Learn my easy, step-by-step method to freeze zucchini without blanching. This time-saving trick keeps your zucchini fresh for up to a year, ready to use in zucchini bread, muffins, casseroles, soups, and other tasty treats. Perfect for gardeners or anyone looking to save seasonal veggies!
How to Freeze Zucchini Without Blanching – Quick & Easy!
If you grow zucchini (or get handed a pile from a friend!), you know the end of summer brings way too many! Zucchini, it’s the plant that keeps on giving. You can make Zucchini Corn Fritters, Zucchini Bread with Lemon Glaze, Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins, or my personal favorite—Chocolate Zucchini Cake. But what about all the extra zucchini?
Don’t worry—you can freeze shredded zucchini for up to a year, and it’s super easy! No blanching needed, no boiling water, no fuss. Shredding the zucchini is the secret, keeping the texture perfect for breads, muffins, cakes, soups, casseroles, and other zucchini recipes all year long.
This is my go-to method—I’ve been doing it for years. I make zucchini bread almost every month, so having bags of frozen shredded zucchini on hand is a total game-changer.
How to Freeze Zucchini Step by Step
- 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!
How long does frozen zucchini last for?
Shredded frozen zucchini can last up to a year in the freezer. Because it’s shredded, its texture holds up well in baked goods like breads, or in casseroles and nuggets—no weird mushy surprises. It’s also perfect for making a quick zucchini soup!
Hope this post helps you with your many zucchini you’ve grown this season!
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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!
franki says
Hi there! I’m a little confused about the amount recipes call for. You freeze one or 2 cups amounts but then remove the water. So is it that amount leftover that you measure for a recipe?
and as for the controversy, I hope by now Christians realize that “taking God’s name in vain” is a lot deeper than mere words. The actions of those proclaiming to know Him & mistreat fellow humans while invoking His name is sounding brass & tinkling cymbals (see I Cor. 13)
Pamela Reed says
Great question! The 1–2 cup amounts are measured before freezing for convenience. When you defrost the zucchini, just squeeze out the excess water and use that amount in your recipe — so 1 cup frozen → defrost → drain → then use as 1 cup in the recipe.