How to Freeze Food: Use This Guide to Prevent Waste – and Save Money!

It’s probably happened to you more than once: You pull that little box of blueberries you splurged on from the fridge and eagerly pop some in your mouth – and… meh. The next one, too. Though they look beautiful, they’re past the point of perfect ripeness and just aren’t flavorful or firm enough to eat by the handful as you’d hoped.

Don’t toss those pricey berries in the compost just yet. Except for the truly mushy ones, most of those blueberries can still add flavor and nutrition to your next smoothie or batch of hearty muffins.

Here’s how to use your freezer to prevent wasting loads of useful and yummy food.

Freezer to the rescue

We’ve all found from time to time that we don’t get around to eating something that tempted us in the grocery store. Maybe we were keen to make spinach salads and got bored of them, or we thought we’d get through more of those plums before heading out on vacation.

Rather than mourn the loss of wasted produce and money, get busy using your freezer to preserve your produce purchases while they’re still in prime, or at least usable, condition.

Is your CSA share too much to get through? Don’t let all those gorgeous greens molder in the back of your fridge. Freeze your extra spinach as well as tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers or whatever you’re not keeping up with.

Less-than-perfect fruit can get frozen and then tossed in your next smoothie or added to a batch of healthy muffins. Even grapes that weren’t great fresh are delicious frozen, either on their own or blended into smoothies.

You can make your waste-reduction efforts even greener by using metal or silicone storage containers, repurposing bags from cereal or bread, or reusing compostable freezer bags.

How to freeze food & ways to use your frozen produce

Fruit

Fruit that doesn’t quite cut it for fresh eating is one of the easiest things to freeze and use.

Berries

Freezing berries and grapes is a snap. If you only have a few, rinse and toss them in a bag with any other fruit you already have in the freezer. For larger quantities, freeze them in a single layer on a cookie sheet before putting them in a bag to prevent them all sticking together in an enormous and hard-to-use clump.

Use them: Toss them by the handful in your favorite smoothie recipes, pancakes or muffins. Or thaw and use them as a topping on yogurt, overnight oats or breakfast bowls.

Stone fruit

Peaches and plums are a highlight of summer, but they can be hit or miss, sometimes with mushy textures that don’t make them ideal for fresh eating. Cut them into chunks and freeze on a tray, and you’ll have loads of delicious fruit to use when the season’s over.

Use them:  Chopped fruit of any kind can be thrown in smoothies. Overripe plums may not be delicious for eating out of hand, but they lend a wonderful flavor to green smoothies.

Small pieces of stone fruits are also excellent baked into muffins or crisps. Try this vegan peach crumble with frozen peaches, and you’ll never be tempted to throw out an overripe peach again!

Bananas

Bananas have a way of ripening all at once and getting brown and mushy before you can eat them. When you see them developing spots, slice them into discs and freeze in a single layer in a bag or on a cookie sheet.

Use them: Frozen banana slices are delicious on their own or blended into banana ‘nice cream.’ You can also use them to sweeten and thicken smoothies or make a banana nut bread protein smoothie. You can also thaw frozen bananas and use them in banana bread or other recipes.

Don’t forget that banana peels are also edible and nutritious. Here’s how to use those banana peels as well.

Vegetables

Some vegetables are easier to freeze than others. Fill your freezer with summer’s bounty by preserving lots of those that can be frozen without any fussy preparation:

Bell peppers

Dice peppers and freeze in a bag. It helps to lay them flat in the bag during freezing, making for more efficient storage and preventing them from solidifying into a giant block.

If you have certain quantities you use in recipes, consider measuring them in the correct amounts before freezing and writing the measurements on the freezer bag. Frozen peppers can be used straight from the freezer in chilis and stews. If you thaw them, they’ll lose a fair amount of water and then will measure at quite a bit less.

Tomatoes

You can freeze sliced or whole tomatoes and then cook them into sauces and soups direct from the freezer. Try a homemade salsa or marinara sauce using frozen tomatoes for fresh garden flavor in winter.

Cucumbers

Cucumbers can be chopped and frozen to use in smoothies and soups so you can enjoy the benefits of cucumbers from the garden all year long.

Enjoy a tangy spinach cucumber hummus made with your frozen cukes

Other vegetables benefit from blanching before freezing, which inhibits the enzymes that break down produce and will preserve the quality of vegetables in the freezer.

Veggies in this category include leafy greens (great for adding to smoothies), broccoli and eggplant.

To blanch:

Submerge each pound of vegetables in a gallon of boiling water for the time recommended for the vegetable you’re planning to freeze. You can find an extensive list of blanching times from the National Center for Home Food Preservation.

Remove and immediately submerge vegetables in ice water to stop the cooking process and then drain. Squeeze excess moisture out of leafy greens. Place blanched and drained vegetables in a container or bag.

Another simple way to use the freezer to reduce waste: Cook up a huge batch of your favorite veggie-centric recipe and freeze it. A rich ratatouille or a nourishing soup you can defrost in January is a gift to future you!

Some recipes to consider cooking for the freezer:

One Pot Ratatouille

Yellow Split Pea Vegetable Stew

Warming Chickpea Chili

Sunshine Superfood Vegetable Soup

Have various odds and ends of different veggies? You can use vegetable scraps to make a homemade vegetable stock that you can freeze to have on hand whenever you want to make soup.

If your kitchen is overflowing with fruits and veggies, put your freezer to work for you. You’ll save money, cut waste, and you’ll always have nutritious, ready-to-use ingredients on hand when you want them.