Are frozen berries and fruits as healthy as fresh ones? Secrets of the correct freezing of berries How to use frozen berries.

01.11.2021 Restaurant notes

Freezing today is no less popular type of preparation than canning. Most of the micronutrients and vitamins are retained in frozen berries. If you have already frozen berries, then you know that you cannot freeze berries again. Therefore, defrost at a time as much as you need for one serving. Do not defrost quickly. It is better to leave the berries at room temperature, then they will retain their original taste.

Frozen berries will go well with different dairy products: cottage cheese, kefir, yogurt. They are very healthy and tasty, so many doctors recommend including them in their diet in winter.

What can be prepared from frozen berries? Almost everything is fresh. Of course, you can just cover them with sugar and eat or chew compote from them. But then they will lose all useful vitamins and substances. We offer you several recipes that use frozen berries.

Sorbet

If you want an original and delicious dessert, prepare a desorbet. Sorbet is a fruit and berry ice cream. Such ice cream is not only tasty, but also healthy, and most importantly - low-calorie, since it does not contain milk and egg yolks.

To make a sorbet, you will need: 1 orange, 2 lemons, 3-4 glasses of strawberries, 1 glass of sugar, and a third of a glass of water.

Peel and squeeze citrus fruits. Rub on a fine grater. Pour water, sugar into a small bowl, add zest over high heat, bring to a boil. As soon as the mixture boils, make it quieter and cook it for another five minutes. Then remove from the stove and let it cool. Add the prepared orange and lemon juice to the cooled mixture. In a blender, chop the strawberries, add the syrup there and mix everything carefully.

Pour the berry-citrus mixture that you get into freezer molds and place in the freezer. Popsicles will be ready in about 6-7 hours.

If ice cream is not to your liking, then prepare a drink with frozen berries - a smoothie. The history of this drink dates back to the days of hippies, and today smoothies in many countries are an invariable part of healthy nutrition. This is a cocktail made from iced fruits or berries, mixed with milk, yogurt or juice.

In our recipe, the smoothie will include yogurt, orange juice and frozen strawberries (you can take absolutely any berries that you like). In a blender, combine a glass of yogurt (it is better to take natural yogurt), a third of a glass of orange juice, 8-9 frozen strawberries and sugar (to taste).

This drink is served in a tall transparent glass, decorated with mint or a slice of lemon (you can take an orange).

Dessert

Frozen berries are an excellent base for desserts. You will need 350 grams of any berries (currants, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries), 2-3 tablespoons of sugar, 150 grams of yogurt (natural) and a teaspoon of vanilla sugar.

First, defrost the berries, then beat them in a blender with sugar and yogurt. Spread the resulting mixture in bowls and garnish with berries before serving. Dessert is ready!

Morse

If you like berry drinks, you can make fruit juice, which will not only be very tasty, but also healthy. Frozen berries preserve vitamins and nutrients, so in winter, drinks made from them are especially useful.

Absolutely any berries are suitable for fruit drink. In our recipe, we use black currants, lingonberries and strawberries. You will need about stagrams of black currant, 4-5 strawberries, a couple of tablespoons of lingonberry and sugar to taste. To begin with, wash the berries and pour boiling water (there should not be too much water). Stir until the currants are melted. Then add more boiling water (about 1 liter), 3 tablespoons of sugar and cover. Insist for three hours. After that, crush the berries and strain the fruit drink. It is better to serve this drink chilled in a transparent decanter or glasses.

If you do not want to spend a lot of time preparing the ridge, then here is another recipe for this drink. It will take you no more than 5 minutes to prepare it. Take any frozen berries and grind them in a blender with sugar. Pour the resulting mixture with boiled cold water, and then strain. Morse is ready.

Compote

Frozen berries make wonderful compotes. The best way to cook them is from cherries or black currants. Then the taste is richer. If you want the compote to be not only tasty, but also have a beautiful color, add a handful of chokeberry to it. One handful of berries is enough for one liter of water. You can also add mint or cinnamon to the frozen berry compote. Don't forget sugar.

Yoghurt cake

Not only ice cream and a drink can be prepared from frozen berries. Make a yoghurt cake, for example. It will take you no more than an hour to prepare it. True, it is high in calories, so if you adhere to a diet, then it is better not to make such a cake.

