Tips from the Freezer

The freezer is a food lover's hero because there's not much that can't be frozen until its needed: homemade ready meals (see Timesavers); veg and wonderful herbs; grated cheese for toppings and meat cut in strips for quick stir-frying. This section has a few surprises for us all. Visit the freezer often to keep tabs on what's inside.

• To freeze strawberries

  If you have a glut of strawberries and want to freeze them, lay them out individually on a tray and put in to freeze. When they are firm, put into bags. They are not the best fruits for freezing, because they break down and become mush when defrosted, but they can be used in ice creams, trifles and soufflés. Another way of keeping them is to whiz them in a food processor or blender with 2-3 tablespoons of caster sugar and then freeze. Put them through a sieve if you want to remove the fine pips.

• Freeze peppers

  Submitted by Claire,

  Buy own brand, cheap peppers and dice the tops and bottoms for use in spaghetti bolognaise for example. Slice or dice the remainder. I freeze them in one pepper portions which make it easier to follow recipes. So simple and cheap!

• Freezing herbs

  It’s worth freezing herbs that you use regularly: mint, parsley, chives, and tarragon, for example. Wash and dry them before freezing whole in freezer bags, or chopped in ice cube trays covered with water. Tip frozen cubes into a freezer bag. Store for up to six months.

• Freeze bananas

  Submitted by Andrea, Glasgow

  They go brown quite quickly so if you see them start to go speckly, put them in the freezer. I use a casserole dish, peal them, lay them flat and put the lid on, when they have frozen take it out and put them into bags. You can use frozen bananas in smoothies or bake them in the oven with a bit of honey dripped on top for a nice dessert. You could even defrost them and eat them raw, but you'd have to time this right and do it within half an hour.

• How to store extra spinach

  Submitted by Jessica, South Africa

  If you gro your own spinach, or even if you happen to buy a lot for a good price, wash it, cut off the stalks and steam for 2-3 minutes. Divide it into plastic bags or containers and freeze. Can be frozen for 6-12 months and is esay to add to any pasta dish, mince, stews, soup etc.

• Fast Cool

  Submitted by Bev Donnison, Shropshire

  When I need to cool cooked food quickly, I put it on top of frozen freezer blocks like the ones for picnics, this cools the food quickly so it's less likely to get bugs in and can go into the freezer twice as quickly as just waiting to cool down.