Greens for the winter - what options exist for processing fresh greens for future use
There are not so many methods by which you can preserve green vitamins for the winter, and they are all incredibly simple. As I said (and I will repeat...), for the winter you can simply chop the greens finely and put them in a container with salt, freeze them in the refrigerator, dry them in chopped form, and prepare them using canning. The last method is good because you can prepare a lot of these plants and enrich your menu throughout the winter, and besides, such stocks are convenient to store, like other home preserves.
Let's look at these four main options for processing green plants for the winter in more detail.
Just choose the easiest option for you, buy large, fragrant bunches and get down to the task.
Marinovka
The greens are pickled almost as much as they are salted and dried. It was necessary to store food, but there were no refrigerators, so people did not invent refrigerators, but ways to preserve the aroma of herbs for a long time.
Prepare the greens for pickling. Remove excess, wash and dry a little.
The brine is easy to prepare. For about 5 minutes of water, a tablespoon of salt, 2-3 grains of peppercorns, a bay leaf, a tablespoon of vinegar.
Place finely chopped dill into a sterilized jar, fill it with brine and close the lid.
You can screw it on with a disposable lid, you can use a nylon one, or take a reusable screw-on lid, it’s all your choice.
This product should be stored in a cool place protected from direct sunlight.
It is good for first and second courses, but with one caveat, the greens are salted, so count on this when you salt the dish.
A simple recipe for drying greens at home for the winter
How to dry greens at home? For this preservation technique, any green herb will do, but perhaps you should not use delicate lettuce. Any drying begins with sorting; it is also necessary to remove coarse stems and carefully rinse in running water. Now it is advisable to dry it, and then start grinding. You can cut it not very finely so that a lot of juice does not come out, but not too large so that it has time to dry evenly.
I usually put a clean tablecloth and put our product on it and leave it to dry, preferably keeping the room dry and cool. You can also use an oven or a special dryer. In this case, it is desirable that the temperature does not rise above 40C. High-quality dried greenfinch does not stick together (which means it is not wet), does not crumble into dust, but evenly breaks into small pieces.
To keep our spices safe and sound, it is recommended to pour them into a paper bag or linen bag and sign them, indicating the date of their manufacture. All that remains is to place our vitamins in the basement, underground, or at least in a cool room.
Use in cooking - add spices a few minutes before cooking to soups, salads, meat and try to lift the lid of the pan slightly so that all the aromas are preserved. Well, if you sort the dried plants before use, you can prepare a seasoning at home to your liking by mixing aromatic herbs.
Pickling dill and parsley
Not all housewives like this method, since when it is used, the greens lose their color, because the salt takes the juice from the plant. But still, many people use it, just as they used it once upon a time, when there were no traces of refrigerators.
This is a very simple way to harvest greens.
- First, you should sort it out, remove the coarse petioles, wash and dry it in the same way as in the first option.
- then cut it and put it in clean, preferably sterilized jars. The jars should also be thoroughly dried. Lay out in layers of 1 cm. The first and last layer is salt.
- a layer of greens, a layer of table salt... and so on. Do not use iodized salt; the color of both parsley and dill will be lost.
- Having thus filled the jar to the very top, help yourself with a spoon. Then shake it, wait a little while the mixture settles and releases the juice. Then fill again to the top. Cover with a plastic lid.
- Greens salted in this way should be stored in the refrigerator.
- You can also grind it with salt in a blender and store it in a closed jar in the refrigerator. But I like the first method better. I love it when the greens are visible in a dish.
- Use the contents of the jar as needed, always with a dry spoon. Then cover with a lid and continue storing in the refrigerator.
When using, do not forget that the greens are salted. Therefore, first add the greens, and then add the final salt to the dish!
Salted greens can be used for preparing hot dishes and cold salads.
Greens for the winter: freezing fresh plants for future use during the winter
Freezing nutritious plants, be it sorrel for cooking green cabbage soup, or the usual dill and parsley for a beautiful presentation. There are two options for freezing - dry and wet. But no matter what method is right for you, the herbs must first be prepared - sorted, washed and divided into parts.
Dry freezing greens for the winter
For dry harvesting, it is enough to put the dried, crushed grass in plastic bags, level it into a thin layer and carefully tie the bag. As soon as you need some of our spices, you can open the package and break off the required amount. Moreover, in this form, dried spices take up very little space in our refrigerator.
Wet freezing of greens for the winter
You can also make portioned cubes from greenfinch; for this purpose, the crushed product is mixed with clean boiled water, and the mixture is poured into molds. After freezing, remove and transfer to a bag or container for storage.
How to store - always in the refrigerator. And a short-term blackout, if you don’t open the freezer, is not even as scary as completely defrosting and re-freezing the product.
Use in cooking - such spices can be added to any hot dishes, just like regular seasoning, and can even be used to decorate salads. It only takes a few minutes for the ice on the surface of the product to melt.
Don't forget to sign the bags and containers, indicate the date and name of the product stored there. This is especially true for aromatic mixtures of various greens.
Canning fresh herbs for the winter
Properly preserved fresh herbs will be no less tasty and healthy on your table than fresh produce from the garden. A wide variety of tops can be used to make a very flavorful dressing for soups and stews. An open jar, unfortunately, cannot be stored for a long time, even in the refrigerator, so for seaming it is better to use a small container, literally for 2-3 servings.