To start, grind 250 grams of crumbly cookies in a blender and melt 250 grams of butter. Stir the butter with the cookies, distribute evenly over the baking dish and refrigerate. At this time, take 300 grams of berries and heat them in a saucepan. Add cinnamon, sugar and 15 grams of gelatin to the berries. Mix everything well, and then cool. When the mixture has cooled a little, put the cream, 600 ml of whipped cream and 150 grams of yogurt on top of the cake, then put it back in the refrigerator overnight. In the morning, the cake will be ready. It can be garnished with whipped cream and berries.

Irish cupcake with berries

Irish pastries are very famous all over the world. You can taste it in many teas. As a rule, it is served with fresh thick cream (the consistency of cream is similar to sour cream), which can be spread over muffins. This pastry goes best with tea. And if you have a desire, you can easily pamper yourself and your loved ones with delicious self-made berry muffins.

To get started, you need to make a muffin dough. To do this, combine flour, salt, sugar, baking powder and baking soda. Beat eggs with kefir and melted butter, add the resulting mixture to the flour. Next, gently mix the berries with flour. Put the dough that you get in the molds and put in the oven. Bake the muffins at 180 degrees for an hour. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving. Bon Appetit!

There are many different recipes for frozen berries. They can be added to baked goods, made into desserts and drinks. Even with regular sugar and cream, the berries will be delicious and healthy.

If this year you did not have time to stock up on berries for the winter, then be sure to do it next year in the summer in order to pamper yourself with various goodies all winter.

Summer has come, berries have begun to ripen at the dacha. And the question arose about their storage. Sometimes you pick up a bucket of strawberries, raspberries or currants, don't eat it right away, cook jam - vitamins are destroyed, then there is a jar in the cellar, it grows moldy. Any hostess in this direction will be helped out by freezing berries.

How to properly freeze berries

Let's take a look at the highlights of freezing berries.

1) First of all, let's decide which berries are frozen ?

You can freeze all berries without exception. Everything that grows in our latitudes: strawberries, cherries, gooseberries, currants, raspberries, blackberries, sea buckthorn, lingonberries, cranberries, etc.

A) Strawberries.

The berries must be washed with water in a colander, and peeled from the stalks.

The process of freezing strawberries is simple: in bulk or in sugar syrup.

Bulk - you sprinkle the berries on a pallet in the freezer, and then collect them in a bag already frozen and put them in a permanent place in the freezer.

In sugar syrup: cut large berries into two parts, and put small ones whole in some kind of plastic container (we usually take 800 grams or 1 kg plastic mayonnaise containers). They put one layer - sprinkled with sugar, then put the second layer again - sprinkled with sugar, etc. - to the very top. We must close it with a lid and put it in the freezer for storage.

B) Raspberries.

Raspberries are frozen only in bulk. In sugar syrup, it does not taste good when it thaws. You do not need to wash the raspberries - then they will become limp, choke and give juice. Immediately pour the freezer into the tray, and then after an hour, pour the berry into a bag, tie it and - for storage.

The second option for freezing raspberries is immediately in a bag, like currants (see photo below).

C) Currants.

Freezing currants can also be in bulk and immediately in a bag.

First, the currants must be washed, sprinkled on a towel on the kitchen table so that it dries up within 2-3 hours. And then put it in a bag in parts with a spoon. Approximately 13-15 spoons per bag.

Attention!

During the freezing process, the berries come into contact with atmospheric oxygen. And this contact can adversely affect the preservation of vitamins in berries. Therefore, it is advisable to store the berries in an airtight container in which the air is removed, or in a bag, as in the photo below.

We take a package of berries and a straw.

We insert the straw into the bag and squeeze the top of the bag with our hand so that the hand tightly squeezes the straw.

We suck in all the air from the bag. We abruptly remove the straw so that the air does not enter the bag back. We tie the bag, holding it tightly so that the air does not enter.

These are the packages with berries ready for freezing.

D) Freeze gooseberries, cherries, sea buckthorn, cranberries, lingonberries and other berries in the same way as currants.

2) The shelf life of frozen berries is 8 to 12 months.

Recently, for example, we got a strawberry frozen a year ago, last July. And it was just as delicious as if we had harvested it a week ago and also frozen it.

Yes, as a result of the freezing process, the berries lose a certain taste, which is inherent in fresh fruit. But if you take an alternative to freezing - drying, jam, then in these cases the taste is even more lost.

