Freezing fruits and vegetables is super simple, as long as you take a few steps to make sure you don’t have gray mushy produce. For both fruits and vegetables, make sure you get heavy duty freezer bags. It’s an extra cost you won’t regret. Also, make sure you remove as much of the air as possible when you zip or seal the bags up. Freezing fruits and vegetables now to enjoy later in the year is a great way to cut costs in your grocery budget.
When it comes to freezing, fruits are easiest–and by easiest, I mean quickest. Wash and dry all of the fruit. For delicate fruits, like raspberries and strawberries, lay them out flat on a cookie sheet and freeze them {I like to do this with most fruits, just because I find they don’t stick in one big clump in the freezer bag that way}. Then, when they are individually frozen, move them to a freezer bag.
For fruits that brown easily, like peaches or apples, use an ascorbic acid powder. You can also use crushed up vitamin c tablets or use a water and lemon juice bath. Just slice the fruit, treat the slices per the instructions on the ascorbic acid, and then go about the freezing process.
Vegetables require a little more effort. To maintain their color and texture, most veggies need to be blanched first {though you can skip this step on some veggies, see the chart below for which ones}. Blanching is basically giving them a quick dip in boiling water. The blanching time for each vegetable is important, because the goal is NOT to cook them. Cooked, frozen veggies equals mushy paste in your mouth. After you blanch your vegetables, you want to immediately plunge them into an ice water bath.
Vegetables continue cooking after you remove them from the boiling water, the ice water bath will stop the cooking process. This whole process is called blanching and shocking. After the ice bath, lay veggies flat on a kitchen towel and gently pat them dry. Again, I like to freeze the vegetables on a cookie sheet before I put them in bags to prevent clumpage, but it’s up to you. Also, it’s best to go ahead and freeze the veggie exactly how you plan to eat it, i.e. sliced, diced, shredded, etc.
Here’s a handy dandy little chart to guide you with your blanching times:
|
Vegetable |
Blanching Time {minutes} |
Can Be Frozen Without Blanching |
| Artichoke Hearts |
7 |
No |
| Artichoke – Jerusalem |
3-5 |
No |
| Asparagus |
2-4 |
No |
| Beans – Snap, Green, Wax |
3 |
Yes |
| Beans – Lima, Butter, Pinto |
2-4 |
No |
| Beets |
Cook Completely |
No |
| Broccoli |
3 |
Yes |
| Brussels Sprouts |
3-5 |
No |
| Cabbage or Chinese Cabbage {shredded} |
1 1/2 |
Yes |
| Carrots {diced or sliced} |
2 |
No |
| Cauliflower |
3 |
No |
| Celery |
3 |
No |
| Corn off the Cob |
4 |
No |
| Corn on the Cob |
7-11 |
Yes |
| Eggplant |
4 |
No |
| Greens |
2-3 |
No |
| Onions {Rings} |
10-15 seconds |
Yes |
| Peas – Edible Pod |
1 1/2-3 |
No |
| Peas – Green |
1 1/2 |
No |
| Peppers {strips or rings} |
2 |
Yes |
| Pumpkin |
Cook Completely |
No |
| Rutabagas |
3 |
No |
| Soybeans |
5 |
No |
| Summer Squash |
3 |
Yes |
| Winter Squash |
Cook Completely |
No |
| Sweet Potatoes |
Cook Completely |
No |
| Turnips or Parsnips {cubed} |
2 |
No |
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Rachael says
You can totally freeze potaotes, too, but you have to fully cook them first. You can cube and boil then freeze, or mash then freeze, or bake whole, then freeze. My experience is that they are nicest when fairly fresh and the skin is cut off (we like mashed potatoes with the skin in though). Works well in pot pies, burritos (e.g. breakfast) or just leftover mashed.
In fact, http://www.freshfromthefreezer.com/ has done a whole video series on what freezes well and what doesn’t. Quite interesting! You can sign up for them free, I think, at least I did but that was nearly a year ago.
Carol says
Thanks for posting about freezing potatoes, Rachael! I hate to throw out left over potatoes, but haven’t learned not to cook too many for just my husband and myself.
mari says
Woah!!! This is awesome…I will be back and forth ( from my garden to this site) all summer long!! THANKS BUNCHES!
Diane says
For drying delicate berries, you can put them in a salad spinner lined with a few layers of paper towels and GENTLY spin them dry. The dryer they are, the longer they’ll retain their quality when frozen.
Becky says
Thanks for this great chart! I’m going to have lots of red beets this year and was thinking of canning them. Do you think freezing would be better than canning?
Mavis says
I think canning would be better. 🙂
Cynthia says
I have tried freezing snap beans with no blanching. I don’t recommend it. It might be ok if you use them up within a short time, but they do not do well for longer storage ( till the next season)
Elyse says
Thanks for the awesome chart! I froze a lot of small peppers last year, but was unsure how to go about it, especially with other foods. Now I won’t lose the veggies I’m growing! 🙂
Mands says
Wonderful info, thank-you so much. We had lots of extra carrots from our community vegetable garden, and no one wanted them because they were a little shorter and stumpier then the long slim carrots you buy in the shops…. so I got two huge bags… more than we could eat. So we scrubbed them clean, sliced them, blanched and then put them in ice water, and put them into freezer bags in family size portions… and gave some frozen bags to friends as well. Everyone said they were the best carrots they had ever had… better than fresh. We tasted them fresh as well…. so it was a really good effort.
My question… What do you do if you have lots and lots and lots of ‘Butter Avocados’ …rather large with hard skins? Thanks! 🙂
Mands says
Also Spinach?
Melinda says
Is the only reason for blanching so they last longer frozen? I have some peas that I got from the farmer’s market that I just stuck in the freezer. Am I inadvertently poisoning my family?
Carol says
Mavis, thanks for this chart. Maybe I can get my HH to enjoy frozen fruits more. His opinion is that nothing tastes as good as fresh so he would rather eat a ton of each as it comes into season and then do without the rest of the year.