Can You Freeze Cucumbers?

I prefer cucumbers over all the other vegetables as it turns out they are my favorite. You must be thinking, I am not here to listen to your preferences. I am here to get the answer to my question, can you freeze cucumbers? The answer to your question is yes! You can freeze cucumbers. We will go through this in detail in this post.

The cucumber is one of the finest vegetables, you will ever come across. They are not only healthy, but also good for munching, making soups, sandwiches, salads, and even infused water! It is among those veggies whose presence in your fridge must be mandatory.

Have you ever thought about what the cucumber is actually made of? They consist of 90% percent water and yet they are packed with numerous nutritional benefits. From May through August, cucumbers are plentiful in the market because summer is the harvest season for cucumbers.

As it ever occurred to you that you can enjoy them all year long? You must be thinking about how. There are numerous ways of preserving a cucumber. Freezing the cucumber is a very known way of preserving it as it increases its shelf-life.

Do Cucumbers Freeze Well?

Well, the freezing capability of a cucumber depends on the way you want to utilize the cucumber after defrosting them. Sometimes they freeze well, and sometimes they don’t. This is because cucumbers contain a lot of water which hinders their freezer-friendliness.

However, they do not show any flavor alterations upon freezing, so we can say the cucumbers freeze well. It is best to freeze the cucumbers if you wish to utilize them further in other recipes because raw cucumbers may change texture due to a lot of water content.

How To Freeze Cucumbers?

Some people hesitate to freeze cucumbers; they think that cucumbers contain so much water, so will it be correct to freeze them? But if you think otherwise, you know that you will have a long-term supply of fresh cucumbers at your home upon freezing cucumber. And it’s always better to have frozen cucumbers than no cucumbers at all.

You must be thinking that frozen cucumbers can’t be compared to fresh ones and I agree with your opinion. They are not even nearly good as the fresh ones. Various changes occur once you freeze be it texture or taste.

Once frozen they even turn spongy and the taste changes to milder than usual. Yet there are several ways of retaining its crunchiness. You can also freeze cucumbers by juicing or pureeing them with a little water.

However, the best way of preserving a cucumber is by pickling it. Once pickled keep it inside a freezer to make it last for a while. If you go on to preserve them with brine or vinegar, cucumbers tend to retain their crunch. Further, you can go on to pickle it with your favorite recipe. Then going on to place it in a freezer-friendly bag or jar would be fine too. Finally, freeze it.

Method To Freeze Cucumbers:

Cut down cucumbers into thin slices, do not peel them out. Then you have to place them in a large bowl along with some sliced onions. Add flavor to your veggies with salt and soak them in some water. Allow it to settle for a couple of hours, and then drain the water from the bowl.
Take a saucepan and some vinegar along with some sugar and bring the entire thing to boil. Allow everything to simmer until the sugar is dissolving. Once done then lie the entire thing to cool to room temperature.
Pour this entire mixture over the cucumber and onion mix that you prepared earlier. Now mix the entire thing properly.
You have to pour down the entire mixture into a plastic container, leaving out ¼ inch of space at the top. Then freeze it.
Now whenever you feel like having it, take it out as per the requirement and keep it in a fridge. Make sure you do it 4 hours before having it.

You can even choose to prepare a puree of cucumber rather than pickling it.

Peel the pulse off from the cucumber and remove its seeds, then put the entire thing in a blender and blend it.
Once blended properly, pour the entire thing into a bowl and then into the ice cube tray.
If you are willing to add some variety, then you can use different-shaped ice cube trays.
Keep it in a freezer, and allow the cucumber puree to freeze for several hours.
Finally, transfer the entire frozen puree to a freezer bag. Seal it airtight and keep it in a freezer.

How To Freeze Cucumber Slices?

You can use frozen cucumber slices in a lot of ways. Below mentioned is a proper way to freeze cucumber slices:

Rinse the entire batch of cucumber and cut them into thin slices.
Once done with the cutting spread the entire cucumber slices on a cookie sheet and make sure to arrange them in a single layer.
Freeze the entire batch of cucumber slices for up to ½ an hour.
Then take it out and transfer it to a freezer-friendly bag.
Finally, stack them in the freezer and allow the cucumber slices to freeze.

Way To Thaw Frozen Cucumbers

Thawing or unfreezing is also an important process. Without knowing how to thaw frozen cucumbers, either you will spoil them or won’t be able to use the frozen batch properly.

Step 1: Take out the frozen cucumbers from the freezer.
Step 2: Keep them outside for a while to get warm at room temperature.
Step 3: Now you have to squeeze out some of the liquid, once the cucumbers are thawed.
Step 4: Now the cucumbers are ready for use.

How to Use Frozen Cucumbers?

You are familiar with the fact that frozen cucumbers are not equally good as fresh ones. Yet there are several ways you can go on to use frozen cucumbers.

Starting with you can simply munch them as you eat the fresh cucumbers.
They can go on to be used as the ingredient in sandwiches, cucumber water chilled soups, and smoothies.
You can make infused water just by adding several frozen slices of cucumbers into a pitcher or a glass of water.
Further, you should add mint along with some slices of lemon for adding more flavor.
Making smoothies is quite simple. You just have to put some of the properly sliced thawed cucumbers in your favorite smoothie and you are good to go.
These amazing slices can even be turned into a sorbet. You just have to put these slices along with your favorite fruits and berries in a blender and blend it. Then freeze it.
For making dip out of it, you have to combine them along with some herbs which you prefer and cream as well. Now you have to blend them all to prepare a perfect finger-licking dip.

These are some of the ways these lovely frozen cucumbers can enter your belly. But, if you decide that you don’t want to do so. Then you even have an alternative.

You can put frozen cucumbers on your face as they also produce similar cleansing properties as fresh cucumbers. Below mentioned is a proper way to do so:

Step 1: First you have to make puree out of the thawed cucumbers.
Step 2: Spread the puree on your entire face evenly and then massage it properly.
Step 3: Keep it for a while and then rinse it out of your face.

Note:- You can even put the sliced cucumbers on your eyes, as they show in movies, and do it in the spa. It’s done because cucumbers help to refresh your tired eyes. They can even help you with dark circles and nasty eye bags.

I hardly doubt that you must be familiar with so many uses of frozen cucumbers. So, now you know how to freeze cucumbers, how to thaw them, and even their ample amount of usage. You can freeze them for up to nine months. I guess this was a win-win post for you. Let me know in the comments what best did you like in this post and what more you were looking for.