I don’t know about you, but I was never taught to freeze food items like bread, nuts and even mushrooms while growing up. It was until the last few years I have been shown that you can pretty much freeze anything, but the key is to make sure it is fresh before freezing.
Here are a few tips to freezing some food items:
Mushrooms – take them out of there original packaging and clean them to rinse off the excess dirt. If not sliced already, go ahead and slice them so that they are easier to use when you need them. Once they are completely dry, then go ahead and put them in a sealed bag and make sure to release all of the air. But keep in mind, frozen mushrooms are better used for sauces and soups, not for items that are asking for fresh mushrooms.
Bread – the most important part of freezing bread is concealing it tightly and removing as much air as possible. The air will harden the bread and take away from the freshness. The quicker the bread goes into the freezer when you purchase it, the better. When you are ready to eat, take out the amount you want and let it thaw out for a little bit. It shouldn’t take long to thaw, but make sure to put the unused bread back in the freezer with the same process right away.
Nuts – treat the nuts the same way you would treat the bread, by taking out as much air from the bag as possible. This will help with the freshness. The beauty behind nuts are that they never truly freeze. You can pretty much eat them right after you take them out of the freezer.
Cheese – I tend to freeze my shredded cheeses which does include Parmesan cheese. I will keep it in a sealed container and use it whenever I need it. It is great because the cheese has a much longer life-span in the freezer. Cheeses like Mozzarella and Havarti need a little bit more time to thaw than Parmesan though.
Herbs – Whenever I get fresh herbs I always make sure to wash them, let them dry completely (very important step) and then chop them up. Once this process is done I throw them in a plastic baggie and yes you guessed it, I make sure to release the air and then I throw them in the freezer. I make sure to do this process when the herbs are at there freshest so that I can keep some of that freshness while freezing them. It is great to use these herbs while cooking. Another great way to utilize fresh herbs is to put them in an ice-tray with olive oil and let them freeze into oil-cubes. This way, it makes the process of cooking so much quicker.
Fruit – I tend to cut my strawberries and put them along with blueberries, raspberries and blackberries in the freezer to keep them from going bad quickly. Best part is, the frozen fruit comes in handy when you want to make a smoothie.
I will most likely add to this post, but for now these are the items I wanted to highlight that has worked well for me to freeze. I hope you try some of these tips and they cut-down on your cooking time and keep your food lasting longer!