Attention!

Storage of frozen berries should be carried out without bringing them to defrost, and then until re-freezing. In this case, they give juice, lose vitamins, and become already tasteless.

3) Are frozen berries useful and how much.

Yes, they are. In general, the process of preserving substances by freezing has long been confirmed by science. In cardiac surgery, the patient is even covered with ice bags so that if the heart stops during surgery, the brain would not die. And with a decrease in body temperature, the activity of the processes decreases, but the vitality remains. Also, science knows some representatives of the animal world, which, when water freezes, stop their vital activity, and when thawed, they resume life.

It's about the same with berries. In the process of freezing vitamins are practically not destroyed! They are destroyed only when defrosting after long-term storage.

Some are also interested in the calorie content of frozen berries.

The calorie content is very low, and does not differ from the calorie content of fresh berries. Indeed, in the process of freezing and storage, the berries did not become more fatty, were not fried, did not increase in size due to a set of proteins, fats or carbohydrates.

4) What to make from frozen berries?

Anything!

My wife makes compotes in the same way as from fresh berries, for example - this is a compote from frozen apples and chokeberry. When making a cake, takes frozen cherries out of the freezer. When he makes a manna with sour cream, he takes out frozen strawberries.

And if the jam is over in the cellar, he takes out any berry and cooks the jam.

Attention!

In order for the berries to retain vitamins during defrosting, they must be properly defrosted.

5) How to defrost berries from the freezer correctly?

Never defrost berries in the microwave! The fact is that the microwave destroys water molecules in the tissues of the berry, as a result of which vitamins are also destroyed. That is, the whole usefulness of freezing such berries is down the drain.

It will be correct to defrost berries at room temperature if they were stored in the freezer in bulk in a bag, for example, this applies to raspberries or strawberries. If the strawberries were stored in sugar syrup, then the container with the berries can be placed in a saucepan with warm water - this will defrost the strawberries faster.

Well, berries such as cherries, sea buckthorn, gooseberries, lingonberries, cranberries can be defrosted in a colander - pour them into a colander, put them under warm water, and gradually defrost in this way. After such defrosting, the berries seem to have just been plucked from the bush.

In general, we have been using the "services" of the freezer for 12 years. And we are not happy that we have it. By September, it is completely filled with only berries - all six compartments. And in the refrigerator, the three-compartment freezer is also half full of berries. If there is some kind of celebration or celebration in our house, all guests know that there will always be on the table like fresh (that is, frozen) berries from their own dacha, the same fragrant and tasty, as if they were just plucked, or some kind of dish from these berries such as compote or cake.

Berries are a source of vitamins, minerals, fiber, antioxidants and other substances important for the body. But you can enjoy fresh berries only in the summer. The rest of the time you have to be content with cooked berries: in compotes and jam.

Are frozen berries good for you?

The benefits, harms and composition of frozen berries almost do not differ from fresh ones, because with the correct freezing process, almost all substances remain in the same quantitative composition as in fresh ones. Hence the recommendations not to overdo it with the amount of the consumed product in order to avoid undesirable consequences. Caution in the use of berries should be exercised by those who are prone to allergic reactions.

In other cases, frozen berries are a tasty and nutritious product. The benefits of frozen berries are manifested in such moments:

  • they retain a full set of vitamins and minerals, therefore, during the period of vitamin deficiency, frozen berries can be a good help for a depleted body. Almost all vitamins of group B, C, A and some rare vitamins can be obtained from frozen berries;
  • when frozen, the berries retain their taste. They can be used as filling for pie, cake, compotes and decorations for ice cream and soufflé;
  • the calorie content of frozen berries remains at the same level as in fresh ones. For example, the calorie content of frozen cherries and sea buckthorn will be 52 units, cherries - 50, raspberries - 42, strawberries - 34, cranberries - 26 kcal.;
  • each of the berries has its own beneficial properties, therefore, it is necessary to choose berries for the prevention and treatment of diseases with knowledge of the matter. For example, blueberries are good for eyesight, black currants and raspberries - for colds, cranberries - for heart disease.
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Are frozen berries and vegetables good for you?

