Can You Freeze Spinach?

Questioning should you can freeze spinach? This leafy inexperienced vegetable holds up effectively frozen: right here’s methods to do it!

Acquired leftover spinach and unsure what to do with it? Right here’s an concept: throw it within the freezer! This leafy inexperienced vegetable is definitely a breeze to freeze. Whereas many greens lose taste and texture within the freezer, spinach works effectively to protect: and you’ll throw it into soups, stews, and smoothies: a good way to eat your greens! Right here’s methods to do it.

Are you able to freeze spinach?

Spinach freezes very effectively: the flavour of the vegetable is preserved in the course of the course of. Frozen spinach can’t be used uncooked in salads, nevertheless it’s ideally suited for including to cooked dishes like soups, stews, dips, and casseroles, and blended dishes like smoothies. You should use it proper in cooked or blended dishes with out thawing it.

Spinach may be very straightforward to freeze: you don’t even have to blanch it first, such as you do with different greens. Understand that generally, this doesn’t work as a straightforward substitute for the packaged sort stocked in shops. (Preserve studying for why.)

How lengthy does spinach final within the fridge?

Saved within the produce drawer within the fridge, spinach lasts about 1 week. When you’d wish to protect it past that time, you possibly can freeze spinach for 3 to six months. Spinach doesn’t require blanching like different greens, so it makes it fast and simple to pop within the freezer.

The best way to freeze spinach

Spinach is extraordinarily straightforward to freeze: you possibly can merely pop the leaves proper into the freezer. Many greens require blanching first, which helps to lock of their coloration and helps them last more within the freezer. However this leafy inexperienced works effectively uncooked! Right here’s methods to freeze spinach:

1. Wash and dry: If the spinach is offered in a bunch, you could wish to chop off the lengthy stems (or roughly chop the leaves). Child spinach requires no chopping. Rinse the leaves below chilly water, then pat them as dry as doable.
2. Place the spinach in a freezer-safe plastic bag or silicone bag. If utilizing a plastic bag, use a straw to suck any remaining air out of the bag and seal it.
3. Mark the “Use by” date. Use a everlasting marker to label with a “use by” date that’s 3 months sooner or later.
4. Freeze. Place the container or bag within the freezer and freeze for as much as 3 to six months. For finest outcomes, use in 3 months.

On packaged frozen spinach

Understand that this technique for freezing spinach doesn’t work effectively as an alternative to the packaged sort stocked in shops. Packaged frozen spinach is a typical ingredient in one thing like spinach artichoke dip or spinach quiche. Right here’s what’s totally different:

• Packaged spinach is blanched first. To make frozen spinach just like the packaged form on the retailer, merely place the leaves in boiling water for 30 seconds. Rinse the spinach in chilly water, then squeeze out as a lot water as doable. Then roughly chop the leaves and freeze it in a bag or container.
• Packaged spinach is available in giant portions. That small block of spinach from the shop is 16 ounces of spinach: which is a really giant amount! Except you may have a really great amount of spinach, we advocate skipping the blanching step and utilizing the frozen spinach for smoothies or soups as a substitute.

Ideas for methods to use frozen spinach

Frozen spinach can be utilized proper from the freezer in cooked or blended dishes: no have to defrost! Use non-blanched frozen spinach in cooked recipes that decision for contemporary. Listed below are a number of suggestions:

• Use frozen spinach solely in cooked or blended dishes, like sautes, soups, stews, and smoothies. Don’t eat it uncooked in salads as a result of the feel turns into softer after freezing.
• The frozen leaves could be added proper to dishes: no defrosting is required.
• Use inside 3 to six months. The flavour and texture can degrade the longer meals are frozen. For finest outcomes, use it inside 3 months.

Spinach recipes

Listed below are a number of recipe concepts for methods to use frozen spinach! (Once more, do not forget that packaged frozen spinach from the shop is blanched first, so should you’re making an attempt to approximate this product you’ll want so as to add the blanching step.) Listed below are a few of our favourite spinach recipes:

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