Can You Freeze Spinach? How To Freeze Spinach?

Can You Freeze Spinach?

Are you fond of leafy vegetables, well you might or might not be? But as it turns out they are quite rich in nutrients and vitamins. They are generally greenish and make amazing smoothies, stews as well as soups. One such vegetable is spinach and you are here to know the answer to the question, can I freeze spinach?

Well, the answer to your question is yes and no. It is so because if one doesn’t follow the right steps while freezing them. You will end up having bags full of nothing. So, the proper answer to your question remains in this very post. Make sure you go through it in detail.

What is spinach?

Spinach is considered a well-known leafy vegetable, which is mostly green in color. It serves as the unforgotten ingredient that is ready to go into smoothies, soups, or stews. It even gets cooked in no time.

Since you are here looking for a way to preserve them via freezing, you should turn your fresh spinach batch into the proper portions, which can be managed. Store it in the freezer, when it’s in their season.

You only require 4 simpler ways of freezing spinach:

Washing and freezing the entire batch
Puree technique
Freezing with blanching
Freezing the unwashed fresh spinach

Does Spinach Freeze Well?

Yes, spinach freezes relatively well, provided you follow adequate freezing guidelines for freezing the spinach in different forms. While you can freeze them pureed or blanched, the best way for freezing spinach is to store bleached spinach. You can always puree them later.

How To Freeze The Spinach?

Once you know the process in detail you will find freezing spinach very easy. You even have a few simpler methods to choose between. Whichever suits your best interests you can go along with that.

Fresh freezing turns out to be the quickest and easiest of all. The other two with blanching and freezing demand much more effort. But as it turns out the process ensures to preserve to keep the flavor and leaf in better form.

How To Freeze Fresh Spinach?

Step 1: You have to start with washing your batch of spinach. Pat or spin dry or rinse it in tap water.
Step 2: Now you have to go on to place these dry leaves inside the freezer-friendly bags. Make sure you do it in flat layers and press them down.
Step 3: Once you have stuffed all of the spinach properly, squeeze out as much air as possible.
Step 4: Finally you should tie the entire bag and place it in a freezer.

Before using the frozen spinach, you should thaw it for 2 hours at least. Make sure to remove all amounts of excess water before putting it into any dish.

How To Freeze Spinach In Puree Technique?

If you are looking forward to making spinach an add-on to the liquid dishes. Then this technique is specially made for you. You can add it to smoothies, soups, sauces, and stews.

Step 1: Start by placing clean spinach in a blender or a mixer grinder.
Step 2: Blend the spinach along with adding water until it reaches the required thickness.
Step 3: Then pour this spinach puree into a proper ice tray and keep it in the freezer.
Step 4: Once it is frozen you simply have to transfer these frozen cubes to an airtight freezer bag.
Step 5: Seal the bag properly and keep it in the freezer to freeze.

How To Freeze Spinach In Blanched Technique?

This technique is popular only because of an added process that helps your spinach preserve its color and taste for a long period. That process is blanching.

Blanching delays the enzymatic process which ultimately leads to the decaying of leaves. Since it has so many pros, it even holds a con to it, it cannot retain the nutrients.

If you are going through this process of freezing your spinach then you are assured that your batch will last almost a year. This is way too much compared to any of the processes.

Step 1: For blanching your spinach take a large pot of water. Then you have to boil the water.
Step 2: You should have your leaves washed meanwhile the water is boiling.
Step 3: Then add the clean spinach leaves to boiling water.
Step 4: Let it cook for a couple of minutes, meanwhile you keep stirring the water with a spatula.
Step 5: Now you have to transfer these leaves into a bowl full of ice water.
Step 6: Keep your spinach inside the bowl for another 2 minutes. It is done to suddenly stop the cooking process.
Step 7: Dry out the spinach by placing them properly in a salad spinner.
Step 8: Start placing all the spinach in airtight freezer-friendly bags. Squeeze out all the air inside the bags.
Step 9: Finally seal it and label the bag with the freezing date. Keep the bag in a freezer to freeze.

How To Freeze Fresh Spinach Without Washing?

At the beginning of this step itself, I would like to mention that using this technique will preserve spinach only for 3 to 4 days.

Under this technique, you just have to put the leaves inside freezer-friendly bags. Then keep it in a freezer to freeze. Do it without washing or blanching the leaves.

Tips For Freezing Spinach!

Now that you know the various ways for freezing spinach, check out the following tips for more effective results.

You can freeze the spinach with other greens, it will not harm the texture of the spinach.
Try freezing the spinach in portions. This will help in using them at a later stage.
Portion the puree into smaller cubes so that you can use them easily in smoothies and other recipes.

How Do You Defrost Frozen Spinach?

Defrosting spinach in advance is not necessary because you can use them directly from the freezer. You do not eat the spinach raw, whatever way you are freezing them, you will always have to cook the spinach before cooking.

Therefore, defrosting is not required. All you have to do is place a saucepan over low heat and add one spinach cube or more as you please, let it defrost, and use the spinach in your favorite recipe.

How To Use Frozen Spinach?

As the frozen spinach is already cooked, it only takes some time to cook it entirely. You will find that thawed or unfrozen spinach will always be mushier as compared to fresh spinach. In simple language, it means that thawed spinach can’t be used in salads.

You can use them in hot dishes such as soups, and stews or go on to bake into pies. You only need to make sure that you have removed as much water as possible.

Below mentioned are some of the recipes that go amazingly with thawed spinach.

Spinach pie:

The first recipe on our list is none other than a pie. You can cook or bake your frozen spinach into an amazing pie. Go on to add some cheese and a hint of nutmeg to make it more appealing and tastier.

Spinach smoothie:

Prepare a smoothie of your choice and then using the puree spinach technique adds some pre-frozen cubes to make the smoothie even healthier.

Spinach dip:

Dips are considered to be very forgiving. It is said so because they are all about flavors. You can make your defrosted spinach into a tasty dip.

Ricotta and spinach balls:

This amazing recipe will definitely delight you. It only requires some spinach, flour, eggs, and ricotta seasoned with pepper, nutmeg, and salt. That is all you need to prepare out-of-the-world spinach balls.

Spinach is good for your eyesight, they tend to improve vision. Therefore, it’s advisable to have as many fresh leafy vegetables as possible. If you can’t have them fresh you now know how to thaw your frozen spinach.

So, now you know how to freeze spinach, how to thaw them, and even their ample amount of usage. I guess this was a win-win post for you. Let me know in the comments what did you like about this post and what more you were looking for.