Frugal Freezing

One of the problems with buying bargains is that if you buy in too big quantities, you run the serious risk of having your ‘bargain’ mouldy piles of nasty smelly packets of-who-knows-what, only good for the compost heap.

The best way of keeping ahead is to preserve your perishables either by freezing or bottling and then you have good fruit and veg on hand when you need it, and of course there is that link with our pioneer past and the rather self-righteous glow of having preserves of all kinds on a pantry shelf, or packed in plastic bags in the freezer.

Onions are essential to most savoury recipes and often I have bought a large pocket of lovely golden onions, only to find that I couldn’t use them quickly enough and either they have sprouted or worse still, gone rotten in the vegetable basket under the counter

The good news is that onions can be frozen very successfully. Once frozen, they aren’t very good to use in salads, but they’re perfect for cooking. And unlike most vegetables, they don’t need to be blanched before you freeze them.

Just peel and chop your onions, or cut into rings if you prefer. Place a large plastic bag flat on a baking sheet. Carefully place a layer of onions in the bag and tie the bag carefully to keep the layer flat rather than in a clump that will be difficult to use later. This plastic bag method will help to prevent the whole freezer smelling of onions! Once frozen, you can transfer them to small zip-lock plastic freezer bags in useable portions. Use them straight from the freezer.

When you are cooking and you have some chopped or sliced onions left over, just pop them into a small bag and keep in the freezer. They will clump, but that doesn’t matter as you can just put the whole thing into the dish you are cooking and it will melt anyway.

I hope you find this useful 🙂

x

Elaine