It’s the season of zucchini over-abundance! Freezing zucchini is a great way to store it long-term, and these are three great ways to do it so you can preserve and enjoy zucchini at its best all year.
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A Zucchini Summer
If you’ve ever experienced a “zucchini summer” in your garden, you understand the wild abandon that some summers tend to grow zucchini.
Whether it’s the right soil rotation or ideal weather making perfect zucchini growing conditions, sometimes there is just too much zucchini to use up at one time!
While you can make zucchini spice bread and zucchini chips to your heart’s delight, in the meantime more and more zucchini is coiling around your backyard faster than one can reasonably eat it.
Of course, there are plenty of ways to preserve zucchini, but freezing zucchini is super quick, easy, and versatile.
Two of these methods make it simple to use the zucchini in the amounts you need, and the third it is already done in advance!
How to Freeze Zucchini
When you have zucchini overload in your garden or CSA veggie box, freezing the abundance is a great option and makes it easy to use throughout the year.
There are three main methods of freezing zucchini: in pieces or chunks, shredded or zoodles, and premade zucchini recipes. I like to do some of each!
Note: These three freezing methods work well for any summer squash beyond regular zucchini, such as yellow squash and pattypan squash. Switch it up and use what you have!
Zucchini Pieces or Chunks
The best way to freeze zucchini in chunks or pieces is to blanch them first. This keeps their color and flavor and prevents them from turning into complete mush when they defrost.
If you don’t have a steamer basket, a boiling water blanching method works well. Just pop the zucchini pieces into unsalted boiling water for one minute, then scoop them out with a slatted spoon and follow up with an ice bath to cool.
I prefer to steam-blanch zucchini, which is essentially just steaming them in a steamer basket or metal colander. This is a super easy way to blanch them, and it only takes a few minutes.
Step 1: Cut the zucchini into cubes, rounds, or half-moons and place in a steamer basket (or a metal colander) over a few inches of boiling water. Cover with a lid and steam for 4-5 minutes, stirring once.
Step 2: Place the steamed zucchini on a towel to cool and drain. It will also help soak up any excess liquid.
Step 3: Once cool, put the zucchini chunks onto a parchment-lined sheet pan in a single layer and freeze them overnight. Flash-freezing zucchini chunks works well, so they don’t freeze in a large solid clump.
Step 4: Transfer the frozen zucchini to a freezer zip-top bag and store it in the freezer to use as needed.
Once zucchini chunks or pieces are frozen, their texture changes. While thawing, zucchini releases a lot of liquid, making it a great choice as an ingredient in recipes rather than for roasting or sautéing.
I recommend using it in soup, curry, or chili. Frozen zucchini can even be added to smoothies! They work just like ice cubes and give a vitamin and mineral boost.
Note: Share the zucchini abundance with your pets! Dogs and chickens love frozen zucchini chunks on hot days. It’s safe, healthy, and fun for them to eat.
Shredded Zucchini or “Zoodles”
This may be the easiest way to freeze zucchini or summer squash since it doesn’t need to be blanched or steamed. Just prepare and freeze!
Step 1: Shred or noodle (zoodle) the zucchini. A food processor fitted with a grater plate makes shredding quick and easy!
Step 2: Place the shredded or noodled zucchini in freezer bags, and freeze it. That’s it!
I like to measure the amount of shredded zucchini that goes in a bag first. I typically do two cups per bag because that is the amount I use for my zucchini spice bread recipe, which I make often.
This is a great method if you have a favorite recipe that uses shredded zucchini. You can pull it out of the freezer and thaw it out before stirring it in! Easy peasy.
Zucchini noodles hold up surprisingly well to freezing. The texture may be slightly different, but not much. Once they’re cooked, it won’t be noticeable. To use frozen zoodles, simply thaw and saute as you normally would.
I’ve tried squeezing the moisture out of my zoodles before freezing them. However I don’t find this step to be necessary. It really doesn’t make much of a difference in the end, they’re just as good!
Freezing Zucchini Recipes
This method takes a little more work initially, but your future self will thank you! There is nothing quite like pulling out a pre-made meal from the freezer made with fresh ingredients for a quick dinner or snack.
All you have to do is pre-make a recipe that uses a lot of zucchini and then freeze it for later!
My favorite is zucchini pancakes. They are easy to make, use a lot of zucchini, freeze well, and taste delicious! To flash-freeze pancakes so they don’t stick together, follow these easy instructions:
- Make and cool the zucchini pancakes.
- Put them in one layer on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper.
- Freeze the pan of pancakes overnight.
- Transfer the frozen zucchini pancakes to a freezer zip-top bag and freeze them again.
Other tasty zucchini recipe options that are great for freezing are:
- zucchini bread
- chocolate zucchini bread
- zucchini muffins
- cheesy zucchini muffins (for a savory treat!)
- ratatouille
- zucchini lasagna
- minestrone soup
However you choose to use your zucchini harvest, it’s always good to know that you have some waiting in the freezer whenever you need some fresh squash in the rotation!
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