Back at home after most of the summer on the coast, I am now blanching and freezing veggies from my in-laws’ garden. Chard and zucchini. The chard is a welcome addition to my chilli recipe, as well as the deer lentil soup that I make regularly in winter. The zucchini does an amazing job of fibre-ing up chilli, shepherd’s pie and other soups.
I have mentioned blanching before but I wanted to share my storage technique which I just came up with. Instead of using medium ziplock bags for each portion, I decided to get away from the plastic and wrap 2-cup portions of chard and zucchini in parchment paper. I fold the parchment around the 2-cup portions and once wrapped nicely, place them in a large labelled ziplock. Thus, the ziplock stays clean and I much prefer my freezer food to rest on parchment paper. This is going to greatly reduce my use of ziplock bags, yet I still have the large freezer-weight ziplock to protect the food. As I work to de-plastic my lifestyle, I still want to have convenience and I think this technique will be useful.
Happy fall preserving everyone! (The next level up is canning – we will see!)
Traced Elements 