Are your eyes bigger than your stomach?
Is your garden going to be bursting with fresh green-ness SOON?
Are you anticipating that your fridge could be full of greens from your CSA share that you just can't quitekeep up with?
No matter what, summertime brings a welcome bounty of green food, after a sparse spring and white winter.
But once the garden comes in, you may find yourself overloaded and not sure how to eat them all before they go bad.
How topreserve greens for later use: Freeze them!
The best, easiest, and simplest way to preserve greens is to freeze them.
Have you ever bought a package of frozen spinach at the grocery store? Who hasn’t, really? I grew up eating that stuff!
Well, actually freezing greens is super easy and a great way to preserve the nutrients much more effectively than canning. Plus they’re easy to thaw and use in cooked dishes and last in the freezer for 6+ months.
Here’s a basic formula you can use to freeze any type of greens you are overloaded on and want to put aside until a little later when greens are less abundant.
How to freeze greens: A step by step guide
1. Use fresh greens in good condition.
So if at the end of a week of CSA you’ve still got some greens, I recommend you just freezing them then rather than letting them start to look sad sitting in the fridge for too long. Fresher greens freeze better!
2. Wash your greens well.
Give them a good wash to remove any remaining field dirt.
3. Remove any tough stems (optional).
In the case of kale and sometimes large Swiss chard leaves, there can be tough inner mid-rib stems that need to be cut away and discarded before you use them. This doesn’t really apply for smaller sized Swiss chard, baby kale, bok choy, spinach, beet greens, etc.
4. Chop your greens.
Just what it says. Think about what size you’d like to use your greens in the thawed state, and chop to that size. Just keep in mind that the smaller you chop them the less time you'll need to blanch them.
5. Blanch your greens.
Heat a large pot of water to a boil. Submerge your greens for a short amount of time usually 30 seconds (tender spinach)-3 minutes (big kale) depending on how tender your greens are. I find that a steamer basket makes this process really quick and simple. Blanching is important to help the greens keep better in the freezer. It stops the enzyme action in the raw greens which leads to better storage for you!
6. Quickly cool your greens.
Remove the greens from the hot water and quickly submerge them into a bowl of ice cold water. Keep them in the cold water until they are cool to the touch. I like to run my cold well water on them in a small stream to keep the water cold. Ice cubes also work well here.
7. Squeeze out the water from your greens.
Remove the greens from the water and gently squeeze excess water from the greens. You can let them drain in a colander for a few minutes to drain the excess water out as well.
8. Pack into ziplock bags.
Stuff your greens into ziplock bags that you label with the contents and the date! Don’t forget that part! I promise you won’t remember exactly how old they are or what they are even in a few days… Haha!
9. Squeeze out the air from the bags.
You can do this by pressing the air out by hand, which gets a lot of air out, but not all of it. To get almost all of the air out you could use a vacuum food sealer… or this cheap and easy trick using a straw:
- Zip the top shut of the bag but leave enough space to insert the tip of a soda straw.
- When straw is in place, remove air by sucking the air out.
- To remove straw, press the straw closed where inserted and finish pressing the bag closed as you remove straw.
10. Freeze your greens for 6+ months.
Greens freeze well, especially because when you pull them out you have no expectation that they’ll be crispy (like green beans or something)! It is important that you keep them in a cold freezer (the colder it is the better they’ll keep) and that there is never a thaw cycle in the freezer. Also the more air you are able to squeeze out of your bags the better they will store.
So, what greens can I freeze?
Most greens! Think about what you would like to use frozen and freeze that. It works great for:
- kale
- Swiss chard
- beet greens
- turnip greens
- spinach
- radish greens
- collard greens
- bok choy (pac choi)
- other Asian greens
5 Great ways to use your frozen greens
But what can I do with those frozen green chunks?? You may ask.
It will probably make it easier for you to want to freeze them if you know that there are some great ways to use them up! Here a great list of what I like to do with them:
- In egg dishes like frittata, strata, quiche, etc. So good and SO easy! Here’s my primer on making frittata.
- Steam them and serve as a side dish with your meal. Then add salt pepper, butter, and vinegar. Or try a pinch of chili flakes and lemon juice. This is how we ate frozen greens all the time growing up.
- Quickly sauté them with onions and garlic to dress them up.
- Add them to soups! Here's my primer on making creamy soups. Or throw them into a mixed veggie stew with beans or meat or chicken. Yum!
- Add them to stir-fries!
I hope this inspires you to try it out!
It’s not that hard and worth it because you’ll love having them in the fridge when you're missing the fresh ones from the garden!
