine is formed in overripe vegetables, so it is recommended to eat only young eggplants.
2. Low carbohydrate content. What is good for some is fraught with hypoglycemia for others. Same with eggplants: healthy person Anyone watching their figure will benefit from an abundance of this product. But for the sick person diabetes mellitus On the contrary, it is harmful: a small amount of carbohydrates can provoke hypoglycemia - a condition in which the level of glucose in the blood becomes critically low.

It’s easy to detect high levels of solanine: cut the vegetable and observe the cut. If the cut darkens within two to three minutes, it means that the content of the toxic substance is high, and it is better not to eat the product.

Permissions and prohibitions

But the blue ones, which live in almost every garden bed and take root well on domestic black soil, are one of the lowest-calorie vegetables. 100 g of “bellied” product contains only 24 kcal. Therefore, do not be surprised if you come across a lot of eggplant diets and positive reviews about them on the Internet.

But such power systems are not suitable for everyone and not always. The table will tell you for which diseases eating blue vegetables is vital, and for which diseases you need to completely refuse vegetables with purple skin.

Table - Permits and prohibitions on eating eggplants

How to freeze eggplants for the winter in the freezer

• Eggplant is a special vegetable that requires mandatory heat treatment before freezing. Otherwise, its taste will be similar to the taste of a rubber boot. In other words, raw eggplants are never frozen. And if they freeze it, it’s only out of ignorance. In addition, fruits for freezing should be chosen wisely.

Vegetable casting

Your first task is to organize a casting for the little blue ones. Not everyone deserves to be turned into a blank, but only a select few. The selection criteria are the same as in the case of conservation.

• Tail. The stalk must have green color. It is better to eat a vegetable with a dry stalk immediately: a dried tail is evidence that the product has been stored for quite a long time away from the bush.
• Uniformity of color. The color of the eggplant should be uniform.
• Surface. A glossy finish, free of lumps, growths, stains and damage - this is what a vegetable ideal for freezing should look like.
• Age. It is desirable that the fruits are young. Large and mature vegetables contain many seeds. They are tougher both inside and out.

The variety of frozen blue can be any, as well as the color.

Process Features

When freezing, it is important to follow the sealing rule. The packaging in which the vegetable pieces are placed must be tightly closed to prevent the eggplant from coming into contact with air in the freezer. This will protect the product from oxidation, as well as from the absorption of foreign odors. You don’t only store blue ones in the freezer, right? This and other “laws” will allow you to properly freeze eggplants, regardless of the method you choose.

• Soaking. Due to the refusal to pre-soak, bitterness will remain in the fruits. And you are unlikely to want to eat a bitter product. Therefore, before freezing and mandatory heat treatment, soak the pieces of blueberries in salted water or sprinkle table salt on top. After half an hour, it will be enough to simply rinse the product under running water.
• Removing moisture. Before putting them in the freezer, the eggplant slices need to be dried, removing any water that has seeped from their surface or any vegetable oil that has lingered on it. This is easy to do with kitchen paper towels.
• Label. A plastic container or bag containing eggplants must be labeled. Once covered with frost in the freezer, all products will look the same. And it will be extremely difficult to distinguish what is contained in which package.

In sealed conditions at a temperature of -12°C, the shelf life of frozen blueberries should not exceed 12 months. More long-term storage negatively affects the taste of the product.

Harvesting methods

Let's start talking about the preparation from the end. Namely, how to pack vegetables hermetically without a vacuum sealer in the house. To do this, you will need a ziplock bag and a regular cocktail straw. Close the bag almost all the way, leaving only a small opening. Insert a plastic tube into it, use your mouth to suck the air out of the bag, and, finding that the polyethylene is stuck to the eggplants, remove the improvised “air suction” by closing the rest of the package. That's all. And now about the main thing - how to freeze fresh eggplants for the winter.

