Freezing Rhubarb
Your Simple Guide for Freezing Rhubarb
Freezing rhubarb is a great way to save money and to give you a nice wintertime treat when rhubarb is out of season. The process for freezing rhubarb is typical of the process for freezing any vegetable, but if you have never done it before it is certainly worth going over. Just placing rhubarb in a bag and sticking it in the freezer is okay, but it will not really help preserve rhubarb in the best condition for the longest period. (Up to a year.)
So how to you freeze rhubarb?
Choosing Rhubarb
If you get rhubarb from your local supermarket or farmer’s market, you want to look for nice crisp stalks with no blemishes. Any rubbery softness or discoloration could be a sign of disease or decay.
If you plant your own rhubarb, you want to make sure to avoid the temptation to pick them too soon. This is sometimes difficult as a gardener because we fear that our rhubarb may become pest food, but it is well worth the added anxiety to wait until your plant has fully matured.
Cleaning Rhubarb
You should always clean off any vegetable you buy or pull from the ground. Even if you raised it or an organic farmer did. Remember that the wind can inadvertently carry chemicals that land on your garden plants. Even if you don’t use pesticides, that doesn’t meant that your next-door neighbor doesn’t either. Run off and wind can contaminate your garden.
To clean it, run your rhubarb under tap water.
Cut up your Rhubarb
There are several ways of cutting your rhubarb. The one that works best is cutting them into little blocks, as far as I am concerned. Many cooks, however, just cut them to fit their containers and no more. A lot depends on how you are going to use your rhubarb afterwards. For most purposes, however, little blocks work great.
While you’re cutting, be sure to remove and discard the stringy parts of your rhubarb. These tend to react poorly to freezing and can have a bad effect on the rest of your plant.
Blanching Rhubarb
Before freezing rhubarb, you have to boil it. Boiling rhubarb, or any other vegetable for that matter, kills many of the enzymes that help it to age and decay. If you were to freeze it without boiling it, your rhubarb would not last as long. Cooks and other culinary experts call this process blanching, although you shouldn’t really expect your rhubarb to lose any of its color, despite the name.
The best way to blanch rhubarb when you have cut into little blocks is to lower it into the boiling water in a large strainer. This allows you to easily lower and raise the rhubarb in an easy manner.
Leave the rhubarb in the boiling water for 2 minutes. (Longer, if you cut it into larger pieces.)
Cooling Rhubarb
Drop the strainer filled with rhubarb into the cold water. You should fill the bowl with ice and water. This rapid change in temperature helps to preserve crispness and keep your rhubarb from cooking too much.
Freezing Rhubarb
Before freezing rhubarb, you need to make sure the rhubarb is completely dry. Drain the rhubarb and then lay it out on a paper towel, carefully drying the chunks.
Once you finish drying, place the rhubarb on a cookie sheet in a single layer. Place the tray in the freezer for an hour or two until the rhubarb is completely frozen.
Remove the rhubarb from the tray and put it in Ziploc bags. Be sure to leave a little space at the top so that the rhubarb has room to expand. Remember that when water freezes it takes up more space.
Squeeze all the air out of bag and then place it into freezer and viola, you’re done.
It doesn’t’ get much simpler than freezing rhubarb.