How to keep sorrel fresh in the refrigerator at home: how much will be delicious, as well as ways to save for a few days, a week and for the winter Russian farmer

Video

Many housewives want to know how to preserve sorrel for the winter at home in order to be able to enjoy the aroma and taste of fresh herbs all year round. The plant is actively used in cooking to give dishes a slightly sour taste and a touch of freshness.

For storage, choose only whole, beautiful leaves without pests or signs of rotting. This will allow you to store greens for as long as possible, without losing their taste and beneficial qualities.

In addition, greens are rich in vitamins, minerals and other substances, which makes them not only tasty, but also healthy. Simple tips and recipes collected in the article will help you prepare the preparations correctly, as well as preserve the taste and benefits of greens until the next harvest.

There are other names for this plant, for example, “sorrel”, “kislitsa”, “kislichka”, “kislenitsa”, “kislinka”, “kislinka”, “kislyatka”, “kisled”.

Preparation for storage

To preserve sorrel for several days, you can simply place it in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator. For long-term supplies, the leaves should be pre-treated. Having bought or picked greens, it is recommended to do the following:

You should sort out the sorrel. Remove flower shoots, yellowed leaves, excess grass, and cut off damaged parts.
Soak them in a large bowl of cool water - this will help them straighten out, releasing particles of earth that will sink to the bottom. Placing the plant in salt water allows you to get rid of small insects that remained unnoticed at the first stage of treatment.
Using a slotted spoon, remove the greens from the liquid and lay them out on towels to dry.
They cut into portions, making subsequent preparation of dishes easier.
Packaged in containers in which storage will be carried out.

Sorrel is a perishable plant. To maintain freshness, do not delay preparation. More than a dozen varieties are known, and all of them are suitable for storage.

Benefits and contraindications

Sorrel contains a lot of useful components. Rich in ascorbic, folic, pantothenic acid. Mineral salts are present. The product has anti-inflammatory properties. This is a great helper for the immune system. Only most substances die when boiled. This is why most people prefer freezing to canning.

Some more beneficial properties of sorrel:

cleanses and thins the blood;
lowers sugar levels;
removes harmful cholesterol, increases the elasticity of blood vessels;
improves the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract, accelerates digestion;
cleanses the liver;
has a mild diuretic effect, improves kidney function;
prolongs skin youth, increases elasticity;
raises tone, gives energy, improves brain function.

In addition to its benefits, sorrel can be harmful to health. It should not be used for stomach diseases with high acidity. The product is contraindicated in cases of salt metabolism disorders, the presence of kidney stones and osteoporosis. For children, frozen leafy vegetables can be added to dishes from 10 months. It is offered raw after a year.

Methods for preserving without refrigeration

Drying vegetables is an affordable way to prepare them for future use. The shelf life in this form is one year, provided that the sorrel is placed in a container that prevents moisture from entering. The taste remains unchanged.
The prepared plant is placed in a sieve. The container is placed on the balcony or in the kitchen cabinet. The greens are mixed twice a day. You can determine readiness by assessing the fragility of sorrel - the dried leaves should not crumble.
Sorrel is collected in small bouquets, which are hung on the balcony, hidden from the sun's rays. After 1-1.5 weeks the plant will acquire the necessary condition.
Canned sorrel can be stored for about two years. In this way, an assortment of greens is prepared, adding parsley or dill. The leaves are washed, cut and tightly placed in sterilized jars, poured with boiling water. The containers are rolled up with lids and left to cool, turning upside down. Subsequent storage temperature is no more than 25 degrees.
The sorrel is washed and loaded into the pan, chopped or whole.
Pour boiling water so that the leaves of the plant are slightly under water. After boiling for 5 minutes, pour into sterilized jars, which are tightly sealed. At room temperature the shelf life is 12 months. The recipe can be supplemented using salted water (2 tablespoons of salt per 1 liter of boiling water). A similar method is preservation in cold water. In this case, jars of fresh sorrel are sterilized for a quarter of an hour in a pan of boiling water, after which they are twisted.

The convenience of these methods is that the sorrel is completely ready for use. Add as many greens to the dish as you deem necessary.

Preparation for borscht

Preparation for preparing sorrel borscht is a great help in winter. Just add it to the boiling broth and crumble the potatoes there, and the aromatic green borscht is ready! Ingredients you will need:

1 kg of sorrel leaves;
500 g green onions;
500 g dill and parsley;
8 tbsp. l. coarse salt.

Chop the greens, sprinkle with salt and rub in your hands until the vegetable juice is released. The ground mixture is placed tightly into the jars, sterilized for 15 minutes and sealed with metal lids. Borscht is stored in a cool, dark place.

Sorrel is an excellent source of useful vitamins and microelements; a huge amount of it grows in meadows and fields. From several harvesting methods, it is easy to choose the option that suits you. The main thing is not to be lazy, then the winter menu will be replenished with new tasty and aromatic sorrel dishes.

