How to freeze nettle for soup for the winter?

Freeze nettles for the winter as a preparation can even those who do not have a personal plot. After all, this plant is considered weedy and grows everywhere. In the future, such a blank is used for the preparation of soups and other dishes. This is justified by the fact that nettle leaves are rich in vitamins and valuable trace elements. In order for the plant to retain all its benefits, it must be properly assembled and frozen according to a certain technology.

Harvesting and preparatory work

Nettle must be collected in an ecologically clean place, away from busy roads and industrial enterprises. The best time for harvesting is from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Some summer residents are collecting on their site, combining the harvesting of raw materials with weeding plantings.

The nettle collected in May has the most valuable qualities: it contains the most vitamins. However, you can start harvesting in the summer months, cutting off exclusively young shoots with 2-3 top leaves.

So that the plant does not burn hands, it is necessary to collect it in protective gloves. It is most convenient to cut nettles with ordinary scissors.

You can freeze the leaves directly on the stem or in crushed form. In any case, first greens must be washed and dried. Wash the raw materials in a colander under the tap in small batches, then let them drain to water and lay them out to dry in one layer on a paper or fabric towel.

During the drying process, the leaves can be turned over. It is advisable to replace a wet towel dry several times. It is important not to overdry the raw materials (which will be indicated by darkening of the leaves), therefore, drying should take no more than 2-3 hours.

It is more convenient to freeze already chopped greens. In this case, nettles are immediately laid out in portions, and then they simply throw them into the boiling broth immediately from the freezer. For grinding, use a sharp knife - then the greens will remain as juicy as possible. During the cutting, the leaves are pressed to the board with a paper towel or work done with rubber gloves - this will protect the skin of the hands from burns.

Which container is better to use?

You can store nettles in the freezer until winter in various ways. As containers can be used:

• Plastic food container. It is convenient to stack whole leaves in it, which after defrosting can be either cut or used untouched to decorate dishes, for example, by putting a sprig of greens in a bowl with soup before serving. If the task is to preserve the whole leaves, they are not placed tightly in the container. In the future, it will be possible to get the right amount, and the rest again put in the freezer.
• Cling film. It is very convenient to pack nettles in bunches. Flexible leaves are wrapped tightly in a film, resulting in small rolls. Since the greens become brittle when frozen, it is better to store the workpieces in a container. With this method, one can be 100% sure that the bundles will maintain their integrity. If necessary, they are easy to get and use.
• Plastic bag. Already chopped greens are usually stacked in such containers. Some housewives chop nettle right in the bag so as not to waste time slicing it. Washed and dried grass is placed inside the package, allowed to freeze and break easily, shaking and turning the package by hand. After freezing, the leaves become fragile and crumble easily.

Thawing nettle very quickly.For cooking, it is not subjected to preliminary thawing, but immediately lowered into a pan. The same is done if it is necessary to decorate the finished dish with a sprig of vitamin greens.

For more compact storage, you can first scald the nettle with boiling water, and then squeeze and pack portionwise in the same plastic bags or in plastic wrap. As a result of this treatment, the volume of green mass is significantly reduced, which saves space in the freezer for placing other products. Subsequently, the workpiece is cut immediately before adding to the dish.

Features of freezing

Nettle should be frozen at a temperature not exceeding -18 ° C. It is advisable to enable the function of continuous freezing, it is present in modern refrigerators. The faster the process of freezing greens passes, the better its properties will be preserved. After 1-2 hours, you can put the refrigerator in normal operation.

Keep in mind that nettles prepared for soup should not be thawed and re-frozen. In this case, the greens will lose all useful qualities and lose their fresh look and shape. Frozen nettles can be stored for up to 1 year, but it is better to use it within the first few months. Over time, the amount of vitamins in the product begins to decline.

How to cook nettle soup?

Cooking nettle soup is very simple. If you cook a dish according to the classic recipe, you can even use it in fasting.

As ingredients, you only need vegetables and nettles:

• potato tubers - 3 pcs.;
• medium onion - 1 pc.;
• medium carrot - 1 pc.;
• frozen nettle greens - 200 g.

Dice the potatoes and throw them into a pot of boiling water, add salt to taste. Finely chopped onions and grated carrots are sautéed in vegetable oil and sent to potatoes. After 10 minutes, chopped nettle leaves are thrown into the pan. After another 5 minutes, the vitamin green soup is ready. When serving, put a half of boiled egg in each plate. If desired, you can add sour cream.

In addition, nettle is added to borscht, vegetable salads, scrambled eggs, pastries, it is prepared from it okroshka on kefir.

The process of freezing nettles is very simple and does not take much time. But the benefits of consuming natural vitamins in winter are hard to overestimate. To extract as many nutrients as possible, the herbs should be minimally cooked or used in salads and cold soups.