How to Freeze Kale and Other Leafy Greens
Learning how to freeze kale and other leafy greens is a fairly simple process that will give you the ability to have greens all year long tucked away in the freezer.
If you have ever grown greens, you know how well they can do. And how hard it can be to eat all of them in time.
I really enjoy freezing extra greens that we can’t eat so that I can use them in the off growing season. We mostly use the greens in soups, but they can be used in many ways.
What Types of Greens Can be Frozen?
There are many types of greens that can be frozen and used in the way that I describe. The ones that I freeze are the extras from my garden and we grow the following:
- Kale
- Swiss Chard
- Spinach
- Beet Greens
No matter what type of green you freeze, you might be surprised how they seem to magically shrink with this process. You can start with a huge basket full of kale or chard, but by the time you are done, they will nicely fit into a quart size zip top bag in what I call kale pucks.
How to Freeze Kale Quick Step By Step
- Wash off greens if needed.
- Remove the center stalk.
- Blanch leaves for 2-3 minutes in boiling water or steam over boiling water in a large steamer basket.
- Remove from the boiling water and plunge into an ice bath for a few minutes.
- Then remove from the ice water and squeeze as much water from the leaves as you can.
- Chop up the leaves into smaller pieces.
- Squeeze the chopped leaves into a silicone muffin tin or container.
A Bit More Detail
1. Wash off the Greens – I am using greens from my garden and since I don’t spray anything on my plants, they are usually pretty clean and I can skip this step. Clean if you feel you need to.
2. Remove the Center Stalk – Kale and Swiss chard have a big center stalk that is a bit too thick to use, so I strip the leaves off the stock. You can cut them off with a knife or strip with your hand. I don’t do anything with spinach or beet greens. You can use the stalks in other ways or feed to your animals.
3. Blanch the Greens – There are two ways to do this step and I have done both. Both are blanching the greens and both use a big pot of boiling water. The first way is to use a deep steamer basket and submerge the whole basket of greens into the boiling water to boil for about three minutes. The greens will be under the water and you will stir them around a bit to make sure they are all getting evenly blanched.
The Second Way to Blanch
For the second way you will use a shallow steamer basket and load up the greens in that above the boiling water. The greens will not get submerged into the boiling water but stay above it and steam for the three minutes. You will need to use tongs to move the greens around and place a lid on the top when you are not stirring them. This way they get steamed, but not soaking wet in the water as they do when you submerge them.
4. Ice Bath – The next step is an ice bath. It doesn’t matter if you steamed or boiled to blanch the greens, you will need to get them into a nice cold ice bath right away after getting them out of the boiling water. They should sit in the ice water for a few minutes until they are cooled down. This will stop the cooking and get them ready to freeze. Stir them a bit to make sure they all get evenly cooled.
5. Drain off the Water – You want to get as much water off as you can in this step. It will seem that what is left of the greens is almost nothing because they shrink up so much, but this is a good thing for storage in the freezer. Lay them out on a dark colored towel and ring out or squeeze out as much water as you can.
A Tip to Make it easier after being frozen
6. Chop Up the Leaves – Now that you have gotten most of the water out of the leaves, put them on a cutting board and give a rough chop to them. I didn’t do this the first year I froze greens and learned my lesson. All the leaves were huge in the soup I dumped them into. So giving them a rough chop will make them just the right size when they come out of the freezer.
7. Put in Containers to Freeze – I have a silicone muffin tin that I use to freeze the kale pieces. It works really well to shove in a bunch of greens and the large size of each container makes it the perfect size to pull out later for a batch of soup. Any silicone mold should work well to get the greens out of once they are frozen for a bit. You want to be able to push them out easily, so a regular metal muffin tin wouldn’t work as well.
That’s It for How to Freeze Kale
Now you will have a freezer full of kale pucks to use all throughout the winter in soups and other dishes. One of our favorite dishes to use the frozen kale pucks in is my cheeseburger soup. If you want to use spinach for spinach dip, chop up the leaves a bit more fine after removing from the water bath so its perfect size for the dip.
Other Posts on Preserving Foods By Freezing
Pin for Later – How to Freeze Kale
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