Fried

1. Wash the blue ones and cut them into round pieces no more than 7 mm wide. Eggplants that are cut too thin will thin out when fried and will become unsuitable for storage in the freezer.
2. Sprinkle with salt and wait about half an hour until the bitterness comes out. Then rinse under running water.
3. Place the rounds on a grill grate or other improvised “bed” and leave until completely dry. Vegetables can be helped dry by patting them with a paper towel.
4. Pour a couple of drops of oil into a heated frying pan and fry the blue pieces on both sides for literally a few minutes. A light golden crust will be a signal that the vegetables need to be removed from the pan.
5. Place the finished pieces on a wire rack, let cool completely and place in the freezer at a temperature below -12°C.
6. After an hour and a half, we take out the grill, remove the frozen fried eggplants from it and pack them in bags, sending them back to the conditions of eternal cold until winter.
7. We stick a sticker on all packages of vegetables, labeling what is in the package, in what form and with what weight.

Cutting into cubes or cubes is acceptable. It all depends on what dishes you intend to prepare from thawed fruits.

Baked

1. Cut the blue ones into rounds or slices. For example, for preparing rolls in the future, slices will be just right.
2. Preheat the oven to 180°C and place the eggplants in the heat for 30 minutes, placing them on a baking sheet greased with vegetable oil.
3. To ensure that the blue ones are well browned on both sides in the oven, after 15 minutes we turn them over to the other side.
4. Next, we do the same as in the case of fried eggplants: leave them to dry, put them in the freezer for half an hour, put them in bags, remove the air, stick them - and back to storage in the “permafrost”.

Stewed

1. Heat a little vegetable oil in a saucepan.
2. Add the chopped eggplants and simmer until tender, stirring occasionally. Salt and pepper are not necessary, but you can if you wish.
3. Remove from the stove and let cool completely.
4. Transfer the stewed eggplant caviar into a container or storage bag and put it in the freezer.

Blanched

1. Boil water in a saucepan, salt it well and add a tablespoon of lemon juice or the juice of half a fresh lemon.
2. Place chopped vegetables in boiling water and boil for five minutes.
3. Using a slotted spoon, remove the blue pieces and immediately lower them into a vessel with ice water.
4. We take it out, dry it and get a product completely ready for freezing.

Boiled

1. We remove the stalks from the vegetables, pierce the fruits in several places with a toothpick or needle quite deeply, and then place them in saline solution to remove bitterness.
2. Leave the vegetables in salted water for 45 minutes. In this case, more time is required, since the eggplants are not chopped and are processed whole.
3. Boil water in a saucepan and add the blue ones, freed from bitterness, for 20 minutes.
4. After cooling, the shriveled fruits can be cut into your preferred method and frozen.

Whole

1. Without peeling the vegetable, we heat it. This can be stewing entirely in a slow cooker, grilling or boiling, as in the previous option.
2. After heat treatment, let the vegetable cool and blot it with paper towels to remove moisture from the surface.
3. We wrap each individual vegetable in several layers of cling film and place it in the freezer.

Whole frozen eggplants can be stored for the winter either with or without the peel. If you are used to eating peeled vegetables, at the stage after heat treatment and cooling, remove the skin from it.

Defrosting according to the rules

Vegetables are a category of foods that can only be frozen once. This means that after the eggplants have thawed, it is prohibited to put them back in the freezer. That’s why it’s so important to package the little blue ones into portioned bags before freezing - so that, if necessary, you can defrost as much product as you need at a particular moment. Then there are two possible scenarios for the development of events.

1. Defrost at room temperature. Remove the blue ones from the freezer, place them on a wide plate and leave to thaw without using any auxiliary electrical appliances.
2. Cooking without defrosting. Some frozen eggplant and zucchini dishes do not require pre-defrosting. Therefore, the product can be sent to a frying pan or pan with other ingredients directly from frozen.

Cooking options

There are quite a lot of recipes that involve nightshades turned into ice. But not all of them are successful and tasty. The table offers you the most profitable options for preparing frozen eggplants, indicating which cut vegetables and which heat treatment are most suitable for preparing the dish.

