I have been buying pre-cut and prepped stir-fry veggies at Trader Joe's and I was wondering if I could freeze my own bags of veggies. Would there be any issues with cutting up stir-fry veggies and freezing them in a conventional home freezer? Are there any veggies that do not freeze well to stay away from? Are there some that work especially well?
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1 Answer
You will have the best results if you prep by cutting and blanching prior to freezing. This should ensure that moisture content in the veggies does less damage over time in the freezer and improve color duration. I find it helpful to freeze vegetables separately rather than as mixes as you can always grab from multiple bags, but you can't unmix mixed vegetables without more work.
The majority of vegetables for stir-fry (e.g. broccoli, peas, etc) will freeze well enough, the ones in your freezer aisle obviously freeze a bit better than others. If a vegetable has a high water content (i.e. lettuce, which I hope you aren't stir-frying with) that is more integral to its structure than the cellulose it is likelier to burst cell walls in freezing; these vegetables are better to avoid.
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I take it Bok Choy is similar to lettuce in it's high water content and ill-fit for the freezer? May 1, 2012 at 0:59
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@ben Freezing Bok Choy doesn't do too well as far and eating again raw, but kale and chard will. I am not entirely sure why. However you have the options of freezing loose and flat then storing in bags for cooking down (and stir-frying), or dehydrating. Dessicating (i.e. by sprinkling some salt on the surface) might aid in removing moisture, which would help the freezing to not destroy the cell walls.– mfgMay 1, 2012 at 15:16