How to keep fresh parsley for the winter: how to freeze, store and use

To keep the fresh parsley for the winter, no special tools will be needed. And the process itself is not complicated and does not require much time. But a frosty winter sprig of fresh parsley will create a summer mood and fill dishes with a unique aroma. By the way, the store alternative, which is sold in the winter, does not have such a taste and smell as harvested from the summer.

She can perfectly decorate the dish, but if you chop and fill with a green soup, she obviously will lose in comparison with the "home".Moreover, even frozen parsley grown under the summer sun contains 2 times more vitamin C than the greenhouse winter. So we learn to freeze parsley.

Choose the storage method and prepare the greens

To keep parsley for the winter in fresh form, it is necessary to freeze it. You can also dry it or saline it, but then there will not be fresh taste. Years mistress invented a variety of methods that allow you to keep the winter fresh greens, as well as convenient to use it. We can only choose the most acceptable method or offer something of its own. So, freeze parsley can:

• sprigs;
• in cubes;
• striped;
• in bulk.

Whatever method, how to store parsley, was chosen, it is prepared according to the same scenario:

1. Clean the bushes of greenery: remove the rotten leaves, foreign inclusions, cut off the roots.
2. Wash the parsley. It is best to do this by soaking in salt water. This method does not injure the leaves( this is important if the greens are to be frozen by branches), removes nitrates and kills the microorganisms living on it. Pour so much water into the basin that it covers the bunches of green. Add salt, so that the water tastes salty, and soak the leaf seasoning for 15-20 minutes.
3. With the washed grass, shake off any excess moisture and spread it on the towel. It must dry, but not have time to wilt. To allow the twigs to dry well, they need to be turned from time to time. Thorough drying is especially important if parsley is supposed to be frozen for the winter by chopping loose or twigs.
4. Now the fragrant leaf seasoning is ready for further manipulation, which depends on the chosen method of freezing. They will be discussed in the next part.

Tip: you need to choose one or the other option based on the intended destination of the frozen greens. For example, for use in soups, sauces, or other hot dishes, the preparation for the winter with cubes and stripes, for sprinkling boiled potatoes, it will be most convenient to use parsley, chopped in placer, and to decorate salads and second dishes - twigs.

Step-by-step instruction for freezing

Let's consider in detail how to store parsley with twigs, cubes, stripes and loose. To obtain neatly frozen twigs, prepared parsley should be laid on the substrate "twig to the twig", so that when it is placed in the freezer, the bushes immediately "took".This will allow them to maintain their shape and maximum vitamins. When all the branches on the substrate freeze well( 2-3 hours), they can be transferred to food film and wrapped in it with batch tufts.

Advice: everyone knows that for the production of semi-finished products, the method of "shock freezing" is used. It allows you to freeze any products in a matter of seconds, thereby preserving the maximum of useful substances and preserving their shape. If the freezer has a function of "fast freezing", it should be used when frost is frozen.

There are two ways how to make frozen parsley cubes - they differ by filling. In the first variant, the greens are poured with water, in the second - with melted butter. When freezing with cubes, it is not necessary to thoroughly dry it. It is enough to rinse and chop, and then densely to put in a form of such size that one is enough no more than a serving. Then in each form, pour a little water or butter. Forms with greens are removed to the freezer for complete freezing.

The way to keep parsley streaked throughout the winter, is similar to the one described above - storage in cubes. For him, the prepared leaf seasoning is enough only to wash( without drying), chop and lay a strip on food film( 15-20 cm), and then wrap it with sausage( not roll!) So that the inside is green, and outside - the film. Thus, it is necessary to wrap up all the chopped grass. In the end, you get a few stripes. They should be put in the freezer and used as needed, cutting off a piece of the desired length with a knife.

And, the last way, allowing to store parsley greens all winter and it is convenient to use it as a sprinkler for boiled, fried potatoes or meat - freezing chopped loose. This is the fastest, no-hassle option. To preserve the greens in this way, the prepared parsley should be chopped and put in a container, which must be placed in the freezer. That the frozen greens were easily separated and it could be taken with a pinch, it should be carefully dried.

Advice: frozen greens are stored up to 12 months, cubes with butter - up to 4-6 months.

Other useful recommendations

Each of the proposed methods of harvesting fresh parsley for the winter provides for easy batch division. This is due to the fact that the frozen greens can not be thawed and re-frozen, but should be stored in the freezer all the time until use. Moreover, before use, the frozen greens are not thawed, but immediately put in a dish.

In order to store parsley greens in a freezer, containers of plastic, silicone molds, food film or special packages for freezing are suitable. Glass is not used, because under the influence of low temperatures it can give a crack. Metal is oxidized by contact with greens, so it is also not recommended to use it to store parsley.

To save a piece of summer for the winter is a pleasant and not troublesome business. Let it be parsley or some other greens, the dishes filled with it, will remind of summer days and will give solar heat!