With the onset of winter, we begin to think about vitamins. Imported vegetables and fruits, plucked from the branch while still green and lying on the counter for several months, are unlikely to contain enough of these vitamins. If they contain it at all. A special conversation about tableted vitamins. Scientists have proven that even from a high-quality pill, the body will assimilate a maximum of 30-50% of nutrients. And the key word here is maximum.

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I have repeatedly noticed that at the grocery counter our person is often suspicious. Especially when he meets products that are not very well known to him. So it is with frozen fruits and vegetables. After all, they began to be included in our diet relatively recently. Hence the doubts. What if the berries or vegetables were frozen spoiled? What if they are harmful? Are there any vitamins preserved in them?

Let's try to dispel these doubts. It has long been known that berries are a source of many nutrients. Vitamins, glycosides, antioxidants, trace elements and bioflavonoids are necessary not only for the normal functioning of the cardiovascular, digestive and immune systems of our body, but also for many internal human organs. In addition, berry carbohydrates are of great value. They contain fructose, which is twice as sweet as glucose, so the calorie content of berries will be lower. This is especially important for people with diabetes and those who insist on losing weight.

The benefits of berries

All edible berries can be considered healthy. The most useful among them is blueberry. It improves vision, lowers blood cholesterol levels, sharpens memory, and resists cancer, and restores nerve cells wasted in our difficult life. In addition, blueberries are beneficial for anemia. It contains vitamins of group B, P, microelements: iron, calcium, potassium, magnesium and copper. If you take blueberries in pill form, the set of useful elements, of course, will be preserved. But do not forget that it was created in the laboratory, and the body will assimilate all 90 percent of the nutrients from the berry. However, do not get too carried away with blueberries, as they have side effects. The berry has a tanning effect and can contribute to constipation. Therefore, people with intestinal problems need to be careful with blueberries.

Among the most useful berries, raspberries should be especially noted. This is a good antipyretic agent, the berry contains salicylic acid, it acts like aspirin, only without a detrimental effect on the gastric mucosa. Raspberries have the ability to remove fluid from the body.

A storehouse of vitamin C is black currant. This vitamin helps to retain iron in the body, speeds up the healing process, and maintains healthy bones, teeth and skin. To meet the daily need for vitamin C, it is enough to eat 50 g of black currant. Doctors have proven that the berry is useful for preventing heart disease, diabetes and even cancer. It also fights against age-related changes in brain cells, thereby preventing memory loss and senile dementia.


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Cranberry has long been used as an anti-inflammatory and antifungal agent, as well as for the prevention of kidney, urinary tract and bladder diseases. It has a strong tonic effect, stimulates appetite and improves digestion. It is also used for colds. Recommended for vitamin deficiency. It also lowers cholesterol levels and prevents the formation of atherosclerotic plaques in blood vessels and the formation of blood clots. Cranberries increase the elasticity and strength of the blood capillary walls. Its berries are useful for high blood pressure.

Blueberries also have a number of unique properties. It is used for anemia and vitamin deficiency, helps to reduce blood glucose levels. Stimulates metabolism and improves immunity, removes toxic substances from the body, improves vision. Possessing an anti-sclerotic effect, blueberries strengthen the walls of blood vessels, normalize the work of the heart, and slow down the aging of nerve cells. Blueberry tea drink is effective for atherosclerosis, hypertension, capillary damage. In addition, blueberries have a choleretic and anti-inflammatory effect.

The head is cold to everything

There is no better preservative than cold. After all, it preserves the best qualities of the frozen product. That is, it is in frozen berries (and not in jam, juice and other products) that the greatest amount of vitamins and nutrients is preserved.

The secret of "berries with ice" is well known, for example, to the inhabitants of the north of Russia, who have kept cranberries and lingonberries frozen from time immemorial. Blueberries, for example, were placed in birch bark boxes and filled with fat. In this form, it was stored in the moss until spring, without losing its nutritional properties.

Today, old-fashioned methods have given way to modern technologies. For example, quick freezing allows you to almost completely preserve vitamins and minerals in berries and vegetables. Both in taste and in their nutritional value, frozen vegetables and fruits are in no way inferior to fresh ones. But under two conditions. First, you need to store them in the freezer. Secondly, you cannot thaw, and then freeze again, otherwise the food can definitely deteriorate. Fortunately, the most advanced manufacturers already put special paper indicators in the fruit packaging. From the juice of the products, they change color, warning us about the defrosting that has occurred.

