Freezing Zucchini

Alright, so pretty much anyone who grows zucchini knows that they will probably end up with more than they can use. I waited and waited and waited to pick that zucchini of mine and it ended up being super huge. So what’s a girl to do? Zucchini goes mushy in the fridge rather fast, and I wasn’t sure how long it would stay good off the vine and slowly being eaten. So I used part of it for my Very Vegetable Shepard’s Pie last night and then today I set to getting it ready to freeze. I did a little research online and decided I would grate some and dice some.

Grated Zucchini Process

-Wash zucchini and dry with towel.
-Shred zucchini with a manual shredder or food processor.

-Measure into correct amounts. You can do it by the amount needed for your zucchini recipe. I put them in 1 cup amounts.
-Label and bag, then freeze.

Diced Zucchini

Now this one was a little more complicated because you need to blanch the zucchini in order to store it. Now don’t be scared of blanching. It just means you boil then put in an ice water bath. But lets not get ahead of ourselves. I’ll break it down for you.

-Fill medium sized mixing bowl half way with cold water. Place in freezer.
-Start medium sized pot on to boil.
-Wash and dry zucchini
-Cut into quarters. (I ended up doing my in eighths because my zucchini was really big around.)

-Cut out the seeds.

-Dice

-Once water is boiling dump diced zucchini in water. Leave in for 1-2 minutes. Not to exceed 2 minutes.

-Get bowl out of the freezer and add ice cubes.
-Strain boiled zucchini and dump directly into ice water bath. Leave in until zucchini is cold. (About 2 or 3 minutes.)

-Take out ice cubes and strain out cold water. Place zucchini on a clean dish towel and air dry. (I put a fan on them and it took about 45 minutes.)

-Get a cookie sheet, cover with wax paper, then spread zucchini over it. Put in the freezer until frozen.

-Remove from freezer and put in quart sized bag, that is labeled and dated. Return to freezer.

For all my zucchini I was sure to spread them out in the bags so they would be able to thaw faster and not stick together so when I went to use them I can get the appropriate amount out of the bags.

Resource: Taste Book