The classic Mirepoix, probably familiar if you like Emeril or Food Network
During my most recent trip to the grocery store, I found some great deals on vegetables that are usually more expensive. One of our locally owned stores had red peppers, green peppers, and onions at very low prices so I decided to stock up. In order to stock up on these, freezing is necessary because there is no way we could ever figure out how to cook with all of this produce before it spoils.
Sometimes we freeze to avoid waste (i.e. Spaghetti sauce or leftovers) and at other times we freeze in order to make it easier to cook interesting food in short periods of time. In this case, we’re freezing both to make our lives easier and to make sure we don’t waste any of the vegetables I just bought.
Various cuts of green and red peppers
A few mixes we use frequently are: (1) the classic Mirepoix (carrots, onions & celery), (2) Onions, green peppers, celery, and parsley, and (3) green peppers, red peppers, and onions. We also sometimes freeze diced onions, chopped parsley, chopped cilantro, and of course Sofrito (pureed cilantro, bell peppers, garlic, cilantro, onions, and olive oil). Having all of this ready makes my life much easier and it gives my husband options when it is his turn to cook. This project took about an hour. This is a huge timesaver on prep time when making a meal that requires diced or chopped vegetables.
I found the onions on sale for $0.18/lb, the green peppers were on sale for $0.44 each, the red peppers were on sale for $0.88 each, and I got the baby carrots on sale for $1.25 per bag. The parsley was not on sale, but very affordable at only $0.66 a bunch. These great deals will allow us to continue cooking meals at a very low cost.
Some of the dishes we might use these mixes in are: Spaghetti sauce, various rice dishes, Pasta Primavera, Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup, Jambalaya, and anything else that needs a good base seasoning of vegetables. It’s common to use the Mirepoix in soups, stews, stocks and sauces. When we freeze vegetables, I generally just use small freezer bags. I’ve had good luck with both name brand and private label brand freezer bags. I do recommend using bags designed for the freezer. Standard sandwich bags will break or crack.
Ready to freeze!