But you can also freeze in different ways. The classic method of freezing is at a temperature of minus 30-40 ° C using a low-temperature liquid or cold air. The water in the berry cells does not have time to turn into large ice crystals that destroy the cell membranes and thereby damage the contents of the cells. In addition to this method, there is a more modern cryogenic or shock freezing at temperatures below -60 ° C. It has been proven that such a product is practically not inferior to fresh food in terms of its nutritional value.


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How to choose?

Some berries, vegetables and fruits lend themselves better to freezing and tolerate it better than others. So, from berries - these are strawberries, wild strawberries, cherries, raspberries, currants, cherries, gooseberries. The best vegetables for freezing are asparagus beans, sorrel, bell peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, cauliflower, and carrots. From fruits - apricots, plums, pears, peaches, grapes.

Scientists have long debated how many berries make up a healthy daily dose. The principle "the more, the better", which has long occupied our minds, is completely inappropriate here. After all, all the same, the body will assimilate exactly as many nutrients as it needs. So, in terms of the amount of anthocyanins - useful substances contained, for example, in blueberries - it is enough to consume from 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon of this berry per day, for example, adding it to yogurt, cottage cheese or kefir. During the year, scientists recommend consuming blueberries for 10 months a year (for example, eating 5 weeks and taking a break for one week). It turns out that from 1.5 to 4.5 kg of blueberries are needed per person per year. Agree, not so much. That is, it is not so much the quantity that is important as the regular use of berries.

Frozen berries retain twice as much nutrients as cooked ones. By freezing a couple of bags of treats in the summer, you can enjoy them even in the spring. Or, if you are late in the summer, buy in the store.

Why choose frozen vegetables and berries in winter

There is a long-standing debate about whether frozen fruits and berries are harmful or healthy. There are scientific studies showing that frozen foods not only keep up with fresh ones in nutrient content, but often outperform them. Critics of the product baselessly claim that packaged frozen food does not inspire confidence in the consumer. But there is one point of contact. Both critics and advocates of this method have agreed that summer-produced and frozen foods are healthier than "artificial" winter fruits and vegetables.

Judge for yourself: only fruits of the best quality are selected for freezing. Yes, then they are thoroughly washed, cleaned, crushed, packed and frozen. But the product remains high quality. In winter, it is much better than other freshly brought fruits that can be stored for months without signs of rotting.

Overcoming your own clumsiness is never easy. But you can, if you see the ultimate goal - improving your own health.

Vladimir Tretyakevich,

Candidate of Medical Sciences, Lecturer at Grodno State Medical University.

Healthy eating specialist.

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Frozen berries: benefit or harm?

In summer, people have a great opportunity to enjoy various delicious berries, saturating the body with vitamins and minerals. But what to do in winter, when the need for nutrients is especially urgent? Everyone solves this problem in his own way: someone prepares jams and compotes for the winter, someone dries berries, someone buys expensive fresh berries in winter brought from warm countries, but nowadays more and more people prefer frozen tasty fruits ... And, according to many experts in the field of nutrition, it is frozen berries that are more useful than other options for blanks. There are several reasons for this:

  • Frozen berries retain in their composition most of the substances useful for the body. This is especially true for fruits that have undergone shock freezing at a temperature of -50 degrees.
  • Only high quality fruits are selected for freezing. Crumpled, rotten and unripe berries are not suitable for these purposes.
  • After thawing, most berries retain the flavor and aroma of fresh berries.
  • Many experts argue that frozen berries are much healthier than berries brought out of season from warm countries. During long-term transportation and storage, fresh fruits lose many useful properties. While berries for freezing, as a rule, are frozen in the first hours after picking, which allows you to preserve most of the healing properties.
  • The calorie content of frozen berries practically does not differ from the calorie content of fresh fruits. While various jams and compotes, due to their high sugar content, are distinguished by a large number of calories.

Contraindications for frozen berries. Contraindications for frozen berries are completely identical to those for fresh berries, i.e. if raspberries are contraindicated for a person, then they should not be consumed in frozen form. You can read about the beneficial properties and contraindications of various berries in the "Useful products" section.

What berries you can freeze: The most popular frozen berries are strawberries, cranberries, lingonberries, blueberries, cherries, cherries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, black currants, and honeysuckle. Almost all types of berries are suitable for freezing. Usually only red currants do not freeze.

