Freezing Vegetables Is A Quick Way To Preserve Your Harvest

Some people are totally awesome at canning and put up loads of food every summer. Luckily for the rest of us, freezing vegetables is easy, effective, and doesn’t require a bunch of expensive equipment!

Even if your garden harvest is a flop, you can easily buy bulk produce in season and freeze it for later in the year. I do this all the time, especially with items that I cannot personally grow. (Like bananas, although they are a fruit…)

Some vegetables have to be blanched before they can be frozen. Click here for instructions on blanching and a list of vegetables that need it.

Many young fresh vegetables can be lightly stir fried before freezing instead of blanched. Others are super duper easy and can just be popped into the freezer.

Freezing Vegetables Is Super Easy

You truly do not need anything special for freezing vegetables.

First, prepare the vegetables in the shape you want. If you want riced cauliflower, pre-rice it. Bite sized pieces? Peel and chop just like you would before eating.

If they need to be blanched, do it now.

Here is a list of produce that you can freeze without blanching first:

• Tomatoes
• Riced cauliflower
• Fruits
• Rhubarb
• Whole bell peppers
• Diced chili peppers
• Leeks
• Peeled onions
• Shredded zucchini
• Green beans
• Beets
• Shredded cabbage
• Corn
• Baked sweet potato

I spread whatever I am freezing out on a cookie sheet and place them in my chest freezer. If I want to do several layers at once, I simply put parchment paper or a silicone baking mat in between each layer.

Once they are solid, I move the vegetables to either plastic freezer bags, or reusable glass freezer bowls, depending on what I have on hand.

And that’s truly it! Super simple!

What produce do you freeze to have on hand? Share in the comments below!