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Broccoli is a powerhouse of a vegetable that’s in season between June and October. High in nutrients and incredibly versatile, if you want to have a fresh stash available throughout the winter months, you can actually freeze broccoli. If you’re now wondering whether you can freeze fresh broccoli, if you can freeze cooked broccoli or even if you can freeze raw broccoli, read on for our full guide below.
Can you freeze fresh broccoli?
Fresh broccoli can be frozen and used throughout the winter months, but you’ll need to make sure you follow the correct steps. If you don’t freeze it correctly, you’ll likely end up with squishy broccoli when you defrost it ready for cooking. As broccoli is high in water content, this water turns to ice when frozen and expands. As such, when you defrost the broccoli you’ll have a soggy batch of vegetables on your hands. The good news is there are a couple of easy steps to take to prevent this issue.
In short, the optimum way to freeze broccoli is to blanch it first. This helps to remove some of the water before transferring to the freezer. Wash your broccoli and then trim off the stems and chop the florets ready for blanching. Boil the broccoli in salted water for a few minutes, then transfer to iced water to cool. Pat dry and then lay out on a baking tray with a sheet. Ensure no pieces are touching and then place into the freezer for a few hours. After this initial step, remove from the freezer, transfer into an airtight container and place back into the freezer. Your broccoli will last for around six months if you follow this method. After this time you might find freezer burn on your broccoli if stored for much longer.
Look for fresh, firm, tender stalks that haven’t started to turn in color to get the best results. If you can, head to your local farmers’ market to get the finest produce whilst it’s in season or, better yet, freeze a crop that you’ve grown at home in your own garden.
If you have any leftover broccoli stems that you don’t want to freeze with the florets, you can use these up in lots of delicious recipes, from broccoli stem soup to broccoli stem hummus. Broccoli stems contain all the nutrients that the florets contain, so there’s no reason to discard them.
Freezing raw vs cooked broccoli
If you’re wondering whether you can freeze uncooked broccoli, it is possible, but you won’t get the top results when defrosting. As mentioned above, due to its high water content, if you don’t blanch the broccoli first, you’ll likely have a squishy mess on your hands when you defrost it. Not blanching the broccoli will also mean most of the goodness and nutrients won’t have been locked-in either.
Can you freeze broccoli without blanching?
Ideally you shouldn’t skip the step of blanching, for all the reasons mentioned above. Blanching is simply the step of boiling or steaming your ingredient for a short amount of time. If you don’t do this, you’ll end up with mushy defrosted broccoli on the other side, and it’s likely to also become a little bitter in taste. Other issues include the color seeping and you’ll lose the fresh flavor. Blanching will also remove a few microorganisms and any dirt from the surface and help to prevent any nutrient loss. It only takes around three minutes of boiling to blanch the broccoli and is well worth doing.
Freezing cooked broccoli
Freezing cooked broccoli cuts down on food waste and makes sure you have a stash of healthy food in the freezer ready to cook at a moment’s notice. It’s better to freeze blanched broccoli, as fully cooked broccoli will be slightly more watery once it’s defrosted, but freezing cooked broccoli is certainly better than throwing it away.
If you’re keen to build a bank of delicious vegetables in the freezer to cook with throughout the year, no matter what’s in season, then have a read of our guide to find out what else you can freeze. Cauliflower, peas, and carrots are among some of the other nutrient-rich foods you can place into the freezer ready for home cooking.
Can you freeze broccoli soup?
If you’ve already gone ahead and blended your broccoli into a warming broccoli soup, with leftovers to spare, you might be pleased to know you can actually freeze it, but it’s best if you haven’t used dairy in the recipe. In the broccoli miso soup recipe shared as part of our broccoli recipe guide, this soup is made without dairy, and will freeze well. Ladle it into an airtight container once it’s fully cooled, and transfer to the freezer. You can defrost and reheat the soup on the stove when you’re ready to enjoy it, and it’ll keep in the freezer for around two months.
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