Easy step by step instructions on how to freeze zucchini without needing to blanch it. This quick method saves you time and freezes zucchini for up to a year. Perfect for making zucchini bread and treats with!
If you have a garden you know that the end of Summer brings you lots of zucchini! Actually, even if you don’t have a garden, but have a friend or family member with a garden, then you probably have a counter filled with zucchini too! Zucchini, it’s the plant that keeps on giving!
Now what are you going to do with those 15 zucchini? Ok, I have some recipe ideas for you. There’s Zucchini Corn Fritters, Pan Fried Crispy Zucchini Fritters and Zucchini Nuggets. Yum. There’s Zucchini Bread with Lemon Glaze. Classic yum. And there’s Zucchini Muffins. More yum. And oh goodness, my favorite – Chocolate Zucchini Cake. But you still have 10 zucchini left. What are you going to do?
Don’t worry – you can freeze zucchini, keeping it to use for a year! And even better, it’s so easy to do!
Can you freeze zucchini without blanching?
Yes, you absolutely can! This method saves you time without having to bring a big pot of water to a boil and then doing a water bath. The secret is that instead of chopping it into pieces, you want to shread it. This allows you to freeze the zucchini without blanching!
This is my favorite method to freeze zucchini, one I’ve been using for years. I’m known to make homemade zucchini bread every single month in the year, so I love being able to pull a bag of shredded zucchini out of my freezer!
Here’s my full walk through on how to freeze zucchini.
How to Freeze Zucchini
- Hold up, take a step back, and admire that garden beauty if you grew it. God damn, it’s gorgeous! High 5! This is one of our MASSIVE zucchini. I actually got 8 cups of zucchini from this guy! WOWZERS!
- Chop off the the top and bottom of the zucchini.
- Now it’s time to shred this up. You can use a grater for exercise, or you can use a shredding blade with the food processor. I needed some exercise so I hand grated it.
You’ll probably have a big bowl of shredded zucchini by the time you’re done. - Decide how you want to separate it. I like to separate it into 1 and 2 cup bags. Most of my recipes call for 1 or 2 cups zucchini, so this makes it easier to use instead of freezing it all together.
- Place the shredded zucchini into freezer bags. (I always buy these in bulk during the Summer).
- You really want to try to get all the air out of the bags. For this, I like to use the straw trick where you suck the air out of the bag with the straw and then zip it. It works perfectly!
- Write on the bags to label what it is, and how many cups are in each bag.
- Now freeze it! Wasn’t that easy?
How to Defrost Zucchini
Now it’s time to take the zucchini out of the freezer and cook with it. Defrosting zucchini is easy, here’s how.
- Take the zucchini out of the freezer. To show you how fresh it stays and the color it keeps, this is zucchini that is 5 months old.
- Place the zucchini either in the refrigerator to defrost naturally overnight, or pop in the microwave to defrost in a couple minutes.
- Once it’s defrosted, add the zucchini to a strainer and gently press down on it. Your zucchini probably has some added water in it, so we want to make sure we get rid of all that extra water, especially if we’re baking with it.As you can see, there was quite a bit of water we squeezed out of it!
- Now you have your fresh zucchini defrosted to throw in recipes!
As you can see, there was quite a bit of water we squeezed out of it!
How long does frozen zucchini last for?
Shreded frozen zucchini can easily last for a year. Since it’s shredded, you won’t find the texture weird when baking it in breads, or cooking it in casseroles or nuggets. It also makes a great zucchini soup!
Hope this “How to Freeze Zucchini” post helps you with your many zucchini you’ve harvested!
More Freezing Tips
Need help freezing green beans? Make sure you check out my How to Freeze Green Beans post and How to Freeze Fresh Corn too!
Here’s how to freeze bok choy.
Love peaches? Here’s how to freeze peaches.
Not garden related, but here’s my favorite method on how to freeze cake.
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How to Freeze Zucchini Without Blanching
PrintIngredients
- Zucchini
Instructions
- Take a step back, and admire that garden zucchini if you grew it. God damn, it's gorgeous! High 5!
- Chop off the the top stem and bottom of the zucchini.
- Now it’s time to shred this up. You can use a grater for exercise, or you can use a shredding blade with the food processor.
- Decide how you want to separate it. I like to separate it into 1 and 2 cup bags. Most of my recipes call for 1 or 2 cups zucchini, so this makes it easier to use instead of freezing it all together.
- Place the shredded zucchini into freezer bags.
- You really want to try to get all the air out of the bags. For this, I like to use the straw trick where you suck the air out of the bag with the straw and then zip it. It works perfectly!
- Write on the bags to label what it is, and how many cups are in each bag. Freeze it.
- Time to defrost the zucchini? Take the zucchini out of the freezer.
- Place the zucchini either in the refrigerator to defrost naturally overnight, or pop in the microwave to defrost in a couple minutes.
- Once it’s defrosted, add the zucchini to a strainer and gently press down on it. Your zucchini probably has some added water in it, so we want to make sure we get rid of all that extra water, especially if we’re baking with it.
- Now you have your fresh zucchini defrosted to throw in any recipe you want!
Terri Dormer says
Should you or should you not drain the zucchini (using salt to coax out more water) before you bag and freeze it?
Pamela Reed says
I don’t do this Terri, only after I defrost it and ready to use. Hope this helps! Enjoy your zucchini! 🙂
Jeanine says
Please do refrain from the off-handed comment “God D—! ” Your garden looks great and High Five is plenty. I am a teacher and my second graders like to practice their reading skills by orally reading your recipes to one another and then we make them at school. They like sharing your recipe at home. Oops! They also used that two word comment constantly thereafter. Thanks!
Orphea says
Not sure how it’s the blog author’s fault that you didn’t proofread the material you handed them. That’s your job, no? It’s not like they dropped the f-bomb (though that would have been fine too, it’s their blog, not yours).
Terri Dormer says
I completely agree with you Orphea. I taught my kids (as was I) what words were acceptable and what words were not. When my kids or myself were reading out loud we either didn’t say them or had fun substituting a different word or sound in it’s place and we could have fun and even got a little creative with the sounds.
Marie says
Thank you for your comment about the author’s use of offensive language. I was immediately turned off upon reading it and was going to comment the same thing. There’s no need to use crude verbiage when all I wanted was information on freezing zucchini! There’s too many other bloggers to bother following one this classless.
Vikki says
I freeze my zucchini like this, too, for winter bread-making. I found the choice of words unfortunate, as I many times have a young niece or nephew reading your recipes to me. That won’t be happening again! While you SPEAK that way, I think I’d rather not READ it in a recipe. I’ll continue to follow, but a filter will be needed. (White-Out will come in handy!)
Lara says
Thanks so much for making this stuff easy. I’m off to get pickling spices now for my masses of cucumbers. Corns shucked, pots boiling to blanch brocolli n cauli. Zucchini is shredded and bagged. GOD I LOVE MY GARDEN!!!
SHAUNE Johnson UNDERWOOD says
I have done Zucchini this way for over 35 years and it works perfect.
Wendy pearson says
Do I have to squeeze the liquid out of the zucchini before freezing?
Kathy Camilli Jackson says
OMG I love this!
Masha J says
This is the craziest comment section on a recipe I have ever seen! LOL.