Table - Options for preparing frozen blueberries

Dish	Recipe	Type of frozen product
Vegetable caviar	- Stew eggplants along with other vegetables; - when ready, beat the vegetable mass in a blender at low speed	Any
Cheese towers	- Place a round tomato on each piece of eggplant; - we form multilayer “turrets”; - sprinkle grated cheese on top; - bake in the oven for 15 minutes	Fried or baked rounds
Rolls	- Three cheeses on a grater; - add chopped garlic and herbs; - grease each slice with sauce and wrap it in a roll; - if necessary, secure with a toothpick	Fried or baked slices
Roast in pots	- Lightly fry the potatoes and meat separately in a frying pan; - put food in baking pots; - add sautéed onions and carrots; - place eggplants on top of each pot; - grate with cheese; - grease with sour cream; - put in the oven for an hour and a half	Cubes of any processing

You can use eggplants taken out of the freezer in the same way as fresh vegetables. However, the taste qualities of frozen blueberries are not as pronounced and strong as those of their “brothers” recently picked from the garden. Therefore, if you have the opportunity to purchase fresh, high-quality eggplants in the supermarket, give preference to this option. Well, if not, frozen slices or rounds can easily diversify your winter diet.

Experienced housewives have noticed that mainly late vegetables or overripe fruits are very bitter. This is another argument in favor of freezing eggplants young. And for those who are crazy about vegetable stew, there is a proposal to freeze a colorful “cocktail”, in which the blue ones will coexist with the onions, bell pepper, zucchini, pot and any other fruits from the garden.

With unusual taste, but without its own characteristic smell. But it absorbs a lot of odors when it is near other products. Therefore, you need to know a few tricks before freezing to prevent this from happening. The advantage of freezing a fresh vegetable is that it preserves more nutrients than when consuming it canned. How to freeze for the winter, whether it is possible to do this at home and not spoil the product, this article will tell you about it.

Is it possible to freeze

Caring housewives actively practice freezing vegetables, and this method of preserving food is gaining popularity more and more every year. In winter, we often feel a lack of vitamins, and not everyone can afford fresh vegetables in stores. So can it be frozen?

Of course, because they contain many vitamins and minerals, which can be preserved in larger volumes 80% , and during canning only 60% .

Selection of fruits for storage

To avoid unpleasant surprises after defrosting and preparing various dishes, you need to choose the right eggplants before freezing.
They should be ripe, with an intact shell, dense and have a shiny, elastic skin. Ideally, choose young eggplants, because they contain less accumulated harmful substances.

Did you know? Store fresh eggplants in a dark place, otherwise they produce solanine, which is poisonous and can harm the human body in large quantities. The substance is present in small quantities in these vegetables, which gives them a slight bitterness.

When slicing blue vegetables (as they are popularly called), pay attention to the cut; if it immediately darkens, it means the vegetable contains a lot of serotonin, which causes a bitter taste; if the cut is light, you can safely prepare the vegetable for freezing.

How to properly prepare vegetables

It is impossible to freeze the blue ones whole without some preparation, as they will look like bitter rubber. Therefore, first you need to prepare them correctly.

There are a few types of frozen eggplants: soaked, blanched, fried, oven-dried. Each type of blank has its own nuances, which we will discuss in more detail. But there are also basic freezing rules: the temperature in the chamber should be -12 degrees Celsius or lower; at this temperature they will be stored for 5-6 months, while maintaining their taste and composition.

Before freezing, clear as much space as possible from other vegetables, especially from. Prepare airtight containers or bags, because eggplants absorb odors from nearby foods well.

If you want to freeze a mixture of vegetables (for example, for a stew), do not forget that the blue ones must be frozen separately. Be sure to dry vegetables before freezing. excess water or oils by blotting them with dry towels or drying them.

Don't forget to label the container or bag at the end; this is very convenient in winter when taking food out of the freezer.