Preparation methods with cooling, but without freezing

How to save for a week? Without a freezer at +5 degrees, properly prepared greens will last up to 2 weeks, depending on the method chosen. The best place is a box for vegetables and fruits.

In containers. Salt has been used as a preservative since ancient times. Sorrel can be pickled as part of an assortment or on its own. To do this, it is washed, cut, and moisture is removed. Place the greens in a bowl and add 3 tablespoons of salt per kilogram of product and mix. The mixture is compacted into a dry, sterilized jar and stored in the refrigerator for up to 6 months.
Vacuum packed. A device that removes air from packages allows you to increase the shelf life of products. The sorrel is sorted, removing debris and rot, washed in clean water and dried. You don’t have to waste time on cutting, because during compression the greens will break naturally. Place in a bag and turn on the vacuum sealer. In the refrigerator, safety is guaranteed for up to two weeks.
In cellophane. Sorrel is soaked in salted water, then washed under running water and dried. The chopped leaves are placed in a cellophane package, the air is removed by hand and tied tightly. The vegetable should be consumed within a week, after which it will begin to rot.
In water. Washed and prepared sorrel is collected in the form of a bouquet, which should be placed in a jar of water. Only the stems of the plant should be in the liquid. On the middle shelf of the refrigerator against the wall, greens will remain fresh for no more than a quarter of a week.
In the towel. The washed leaves are wrapped tightly in a damp towel. The package is placed on the refrigerator shelf.

Sorrel can stay there for up to three days.

Shelf life of frozen product

Sorrel frozen in the freezer can be stored for no more than 3 hours in the quick-frozen section. After freezing, the greens must be transferred to a freezer shelf with a higher temperature regime for long-term storage.

The frozen shelf life of sorrel is 10-12 months from the date of harvesting; harvested bunches of greenery last almost until the next harvest. Sorrel leaves and leafy vegetables are frozen for the winter as a one-time use. It is not recommended to refreeze defrosted sorrel again, otherwise the preparation will lose its beneficial properties, presentation and taste.

You may be interested in: Storing meat in the freezer: in the refrigerator, how to store it correctly

The shelf life is affected by two factors - the utensils used and the temperature.

The main requirement for containers is tightness. The workpiece should not be exposed to oxygen. The container should lock the aroma and juice inside, and prevent the penetration of foreign odors. For freezing, use special bags, ordinary thick bags. Food containers are actively used.

There are budget solutions - packaging for various food products. The choice is influenced by the method of further application. It is inconvenient to remove frozen greens from a hard container to add to soup. It's much easier to cut the bag. But it is not very comfortable to defrost in it; it is difficult to drain excess moisture.

Also, the shelf life depends on the temperature in the chamber. The optimal mode is -18-22 degrees. The blanks are stored at -12-15 degrees for up to six months. At temperatures above this, you should not keep it for more than three months. But adding natural preservatives – sugar, salt – will help preserve it until spring.

Are these methods suitable for saving for the winter?

Which method is suitable for harvesting for the winter at home so that the leaves remain tasty? Not all methods boast long-term storage. To be able to eat tasty and healthy sorrel all year round, choose the following preparation methods:

drying;
canning;
vacuum packaging, placed in the freezer;
freezing whole or cut leaves.

Contact with air accelerates decomposition processes. Therefore, storage at sub-zero temperatures or in an oxygen-free environment is considered preferable.

Sorrel will retain its properties and last longer if proper preliminary preparation is carried out. There is no need to try to cut the leaves as finely as possible - this will cause all the juice to leak out and the plant will turn into mush. There are recommendations to wipe dirt off greens with a piece of cloth. This is fundamentally wrong - sorrel leaves are delicate, and under mechanical stress they will become like rags. After rinsing, the water is removed by shaking off.

Benefits of sour leaf

Sorrel contains many useful substances, and, most importantly, if properly harvested, it practically does not lose them for a whole year. Even in winter, this green vegetable will help the body fight vitamin deficiency and maintain a healthy immune system. The plant has a positive effect on the body:

Accelerates metabolism and normalizes the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract.
Fights inflammatory processes in the oral cavity.
Acts as an antispasmodic and pain reliever for stomach colic.
Normalizes the functioning of the heart muscle and smoothly regulates blood pressure.
Has antihistamine properties.
During menopause, it alleviates the symptoms of its manifestation.
It has a good effect on the functioning of the male reproductive organs.
Saves you from the blues and depression during periods of acute vitamin deficiency.

Considering that this is not only healthy, but also a very tasty leaf vegetable, there is no doubt about the advisability of preparing it for the winter. With sorrel, the winter menu will become more varied and healthy.

How to properly freeze an ingredient?

Today, harvesting sorrel for the winter increasingly takes the form of freezing the main component. The undeniable advantage of this approach is the fact that, unlike changing the taste of the product, which is fraught with all other methods, in this case the component remains fresh. Thanks to this, you can use it to implement any recipe.