Shelf life of frozen berries: Generally, the shelf life of frozen berries is one year.

Eat frozen berries and be healthy!

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Frozen vegetables and fruits - good or bad?

Here is the opinion of the head of the laboratory of food additives of the Institute of Nutrition of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences A. N. Zaitsev:

- Experts consider freezing to be the best way to preserve. No wonder today it has become almost the most popular in the whole world. By the way, the secret of "berries with ice" is well known to the inhabitants of the North of Russia, who have kept cranberries and lingonberries frozen from time immemorial. Fast freezing technology allows you to almost completely preserve vitamins and minerals. The taste and nutritional value of frozen vegetables and fruits are not inferior to fresh ones. But under two conditions. First, you need to store them in the freezer. Secondly, you cannot thaw and then freeze again, otherwise the food may deteriorate and even cause poisoning.

Variegated soup

Vegetable soups from "frozen" improve digestion, appetite, increase the tone of the body. Chop and fry 1-2 onions in vegetable oil until golden brown. Place the green pea and carrot vegetable mixture in a weak stock. Bring to a boil. Add the onion a few minutes before cooking.

Magnificent quartet

Dip a mixture of broccoli, cauliflower, carrots in boiling water and boil until tender. Season to taste. Without defrosting the champignons, simmer with onions over low heat for 7-10 minutes. Mix mushrooms with vegetables and serve as a side dish (then the meat is better and faster absorbed) or as an independent dish. It contains a lot of fiber, which removes excess cholesterol, as well as a complex of minerals important for health.

Vegetable mosaic

Are you tired? Do you want to recuperate? Remove swelling, lose weight? Include vegetable stews in your diet.

Simmer frozen cauliflower, carrots, potatoes, green peas and fresh tomatoes (proportions to taste) in vegetable oil, stirring occasionally, over low heat for 7 minutes. Add cloves to taste. Garnish with finely chopped herbs before serving.

Desserts "Dreams of Summer"

Cherry jelly. Soak gelatin in water for 25-30 minutes. When swollen, squeeze out. Dip the cherries in boiling water. Wait for the water to boil again, add the sugar syrup, strain. Then add the gelatin and stir. Arrange the berries in tins, pour over the syrup and set in a cool place to harden. Add some wine and lemon juice to the jelly for flavor.

For 0.5 kg of cherries - 0.5 l of water, 250 g of granulated sugar, 1/2 glass of dry white wine or liqueur, 1/2 tbsp. tablespoons of lemon juice, 1/2 tbsp. tablespoons of gelatin.

Berry mousse. Let the berries thaw slightly and make mashed potatoes from them: mash and rub through a sieve. Fill the pomace with hot water, boil for 5-7 minutes, strain. Put granulated sugar, pre-soaked gelatin into the berry broth and, stirring continuously, bring to a boil. Then cool, add the berry puree and beat until a homogeneous mass is formed (it should increase in volume by 2 times, for this it is better to beat in a cool place). Divide the finished mousse into the tins and refrigerate. Garnish with wedges of fresh or canned berries and fruits.

For 1 cup of berries - 2 cups of water, 3/4 cup of granulated sugar, 15 g of gelatin.

Where are vitamins stored

Homemade preparations may well replenish the supply of vitamins that was pretty much wasted during the winter. True, the preservation of nutrients is significantly influenced by the way vegetables and fruits are preserved.

Like a cucumber

Salting and pickling allows you to preserve almost all the vitamins and minerals that are found in fresh vegetables. Moreover, some canned vegetables are even healthier than the "raw material". A classic example is sauerkraut. Lactic acid bacteria, which are released during fermentation, allow all vitamins to be fully preserved, while in fresh cabbage, some of the vitamins are destroyed during storage. And cabbage brine is a wonderful prophylactic agent for gastritis with high acidity and a real helper for those who want to lose extra pounds. The fact is that cabbage brine contains substances that prevent the conversion of sugar and other carbohydrates into fat.

Pickled apples are also sometimes healthier than their fresh counterparts. If fresh apples lay for at least a couple of weeks, they lose approximately one third of their vitamin C, while in soaked apples, ascorbic acid is completely preserved.