How to freeze eggplants for the winter: step-by-step instructions with photos

How to properly freeze eggplants for the winter can be found in the suggested recommendations. Before freezing, wash them well, dry them, cut off the stalks and, if any, spoiled areas.
Cut them into cubes or rings as needed, put them in a deep bowl, cover with cold water and salt.

Leave them in this state for a couple of hours so that the bitterness goes away, then drain the water and squeeze the cut pieces a little to get rid of excess moisture. Now the eggplants are ready to be frozen.

Blanched

One of the most convenient and quick methods freezing eggplants is blanching.

Already prepared (washed and chopped), soaked in salted water vegetables must be dipped in boiling water for 2 minutes and immediately plunged into ice water, a colander will help you with this, then place the eggplant pieces on a dry towel to dry.
Ideally, apply the chopped vegetables in one layer, this way the moisture will escape better. Only after this procedure can you put everything in a container or bag, seal it tightly, sign it and put it in the freezer.

Important! It is best to defrost such vegetables at room temperature or in the refrigerator. Microwave oven use is not recommended.

Drying in the oven

There are housewives who do not like to blanch vegetables, so they use the drying method. To do this, you can use either a conventional oven, a vegetable dehydrator or an air fryer.

Blue's preparation remains the same as described above. The ideal method for this method is to peel the eggplants. If you are using an oven, then place the chopped pieces on a baking sheet and cover them with foil, but if you are using a dehydrator or air fryer, then simply lay everything out in one layer.
Place the contents in an oven preheated to 55-60 degrees Celsius, and leave it ajar; if there is a fan, then turn it on too and leave it for an hour. Freezing the resulting semi-finished product is the same as described above in the article.

Did you know? For this type of semi-finished product, it is better to cut the vegetable lengthwise (as into rolls). You can freeze baked eggplants in the same way, the only difference is that the oven temperature should be 170-180 degrees, and the foil should be greased with vegetable oil.

Fried eggplants for freezing

Blue's preparation does not change. After you have soaked them, drained the water and dried them, heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan and fry the slices on all sides.

To prevent excess fat from being absorbed, place fried vegetables on dry paper towels.
Wait until they cool down, take a cutting board that will fit in the freezer, wrap it in cling film and place the cooled eggplants in one layer, wrap the pieces again in cling film, place the eggplants in a second layer, and so on.

Then place the board in the freezer. After a couple of hours, when the slices are frozen, remove the board from the chamber and put the resulting product in a sealed bag or container with a tight lid and label it. Before use, defrost and, if desired, brown in a frying pan.

Important! For canning, small-sized vegetables are used, without flaws, damage and elastic pulp. At the same time, it is better to take vegetables from a late harvest, because this way your preservation will be of better quality and will last longer.

A little about the beneficial properties of the product

Eggplant contains many useful substances, such as: fiber, pectin, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, B vitamins, vitamin C, nicotinic acid. (Frozen eggplant do not lose their beneficial properties.)
There are not many vitamins in this vegetable, but it is low calorie product and thanks to the pectin contained in it, it stimulates digestion, promotes the removal of bile and excess cholesterol.

Recipe " How to freeze eggplants for the winter» offers one of the best ways preserve vegetables for a long time. Deep-frozen, they will not spoil for months, will retain their taste and most of the vitamins, and there will be no need to apply complex processing to them. Of course, compared to sweet peppers or zucchini, freezing eggplants requires a more careful approach and additional manipulations.

Is it even possible to freeze eggplants? After all, this vegetable has a specific taste, which, if frozen incorrectly, can change in negative side. Yes, you can freeze eggplants, but not raw. But if, nevertheless, they are prepared raw, then they are stored at a temperature of -12 C and no more than 5 months. Eggplants themselves do not smell when frozen, but they are able to absorb foreign odors. For example, from fragrant dill, which even in the freezer can smell all neighboring products. Therefore, when freezing eggplants, they need to be hermetically sealed in a suitable container. It is not recommended to freeze eggplants together with other vegetables. Here, as in every culinary recipe, have their own small ones.

