If eggplants can be bought cheaply in the summer or are ripening in the garden, it is worth freezing the vegetables. Aubergines only keep for a few days in the fridge; frozen, they can enrich your diet for several months.

Uncooked aubergines are best frozen in cubes

Freeze raw aubergine cubes

If you want to go the easiest route, dice the aubergines, put them in a freezer bag and then put them in the freezer. You should make sure that you cut the pieces to the right size for later processing. The cubes should go directly from the freezer into the pan; thawing beforehand would turn the pieces into an unsightly mush.
Please note that raw frozen aubergines have a shorter shelf life than previously cooked ones.

Freeze blanched aubergine slices or cubes

To ensure a longer shelf life, you can blanch the aubergine pieces before freezing. To do this, cut the vegetables into slices or cubes, put them in boiling water for about three minutes and then shock the aubergines in ice water. If you add ten percent lemon juice to the cooking water, the eggplant pieces will not turn brown. Before freezing, allow the eggplants to cool completely.
Here, too, you should process the aubergine slices or cubes frozen, i.e. do not thaw them, but directly into the pan.

Freeze baked eggplant

For example, if you want to make hummus or any other dish using mashed aubergine, you can cook your aubergines in one piece. You pierce the aubergine in several places with a fork and place it on a baking tray in the 220° C oven for at least half an hour. You can now either remove the skin from the soft-cooked aubergine and freeze it in one piece, or cut it open, scrape out the pulpy inside and place in a freezer.
The oven-cooked aubergines, like the blanched cubes, will keep in the *** freezer for at least nine months.

Freezing eggplant cooked in oil

A particularly aromatic variant are aubergines cooked in olive oil, which can also be frozen. So that the slices of vegetables do not become excessively full of fat, they are prepared in the oven as follows:

  1. Slice the aubergines lengthwise or crosswise into thin slices (no more than 0.5 cm thick).
  2. Place the slices on a baking sheet brushed with olive oil.
  3. Drizzle some oil over the eggplant slices.
  4. Place the tray in the 220°C oven.
  5. The slices are cooked when the surface is browned.
  6. Let the aubergines cool completely.
  7. The aubergine slices are now placed in a plastic box in the freezer.

The garden journal freshness ABC

How can fruit and vegetables be stored correctly so that they stay fresh for as long as possible?

The garden journal freshness ABC as a poster:

  • as a free PDF file to print out yourself

Category:

Vegetable garden