Vitamin Preserves: 7 ways to preserve your greens now so you don’t have to buy anything in the winter

Why to store herbs

It would seem that herbs are in season everywhere, but it is so desirable to preserve them for the winter as well. There are several reasons for this. The reason is sentimental: this is your native greens, which you yourself grew with your golden hands or accepted as a gift from other native and favorite hands. Such greens are just a pity to leave to their fate. The reason is practical: scientists have proved that a number of useful substances, calcium, for example, in huge quantities are contained in greens. And it is assimilated from there even better than from dairy products. So it is worth it to prepare parsley, cilantro, dill and basil. And here’s how to do it correctly, we will tell you further.

Preparation of greens

Greens before any type of preparation should be:

1. Thoroughly go through, removing spoiled parts of leaves and stems. After all, just one leaf can spoil the whole jar.

2. Wash in plenty of cold water, changing the water 3-4 times.

3. Shake off the water and lay out to dry in a single layer on woven towels, turning them over a couple times or transferring them to dry towels. If you have a centrifuge for drying greens, this will help a lot.

7 ways to harvest greens for winter

Drying: tie into bunches, hang and dry or cut and dry on newspaper. Store in an airtight container.

Pickling: chop, mix with salt in a 4:1 ratio, place in jars, cover, store in the refrigerator.

Freezing: chop, place in zip-lock bags, close, label and store in the freezer.

Fermentation: chop coarsely, salt in a ratio of 8:1, ferment at 20-24 ° C, 48 hours. Store in the refrigerator.

Kimchi: hold in salted water for 10 minutes, squeeze, mix with kimchi paste in a ratio of 7:2, place in a jar, sour at room temperature for 48 hours and transfer to the refrigerator.

Freeze in oil: whatever oil you use, first prepare the greens: pick them, wash them, and dry them. Then chop very finely, you can even use a blender. On green vegetable oil you can fry vegetables, fish and meat, season soups and porridge, adding at the very end of cooking. Before serving, cut the creamy green butter into circles with a hot wet knife. Serve over porridge, soups, steaks, poultry, fish, vegetables.

Marinating: place in a jar and pour vinegar brine. For 500 ml of water – 150 ml of vinegar, 1 tbsp. salt and sugar, spices to taste.

What you can quickly do with extra chopped greens

It happens that you have picked and chopped much more greens than you need for cooking lunch or dinner. Do not, under any circumstances, throw away the extra greens! Here are 3 ways to turn them into a great winter starter or dressing for tomorrow.

1. Mix chopped greens with butter (greens:butter 1:1 to 1:4), salt, pepper, roll into a sausage, wrap in foil and freeze.
2. Place chopped greens in ice molds, salt a little and pour vegetable oil: olive oil, sunflower oil, corn oil (refined or unrefined).
3. Finely chop the greens, salt, after 10 minutes chop them with a blender, adding vegetable oil. Season with grated garlic, ground nuts and cheese (type of nuts and cheese according to your taste).

Excess chopped greens can be added to vegetable and butter, frozen or made into a tasty dressing

Dressing recipes with greens

Simple green dressing

This is a versatile dressing for any dish.

1 liter, preparation: 1 day

What you need:

• any greens – 1 kg
• peeled garlic – 40 g
• 9% table vinegar – 30 ml
• black pepper peas – 5 g
• unadulterated salt – 25 g
• sugar – 25 g

What to do:

1. Boil the brine: 0.5 liters of water with vinegar bring to a boil, add crushed garlic, salt, sugar, pepper, vinegar. Dissolve the salt and sugar, cool the brine completely.

2. Place the chopped herbs in a liter jar up to the neck. Pour boiling water into the jar and leave for 1 minute. Then drain the boiling water.

3. Fill the greens with cold brine, close the jar and invert. Keep upside down in a dark place at room temperature for 1 day, store in the refrigerator.

Riabikovsky-style green dressing

This seasoning can be used for all soups, salads and hot dishes.

1 liter, preparation: 1 day

What you need:

• peeled onions – 100 g
• cilantro – 100 g
• parsley – 100 g
• dill – 100 g
• peeled fresh horseradish root – 50 g
• tomatoes – 200 g
• peeled ground sweet pepper – 300 g
• peeled hot chili pepper – 30 g
• peeled garlic – 80 g
• dill sprigs – 25 g
• bay leaf – 3 pcs.
• black pepper peas – 15 g
• currants or lime – 5 leaves
• salt, sugar, vinegar to taste

What to do:

1. Through a meat grinder, pass horseradish, tomatoes, garlic, onions, chili.

2. Chop the dill, parsley, cilantro finely with a knife. Dice the sweet peppers into 5 mm cubes.

3. Put everything you put through the meat grinder into a saucepan and put it on low heat. Bring to the boil, reduce heat to low. Add the sweet peppers and simmer for 20 minutes.

4. Put all the chopped herbs, pepper, bay leaf, currant or lime leaf. Salt, pepper and season with vinegar to taste, simmer for 5 min.

5. Spread the seasoning into sterilized jars with the addition of a dill umbrella. Close the jars, invert, leave for 1 day in a dark place at room temperature. Store in the refrigerator.