There are several options for freezing sorrel, here is the simplest of them:

First, we sort out the leaves, wash them, scald them with boiling water, and then dry them.
Then we cut the product as needed. Usually it is enough to cut the leaves crosswise.
Place the pieces in boiling water for one minute. Don't be alarmed if the plant's color changes. Such a short processing will allow you to preserve all the useful components.
We take out the leaves with a slotted spoon and wait for the water to drain. Place the greens on the table surface until they are completely dry. Sometimes this takes several hours.
At the last stage, all that remains is to pack the leaves in plastic or plastic bags and store them in the freezer.

Sorrel prepared in this way for the winter will delight you with its fresh taste until the next season. The component is suitable for any recipe, and there is no need to defrost it.

Proper defrosting

Sorrel cannot be defrosted. It must be used frozen.

If you still try to defrost it at room temperature, then it will certainly lose not only its attractive appearance, but also all its taste and beneficial qualities. Therefore, this product must be used for its intended purpose immediately after being frozen.

Thawed sorrel should not be re-frozen, as it will lose its beneficial properties and taste.

Rules for canning sorrel

Unfortunately, even the most gentle preservation kills a significant part of the vitamins in sorrel. Despite this, the plant still retains an impressive amount of useful components. And the product has a specific taste, but pleasant and fresh.

Fans of winter preparations should try the following recipe:

For 750 g of green leaves we take 250 g of water. It is better to roll the product into small jars, which must be sterilized in advance.
After standard preparation, blanch the elements (the specified number of leaves in the specified volume of water) for several minutes and immediately put the product into jars.
Fill the leaves with the water in which they were blanched. We simply roll up the jars without adding anything else.
Such preservation can be stored in the basement or even in the refrigerator.

If freezing, pickling or classic canning of sorrel is not suitable for some reason, the product can be rolled in its own juice. To do this, pour water into a deep basin and place several pre-sterilized jars filled with leaves. Turn on the heat, after some time the components will begin to settle, then add new prepared leaves. We continue until the jars are full and press them lightly, after which we simply close them with plastic lids. We place the containers in a cool place; they can be stored all winter. No need to add salt or other homemade preservatives. The acid in the product will handle this on its own; the mixture will not turn sour if air does not get into it.

Methods for drying sorrel for storage

Fresh plants are dried so that they can be used for a long time. Such dried leaves are used as a seasoning for about 2 years.

Natural way of drying

The sorrel is being prepared. The leaves need to be dried. Therefore, they are laid out in a thin layer on a dry towel, and lie in this form for several hours.

Then the sorrel is collected in bunches of 10 - 15 stems. Hang in a well-ventilated area. The bunches need to be stirred occasionally to prevent mold from appearing. Also, some housewives tie greens into loose bunches without washing them first.

They dry in 1 - 1.5 weeks. Then the dry greens are laid out in trays or boxes and stored in dry, dark pantries, cabinets, etc.

You can use another method. Spread the sorrel on a horizontal surface in a thin layer, covering it with paper, and dry under a canopy, but so that direct sunlight does not fall on it. The leaves must be turned over at least once a day.

Sweet sorrel with sugar in jars

Pies, buns and pancakes with sweet sorrel are a warm memory from our childhood. However, many have never even heard that sweet dishes can be prepared from sorrel. If you haven’t tried sorrel in this version yet, be sure to prepare something.

Cooking time: 1 hour 30 minutes.

Cooking time: 30 min.

Servings: 2.

Ingredients:

Sorrel – 500 gr.
Sugar – 250 gr.
Water – 100 ml.

Cooking process:

1. Sort out the sorrel. Throw away all yellowed and damaged leaves and weeds. Weigh the sorrel dry before washing.

2. Place the weighed sorrel in a deep bowl, cover with water and leave for 20-30 minutes. Then rinse the sorrel leaves under running water to remove any loose debris. Place on a sieve and let dry.

3. Pour sugar into a deep saucepan or bowl of sufficient volume. Place sorrel cut into small strips on top and mix gently, but do not crush. We need the sugar to be evenly distributed throughout the sorrel. Leave the sorrel with sugar to stand for 30 minutes. During this time, it should release a fairly large amount of juice.

4. Add additional water. Place the pan or bowl on the stove. Bring to a boil over low heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Then place into prepared sterilized jars and close with lids.

5. This is how you can prepare sorrel with sugar. Don't worry about excess liquid, it will thicken over time.

Report a bug

How to prepare sorrel leaves for storage

For long-term storage, greens must be processed.

Sorrel is moved to remove:

flower arrow;
yellowed leaves;
damaged parts;
excess grass.

The leaves are soaked in cold water, and this frees them from stuck lumps of earth and small insects. After these procedures, the sorrel is dried, cut and packaged.

Important! These are perishable plants, so preparations must be made quickly.

For simple storage, sorrel is not washed. Place in the refrigerator without processing. Because moisture promotes rotting and the greens will not last long.