How to freeze eggplants for the winter is useful and correctly at home? There are three main pre-treatment methods for this: frying, blanching or soaking. But it is advisable to use the third method with the first two options. Whatever method is chosen, it would be a good idea to first thoroughly wash the eggplants, cut off the stalks and cut them into convenient pieces (bars, cubes, mugs, straws, etc.). And the smaller or thinner the pieces are, the faster they will freeze. Afterwards, the pieces are transferred to salted water and kept in it, thereby removing the excess bitterness that these vegetables have. The soaked eggplants are laid out on a paper towel (it is better not to use linen, as the pulp may stick to it) and left on it until dry.

So, as mentioned above, the following options are possible “ How to quickly freeze eggplants for the winter»:
- fry the soaked eggplants in a frying pan in a small amount of vegetable oil and cool;
- blanch pieces of vegetables by dipping them first in boiling water and then in ice water, completing this procedure by drying (it is better not to put wet eggplants in the freezer);
- simply dry the soaked eggplant pieces and place them in a convenient container for storage in the freezer.

Regular plastic bags It is advisable not to use it for packaging eggplants. It is better to store vegetables for several months in plastic containers. In this case, you need to try to arrange the eggplants closer to each other, compactly; this way they will freeze faster and take up less space. But you don’t need to place them closely, otherwise in the future, for defrosting, in order to pull out a certain number of pieces, you will have to break them off from the total mass or break it.

On average, small cubes of eggplant take about 4-5 hours to freeze in the freezer. And you can defrost them in the microwave, directly in a frying pan, or simply by laying them out in one layer on a cutting board or other surface. But there is no need to defrost them in hot water and with other vegetables. It is important to remember exactly how the vegetables were frozen. If they were pre-fried, then too long processing is not necessary. But raw ones need to be properly fried, stewed, boiled, like ordinary vegetables. You can even label containers with frozen eggplants, because when frozen, it is quite difficult to distinguish the pieces and determine which one was used.

Compared to other vegetables, eggplants can be called finicky, having their own specifics and characteristics. And not every housewife succeeds in freezing them correctly the first time. But it’s not all that complicated if you look closely! The main thing is to disassemble recipes “How to freeze eggplants for the winter” in order and when preparing, strictly adhere to the recommendations of the recipes. Let's take a closer look at the following two methods.

Method 1 - freezing whole eggplants with pre-frying
First of all, only whole, ripe vegetables are selected for harvesting, without spoilage or bruised areas. They are then washed, the tails are cut off, and they are left to dry. The second step is to place the dried, clean eggplants in a dry frying pan without oil and fry them on all sides over low heat until they soften slightly. During frying, eggplants need to be turned regularly; this will remove excess moisture and bitterness from them. Next, the baked vegetables are peeled, and each of them is wrapped in cling film. Now they can be transferred to a suitable container for freezing and put in the freezer. The advantage of this method is that frozen eggplants can be taken from the freezer one at a time, avoiding defrosting excess portions.

Method 2 - freezing eggplants in pieces with preliminary blanching
The second method differs from the first in that the vegetables will be frozen in slices or cubes. So, washed eggplants are cut, sprinkled with salt and left for 30 minutes so that they “drain” and get rid of the bitter taste. Then the pieces are blanched: put in a colander and lowered into boiling water for 1-2 minutes, and then sharply into cold water. Next, the mugs or cubes are laid out on a paper towel (this will dry them faster) and then placed in airtight containers for freezing in the freezer. Store these eggplants in small portions, making sure there is no unwanted moisture in the storage container.

There is no doubt that there is nothing better than fresh vegetables! They contain microelements and vitamins... But what to do if the season ends and you have to say goodbye to them? Then “How to freeze eggplants for the winter” recipes will be a great help and help you stock up on a tasty and fresh piece of summer. Pickles, preserves and marinated foods are good for everyone. But, unfortunately, they are no longer of much use. Then there is only one way out - home freezing!