How do I avoid veggies going soft after freezing?

Question

We do eat a lot of capsicums and courgettes, but during the winter, the prices for those tend to shoot through the roof. So we typically buy them in summer while they're cheap and then chop them up and freeze them. However, after thawing, they end up extremely soft due to the high water content turning to ice and destroying the cells during freezing.

However, I have noted that if I buy pre-frozen veggies in the supermarket they end up a lot less soft than my own. I suspect that's got to do with shock-freezing them. Is there a practical way of achieving something similar at home?

Answer 1

From my personal experience, if you boil the vegetables when they are still frozen, they turn out to be good and not soggy. Even the store bought frozen vegetables go soft after thawing them. I think the trick here is to cook them frozen instead of thawing it first, and not to over-cook it.

Answer 2

Grocery store frozen vegetables thaw better because they're flash frozen with a process that creates smaller ice crystals that cause less damage. Since there's no practical way to reproduce this in house, you have two options:

1. Accept the veggies as-is and use them in ways in which the texture won't be a liability. Soups, sauces, and rice dishes come to mind.
2. Can the veggies, instead. This is more work, but you'll end up with a better end result and a longer shelf life.

Answer 3

I've never tried this with veggies, but I do it all the time with fish that I catch. Put the food in a water tight container, e.g. zip lock bag, and fill the remaining space with ice, water, and salt. The ice helps it freeze faster and the salt will draw some water out of the food. Both help prevent the cellular structure from breaking down.

Answer 4

I'm not speaking from personal experience here, but I have heard that if you put a bag of dry ice next to them in the freezer they will come out no problem. I assume that it's the flash freezing that makes that work. This is the same trick, I believe, that game hunters use to keep venison.