Any housewife wants her to have a variety of vegetables, fruits, herbs and all kinds of seasonings all year round. In this case, there is an opportunity whenever you want to cook absolutely any dish properly and not be afraid for the final result. It should be noted that greens are often used as an additional component to various soups, salads, meat, fish. Virtually no hot dish or cold appetizer can do without it . Of all the types of herbs, the most fragrant, perhaps, is considered parsley. Without it, it is difficult to imagine any kind of culinary recipe. But if in the summer to find parsley is not difficult, in the winter it can be associated with certain difficulties. Therefore, almost all the housewives try to procure her for the future. There are several basic ways to save parsley for the winter. Four main options can be distinguished: freezing, drying, salting and pickling.
Refrigerated workpiece
The easiest way to harvest is freezing. It can be carried out in different ways:
- In some cases, whole bundles are frozen. They must first be washed and sorted out. Then cut off part of the stem, leaving only the right amount. Fold the bundles in plastic bags and send them to the freezer. This is the easiest method to save parsley for the winter.
- You can freeze both whole and chopped greens. Whole bunches are rarely used for cooking various dishes. Most often, greens are chopped with a knife, and then added as an aromatic seasoning. Therefore, it is most convenient to keep it in a crushed state. You can store such blanks in the freezer in plastic bags. But for this you need to know how to save parsley for the winter correctly. After freezing, remove all possible air from the bag, if possible, and only then send the product for long-term storage.
- Chopped greens can be frozen in portions. To do this, you need to dilute it a little with water and carefully pour into ice molds. This method of preserving parsley for the winter is indispensable for preparing soups and various hot dishes. Frozen briquettes completely retain the aroma of fresh herbs and serve as an excellent flavoring additive.
Drying is a reliable assistant
Another method of harvesting, which allows you to keep fragrant greens for a long time, is drying. It is also carried out in various ways. Drying can be carried out:
- in a natural way;
- using the oven.
Now we need to understand in more detail how to dry parsley for the winter. This is usually done in the summer or early fall. Fresh greens taken directly from the garden are carefully sorted out. At the same time, yellowed shoots, thick stems and sluggish leaves are cast aside. The selected greens are tied into small bundles, and then hung in a room where there is free movement of air and there is no direct sunlight. Otherwise, the greens will quickly turn yellow and will crumble with a light touch.
You can also dry chopped parsley. To do this, the greens are carefully cut with a knife, and then laid out on a sheet of white paper with a thin layer (no more than one and a half centimeters). The finished product is poured into dark glass jars and stored at room temperature for two years.
Sometimes an ordinary oven is used to speed up the drying process. Shredded or whole bundles of parsley are laid out on a baking sheet sent by a sheet of paper, and sent for 2 hours in an oven heated to a temperature of 35 degrees. Then the temperature must be raised to 50-70 degrees and gradually finish drying.
Salt is an excellent preservative
Best of all, any greens retain their beneficial properties when salted. This method is the fastest. It is very easy to prepare dill or parsley with salt for the winter. To do this, you need 125 grams of table salt per 0.5 kg of greens.
It starts as usual:
- Greens should be washed thoroughly under running water and dried.
- Then chop it with a knife and put it in a clean bowl.
- Pour parsley with salt, mix and fold tightly into prepared jars.
Keep such a product in a cool place. Banks are better to choose a smaller size so that the greens are salted properly. In winter, this aromatic seasoning will be like a find.