- Hey, everyone.
Today, we're talking about how to freeze broccoli.
So a couple things before we get started.
If you're freezing broccoli,
you can't freeze just a whole stalk.
You have to freeze the individual florets,
and before you freeze it, you have to blanch it.
So with broccoli, if you don't blanch it
before you put it in the freezer,
it's gonna degrade once it's in the freezer.
So blanching it kind of helps preserve its color,
its texture, its taste, everything.
So it's just a real simple step.
Now, there's a couple different ways
that you can actually blanch the broccoli.
You can boil it, you can steam it, or you can microwave it.
Depending on the volume of broccoli
that you're going to be blanching and freezing,
and depending on the size of those individual florets,
that time can vary.
So if you're boiling it,
it's probably a couple of minutes to five minutes.
If you're steaming it, it's about the same.
If you're microwaving it, it's maybe about three minutes.
The important part when it comes to blanching
is that you just notice how the broccoli is changing.
So what I'm showing you here is you have a floret
that is uncooked,
and then you have next to it, one that's blanched,
and as you can see with the floret that's blanched,
it's a really nice, bright, beautiful green.
The one that is not cooked has a little bit more
of a green-blue color to it,
like you just see broccoli regularly
in the grocery store, right?
So you just want it to start to turn that color.
Once it kind of just turns that color green,
no matter what method you're using,
boiling, steaming, or microwaving,
whatever method that you're using,
once it turns that color, you wanna stop,
take the broccoli out,
and immediately transfer it to an ice bath.
This is important because you want to stop the broccoli
from cooking.
So take it and put all of that broccoli into cold water,
add some ice there, and let it sit there
for about five to 10 minutes
until it completely stops cooking.
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After it has completely cooled,
we're gonna take those florets
and we're gonna put them on a baking sheet
with some parchment paper evenly spread out.
So here's another thing about broccoli
you wanna think about when you're freezing it.
How are you going to use the broccoli
once you actually take it back out of the freezer?
If you're going to just throw it in some soup
or a casserole, they can be uneven sizes,
but if you're maybe going to stir-fry the broccoli,
you probably want to have florets
that are pretty equal in size,
so that way that they cook evenly
in whatever it is that you're making.
So just something to think about.
Also, think about how you eat broccoli.
When I eat broccoli, I don't peel the stalk.
I like the stalk just the way it is,
but some people peel it
'cause they like it to be more tender.
So you wanna do all of that stuff
before you even get to the blanching part, right?
Make sure that the florets are the size
that you want to work with, peel the stalk if you want to,
and most importantly, thoroughly clean the broccoli
before you even start this process,
because once it's in the freezer,
there's no cleaning it before you cook it,
so you have to do that before you freeze it.
So we put all the florets on the baking sheet,
and we're just gonna put that in the freezer.
So the reason we put it on the baking sheet spread apart
is the last thing you want is after you put the broccoli
in the ice bath, put in a bag, put in the freezer,
you're going to have one giant broccoli ice cube,
and nobody wants that.
So by putting it on the baking sheet
and putting in the freezer, you let it freeze separately,
put it in there for a few hours, take it back out,
pull the broccoli together,
you can see how hard and firm it is...
don't make any jokes...
and then you can transfer it to a Ziploc bag
or airtight container and put it back in the freezer.
Once frozen, the broccoli will stay fresh to eat,
not fresh, but fresh to eat for about six months to a year.
I would recommend using it on the earlier side of that,
and that's exactly how you freeze broccoli.
Now, here's a couple of little quick tips.
So, one, if you want to store broccoli
before you get around to freezing it,
store broccoli like a flower.
Cut off the end of that stalk,
put it in a Mason jar with a little bit of water,
just like cut flowers,
put it back in the fridge,
and your broccoli will last a really, really long time.
Also you just cook the frozen broccoli
like you do any other frozen vegetable.
You can put it in a saute pan with little bit of water
to steam it, throw it in some soup,
put it in a casserole, however you want to do it.
Super easy to cook.
So that's how you freeze broccoli.
If you have any questions, hey, drop a comment below.
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I'll see you guys next time.
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