However, it is better for heart patients and hypertensive patients not to abuse pickles and marinades. These canned foods contain too much salt, and this can lead to high blood pressure. Spicy snacks such as lecho, pickled tomatoes and peppers are contraindicated in people suffering from gastritis and peptic ulcer disease.

The fly sat on the jam

Unfortunately, during cooking, fruits and berries lose about 30% of their vitamins. But on the other hand, jams and compotes contain quite a lot of fiber and pectins. These substances lower the level of bad cholesterol in the blood and improve digestion. But for lovers of the so-called raw jam, for the preparation of which the berries are not boiled, but simply ground with sugar, the lack of vitamins is not threatened - this method of canning allows you to save most of the nutrients.

Frozen berries are a piece of sultry green summer in the middle of muddy and slushy autumn or winter. In the summer, we eat by handfuls of yummy food straight from the bushes! But how to preserve surplus berries or specially prepare them for the winter so that you can also enjoy strawberry or raspberry freshness at the New Year's table? How to defrost them correctly, how to use them?

According to the latest research, scientists have proven that the beneficial properties of foods are best preserved in their frozen version, and frozen berries are not only a fragrant delicacy in winter, but also a storehouse of vitamins for your health.

Preparation of berries, freezing rules, storage

In terms of vitamins and mineral value, they are much better than fresh purchased ones - unripe, chemically processed berries brought from distant overseas countries and bought in a store in winter. To freeze them correctly, you need to know some secrets, which we will consider.

You can freeze absolutely all berries.

  • Raspberries, blueberries, currants, cherries, viburnum, cherry plum, sweet cherries, gooseberries, and similar berries must be sorted out, rinsed with cold water.
  • Dry by laying on a towel and pressing slightly on top with another towel (you can use a paper one).
  • Sprinkle in one thin layer on a flat tray and freeze quickly.
  • Well frozen berries should then be poured into a plastic bag and tied well.
  • It is better to remove the seeds from cherries, cherries.
  • It is recommended to freeze strawberries and strawberries only with the addition of sugar, so they retain their taste, aroma and, after defrosting, represent a delicious ready-made dessert.

Also watch a very valuable video with many tips on how to properly freeze berries.

Containers for freezing and storage of berries

If you mix the berries with sugar or grind a little, then for freezing it is better to take a small container, it freezes faster, which is what we need. It is more convenient to defrost a small portion of berries and eat them immediately. It is impossible to store thawed berries, they become limp, lose their attractive appearance and quality.

  1. Try to choose a container of such a shape, from which the berries can be pulled out and folded in bars in plastic bags. This saves space in the refrigerator and more berries will go there.
  2. According to my observations, people freeze berries in containers of various shapes and sizes: glasses of ice cream, cheese, yogurt, sour cream, buckets of mayonnaise, plastic bottles with a wide neck, someone uses cardboard packaging for milk, wine, or juice, someone cuts plastic bottles from drinks, someone uses ordinary plastic bags. Only you should never use glassware, it bursts from frost.
  3. Any of your containers with berries must be tightly closed with a lid or foil so that air does not get there, moisture does not evaporate from the berries. Then the quality of the products will be wonderful. It takes about 3 days to fully freeze.
  4. Be sure to sign an opaque package so that you know what is in it and do not open it again.
  5. You can also freeze and use the juice squeezed out of the berries.

Frozen berries must be stored on separate shelves or in compartments, as they absorb all the smells of meat, fish and other products.

Tip: If you need to defrost the refrigerator, remove the berries and quickly wrap them in some blankets. This way they will remain intact.

Frozen berry recipes

You need to defrost the berries on the top shelf of the refrigerator gradually so that they do not lose their juice and shape. They can be used in desserts.

  1. In order for the berries to be fully assimilated by the body, you need to add fats to them in the form of cream, sour cream, ice cream, cottage cheese, yogurt.
  2. If you want to make jelly, compote, tea from frozen berries, then immerse them in boiling water directly frozen, boil for a few minutes, set aside from the stove and let it brew.
  3. For fruit drink, whisk the berries with the addition of sugar with a mixer and cover with cold boiled water, let it brew, strain.
  4. To prepare a newfangled drink called a smoothie, add yogurt, a little granulated sugar, defrosted berries, fruit juice into a blender and whisk everything. Serve such a gorgeous drink in a tall glass with a wide straw.
  5. Any frozen berries are great for filling and decorating all kinds of baked goods, for example, make muffins