I had some spinach in the garden that was still green when I cleaned out the garden last year, so I left it in just to see what it would do. Come to find out that spinach is a biennial, so it’s perfectly happy to live through the winter if it’s not too harsh of a winter or is covered and start growing again in the spring. Very cool. So we’ve been eating this spinach, but it’s just gone crazy, and then started “bolting” where it sends up a stalk and tries to produce seed. This was some random hybrid spinach, so I really wasn’t interested in collecting seed from it, so I pulled all the plants and decided to try freezing it following the directions in my Ball Blue Book.
Pick young, tender, green leaves. Wash thoroughly and cut off woody stems. Blanch 2 minutes and avoid matting leaves. Cool. Drain. Pack in can or freeze jars or plastic freezer boxes. Seal, label and freeze.
Sounds pretty easy. I am NOT a fan of cooked greens, so I figured if this didn’t go well, it really wouldn’t be a great loss and the chickens could eat my mistakes. Well, long story short, the spinach freezing went fine and is actually better texture than store bought frozen spinach. Might do this again. I put my little assembly line workers to work washing and picking the leaves off the spinach (their attention was intermittent at best–they really just wanted to play in the water in the sink, but I tried anyway). I despise dirt in my spinach (I think it tastes like dirt anyway, so it’s not helpful to have the crunchy texture of dirt added in) so we washed it a bunch of times to make sure it was really clean. Then I thought whole spinach leaves wouldn’t be too useful, so I chopped them up in about 1-1 1/2 inch squares.
Keep preparing! Angela
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Aimee says
If you are happy with your results, then there's no need to change anything, but I like to freeze my greens raw. Just wash very well and spin dry, then chop and pack into ziploc freezer bags. This works beautifully with tougher greens like kale and collards, too.
HermitJim says
Boy, you are a wealth of very useful information! Thanks for this tutorial!
Angela says
Aimee–I might try that next time. It would definitely be easier!
Jim–You're very welcome. Just trying to lessen the learning curve for others! ;)
marci357 says
If you had just kept cutting off the tops of it, ie NOT letting it bolt, it would have kept producing. I do that with my swiss chard – which is the same deal.
Both will also dehydrate well. I like dehydrated swiss chard in my soups and stews in the winter – nice to add something green to them, and free :)
If I freeze some, I usually just dump the pot into a very large strainer, and then run cold water over it or stick it in a sink full of cold/iced water. That's to stop it from cooking any further, so you are freezing it only partially cooked. Without the cooling process, it continues to cook.
Angela says
Marci–Thanks! I thought about leaving it in, but have a bunch of new spinach coming up, so it's okay that it's gone. I'm going to use that space to plant something else now. And I actually forgot to "properly" cool the blanched greens. So I could have waited until I had it all chopped and put it all in the boiling water together and then dumped it all in the collander and cooled it or I could have dropped my cheesecloth bag in cold water after it cooked before opening it. Thanks again for the comment.
Anonymous says
its best to toss anything blanched into a big bowl of ice water. if you let it cool on its own it will continue to cook until its cooled.
American Prepper says
Thanks for the info on spinach. That's my favorite vegetable. I love eating spinach both cooked and fresh out of the garden. I didnt know you could freeze it. Good Post! Also, thanks for joining our contest!
Anna says
I had really good results freezing both spinach and swiss chard last year. It's all good stuff.
The Hermit says
I like spinach dip but I have never liked just eating spinach.
TheSurvivalMom says
Thanks for the detailed instructions! I'm always looking for ways to preserve foods on my own.
Oh,thanks for linking to my blog! That was a nice surprise!
Anonymous says
Chrissy says
I have cooked a dish with spinach and made way to much. I just really want to know if I can freeze it without any problems as would hate to waste the rest.
Angela says
chrissy–it depends on what else is in the dish, but the spinach will freeze and thaw fine. Potatoes don't freeze well, but most other veggies do. Thanks for the comment.