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12 Vegetables That are Perfect to Freeze Fresh for Later

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Jonathon Engels, a long-time vegetarian turned vegan, is currently on a trip from Guatemala to... Read More

Growing a garden is such a wonderful way to get fresh produce inexpensively, provide the local environment with biodiversity, and benefit your health, both from healthy food and from physical work.

Ultimately, a successful garden is likely going to result in a surplus of produce. It’s a great problem to have, but the fact remains that all that extra veg has to be stored somehow in some way. While canning might seem the way, in many cases, freezing those big harvests is the most efficient option and keeps nutrition levels in the food higher.

For those who are wondering what to do with that cornucopia coming in every couple of days, here’s a list of vegetables that freeze well and how to do it right.

The Basics of Freezing Vegetables

While it is possible to simply chop up vegetables and put them in the freezer for later, there is a proper way to do so that they last longer and keep better. It’s an extra step or two, but it can make a difference.

To make sure any bacteria, diseases, and insects in the food are nullified, lots of people like to blanch their vegetables before freezing them. This means putting them in boiling water with a little salt added for about a minute.

Then, put those hot veggies in an ice water bath to stop them from cooking any further. The cooled vegetables should be frozen on a cookie sheet before being put into a bag and sealed. This keeps them from freezing in clumps.

1. Asparagus

Asparagus is a fantastic addition to garden spaces. They are a perennial crop that’ll produce for 20 years. The thing is that asparagus has a harvesting window of about six weeks in late spring/early summer.

A productive asparagus patch can become overwhelming for those who might not want to eat it every other day. No worries. Freeze it for later! Just use the method above and it’ll be perfect for steaming later.

2. Broccoli

Growing broccoli requires planting and playing around in the shoulder seasons when things aren’t too hot. But, many of us like to eat broccoli year-round, so what are we meant to do in the summertime or in the depths of winter?

The answer is to grow that broccoli when the conditions are right. Hopefully, the result will be too many heads of broccoli to eat right away, and they can be blanched and frozen for later.

3. Brussels sprouts

Like broccoli (and other cruciferous veg), Brussels sprouts won’t grow in the heat of summer, so they need to be planted in abundance when they perform well. (They’ll be ready in later fall/early winter.) Then, they can be frozen to enjoy later. Be sure to clear away the loose leaves on the very outside.

4. Carrots

For those who can reasonably get to their garden in the winter, carrots freeze wonderfully right in the soil. Just leave them there. They go into dormancy and, after that first freeze, get sweeter for it. However, if there is too much snow for that or the ground gets too hard to harvest them, carrots will do great in the freezer, too.

5. Cauliflower

Cauliflower is much the same as broccoli and Brussels sprouts although it isn’t quite as cold-tolerant as those veggies. That’s all the more reason to harvest them in mass and freeze them for all those delicious cauliflower recipes we’ve all recently learned.

6. Celery

In all honesty, for most of us, celery is a challenge to grow. If that’s the case, give lovage a try. It’s a great substitute. In terms of freezing celery, this can also work perfectly when organic celery is on special at the supermarket. Stock up and freeze it. It’ll still have great flavor and texture when it’s needed as a seasoning vegetable or in soup.

7. Corn

Corn is one of those crops that comes in all at once. Shrewd gardeners will plant their sweet corn crop in stages so that the harvest comes in staggered. Nevertheless, it often results in extra corn. Sweet corn is aces frozen.

8. Green Beans

Green beans are awesome frozen. While many of us grew up with canned green beans, they are much better frozen. They maintain the fresh taste quite well as opposed to the mushiness that canned green beans often get.

9. Greens

Greens can often be grown in a cold frame and harvested throughout most of the year if not through winter. By all means, this is the best way to have greens. However, to keep those greens healthy and productive, they usually need to be harvested more frequently than we can keep up with. Chop them up and freeze them in ice cube trays to use in smoothies, soups, and stews.

10. Okra

This might be one of the rare vegetables that’s better from frozen than it is fresh. Something about freezing it mitigates some of the sliminess that many people struggle with. This one is something that you can just chop and put directly in the freezer, with no blanching. Then, enjoy that okra!

11. Peas

Frozen peas are amazing. Just do it.

12. Tomatoes

A personal favorite for freezing. Tomatoes quickly get out of hand by the end of summer, and it’s a tragedy for them to go bad on the counter. They can be blanched and frozen.

Also, keep an ongoing bag in the freezer for those end bits that inevitably happen when tomato sandwich season is full tilt. Dice those and freeze them for later.

Maybe it’s time to get a separate freezer? That one attached to the fridge is going to fill up pretty quickly.

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