Preparing greens for the winter - canned beet tops for borscht and beetroot soup
This preparation will not only add flavor to beet dishes, but will also add an additional bright color. And this is more important than ever in preparing dishes from this healthy root vegetable.
To prepare you will need:
- Beet tops with stems – one kg;
- Coarse table salt – 1 tbsp. spoon;
- Granulated sugar - one teaspoon;
- Vinegar essence – 50 ml.
If desired, you can add other herbs to the preparation, a little allspice or black pepper, crushed cloves of garlic or hot chili pepper.
Recipe for winter greens - dressing for beet dishes
Sort and wash the beet tops, chop them together with the stems as finely as possible. Place in a saucepan, add salt and water, cook over medium heat for about 7-8 minutes. Pour in the vinegar essence, stir and bring to a boil again.
Place into clean jars while still hot, sterilize for 5 minutes. Roll up, turn upside down and wrap, cool. Now our stocks can be stored in a cold place, like our other stocks of tomatoes and cucumbers for the winter.
These products, greens for the winter, can be used shortly before the end of cooking borscht or beetroot.
Greens "Fragrant"
To prepare you will need:
- A mixture of parsley, dill and celery – 1 kg.
- Salt – 250 g.
Greens “Fragrant” Recipe:
- Dill, parsley and celery are sorted and washed.
- They cut with a knife.
- Mix thoroughly with salt and transfer to pre-washed jars.
- The greens in the jars are compacted until the juice appears.
- As soon as the juice appears, cover the jar with a cloth and leave for 2 days in a cool room.
- During this time, the contents will settle a little, so the jars are filled to the top with a new portion of herbs and salt, after which they are closed with lids and stored in a cool room or refrigerator.
Tip: When adding salted herbs to soups (sauces, meat and fish dishes, etc.), you do not need to add additional salt - there is enough of it in the preparation.
Greens for the winter - harvesting and storing fresh herbs in vegetable oil
It is very convenient to preserve fresh greenfinch by filling it with vegetable or olive oil. When this dressing sits in the refrigerator for a while, the oil will acquire the taste and aroma of herbs, and it will be very tasty to put it in a salad.
Ingredients
- Any fresh greens – 600 gr.;
- Vegetable oil – 250 ml;
- Bay leaf;
- 3 cloves of garlic;
- 2 sprigs of rosemary;
- 5 peas of black or allspice;
- 23 carnation umbrellas.
Cooking greens for the winter in sunflower oil
Wash, sort and thoroughly dry the greenberries; you can use one type for the recipe, or make a mix of your favorite type. After the greens have dried, they should be finely chopped.
Place spices, garlic, and rosemary sprigs at the bottom of a dry and sterile jar. Fill the jar tightly with chopped aromatic herbs and fill with vegetable oil. Ideally, for the flavor to develop better, it should be slightly warmed.
Note! The mixture will be ready for use the next day, but the oil needs time to infuse and acquire piquancy and aroma.
Greens "Spicy"
To prepare you will need:
- dill – 1 kg.
- leaf parsley – 1 kg.
- leaf celery – 1 kg.
- chili pepper – 2 pcs.
- bell pepper – 300 g.
- salt – 400 g.
“Spicy” greens Recipe:
- Celery, parsley and dill are sorted, washed and dried on a towel.
- Then finely chop with a knife.
- Peppers (Bulgarian and chili) are peeled from stems and seeds and cut into thin strips.
- In a deep bowl, mix chopped herbs, finely chopped pepper and salt.
- The pickling container is thoroughly washed, sterilized and tightly filled with the mixture.
- Cover with lids and store in the refrigerator.
Tip: You can add a few cloves of garlic to the salted greens, then it will acquire not only a sharper taste, but also an appetizing aroma.
Greens for the winter are a very healthy and tasty seasoning that is always at hand.
Fragrant fresh herbs are a decoration for any table, but we don’t want to forget about their properties - they are a combination of useful vitamins and microelements. Ordinary “grass” that grows literally under your feet is simply filled to the brim with substances beneficial to the body. If your family doesn’t yet have the habit of generously sprinkling and decorating your favorite treats with green vitamins, try to start it. This will bring great benefits to yourself, your loved ones, and most importantly, your body.
All this diversity, stuffed with vitamins, is generously presented to us by Mother Nature throughout the spring-summer season. Of course, you can buy a bunch of dill in the supermarket in winter, but it will be very expensive, and there will be nothing useful in it - since winter greenfinch is grown with the help of chemical fertilizers. Will there be any benefit from this weed? A dubious statement, isn't it?
Good luck with your “green” preparations and aromatic dishes prepared with the addition of fresh herbs prepared in time for the winter!
Drying
This method is perhaps the simplest and most accessible to everyone. Greens retain their aroma and beneficial properties. The only downside is time. It takes a long period for the plants to dry out.
Drying
Even in ancient times, our ancestors dried medicinal plants in the open air. With the development of technology, we have the opportunity to do this at home using various devices. An electric dryer, dehydrator, microwave, or oven are suitable for drying. Let's take a closer look at these options.
Air dry
- Carefully sort through the sprigs of celery, dill, parsley or any other spice. Remove pest-damaged and yellowed areas.
- Rinse them well with running water. To dry, place on a towel.
- After the raw material becomes dry, you can grind it or arrange it into bundles.
