Learning how to freeze cauliflower is a great way to preserve the excess you have at home, whether that be from the garden or a good sale at the grocery store. Freezing it properly helps preserve its quality and means you’ll have cauliflower ready in the freezer whenever you need it to add to soups, stews, bakes or simply as a side at dinnertime.
In this simple guide, I’ll show you how to prepare, blanch and freeze cauliflower florets, as well as how to store them in the freezer for future use.
I find freezing cauliflower is such an easy and useful way to preserve my garden harvest, when it’s all ready at the same time, and you can only eat so much fresh cauliflower before you need to work out what to do with the rest before it sadly goes off.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Quick and easy- Simply blanch, cool, then freeze
- Great for meal prep- It’ll be ready for when you need to add it to any dish
- No wastage- Preserve all your garden efforts for future use
- Save money- Buy up when on sale and save money by blanching and freezing a bunch
Ingredients
- 1 head of cauliflower, or as many as you have to preserve
- Ice cubes and water (for the ice bath after blanching)
How To Freeze Cauliflower Instructions
1. If homegrown, soaking the cauliflower first in a saltwater solution can remove some unwanted pests and dirt. You can make a simple salt solution by dissolving 4 teaspoons of salt in 4 litres of warm water in a large bowl. Then place the heads of cauliflower upside down and leave for 30 minutes. Then rinse thoroughly and drain on a clean tea towel.
2. On a chopping board, cut all the cauliflower into florets.
3. Bring a saucepan of water to the boil, place a good handful of cauliflower at a time in the boiling water and boil for 3 minutes.
4. Place ice into a large bowl of water, then with a sieve scoop out all the cauliflower and place into the water to halt the cooking process.
5. Drain the cauliflower in a colander, or if there is a lot, use a fresh dry tea towel.
6. Line a baking tray with baking paper and place drained cauliflower on it.
7. Flash freeze by placing in the freezer for at least 30 minutes to a few hours to prevent them all from freezing together in one clump.
8. Once frozen, place them in either a zip-lock bag with the air removed or an airtight container.
Tips For The Best Results
- Don’t skip the flash-freezing part, where the cauliflower is placed on a baking tray and put into the freezer first. Unless you know roughly how much cauliflower you will need for each meal, as they’ll stick together like glue!!!
- If you have a Cryovac machine, it’s worth going through the step of removing all the air out of the bags, then finally freezing. This is worth it if you know you’ve got a glut of produce that you won’t be able to get through before it starts to get a lot of ice crystals on them.
- Cut the cauliflower roughly into the sizes you’d like to use them, for example in our Broccoli and Cauliflower Bake I like to cut the cauliflower into standard sized florets, see above, and use them directly from frozen like that and they work perfectly.
Variations and Substitutions
- If you have broccoli that needs freezing, this same process works perfectly for that as well. A bonus is that you can continue to save money if you can find a great sale or when you grow it yourself, and can’t possibly get through it all, before it goes bad.
More Recipes You’ll Love
Yes, you can, but it’s not ideal. If cauliflower is not blanched first, the colour, texture and flavour can change and deteriorate, resulting in a less-than-ideal product. Also, the nutritional value will decline much more quickly, so it’s worth taking the extra step and blanching.
Yes, it freezes well, although blanching is preferred, as opposed to fully cooking it, as it can become watery. If you do use frozen cooked cauliflower, it works well in dishes such as soups, stews, casseroles and bakes.
Storage
Freezer
- How long does it last in the freezer? Properly prepared and stored cauliflower will maintain its best quality in the freezer for roughly 8-12 months, according to the National Centre for Home Food Preservation. If eaten after this time, it may still be safe to eat if it has remained continuously frozen, but the flavour and texture will start to deteriorate.
Have you tried this simple method of freezing cauliflower? Please leave a star review below and let us know how it went!
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How To Freeze Cauliflower
- Total Time: 13 minutes
- Yield: 4 Servings 1x
- Diet: Gluten-Free, Vegan
Description
Learning how to freeze cauliflower is a great way to preserve the excess you have at home, whether that be from the garden or a good sale at the grocery store. Freezing it properly helps preserve its quality and means you’ll have cauliflower ready in the freezer whenever you need it to add to soups, stews, bakes or simply as a side at dinnertime.
Ingredients
- 1 head of cauliflower
- 1 large saucepan of boiling water
- Ice cubes and a large bowl of cold water (for the ice bath)
Instructions
- Rinse cauliflower thoroughly under fresh running water.
- On a chopping board, cut the cauliflower into florets.
- Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil, place a good, heaping handful of cauliflower in the water, and blanch for 3 minutes.
- Plunge into an ice bath for 3 minutes to stop the cooking process.
- Remove the cauliflower by scooping out with a slotted spoon and draining in a colander, or if there’s a lot, drain on a clean tea towel.
- Line baking dishes with baking paper and place drained cauliflower on them.
- Flash freeze by placing the trays in the freezer for at least 30 minutes to several hours.
- Once they are frozen, place them in either a zip-lock bag or an airtight container.
Notes
- Don’t skip the flash-freezing part, where the cauliflower is placed on a baking tray and popped into the freezer first. Unless you roughly know how much cauliflower you will need for each meal, as they’ll stick together like glue!!!
- If homegrown, soaking the cauliflower first in a saltwater solution can remove some unwanted pests and dirt. Make a simple saltwater solution by dissolving 4 teaspoons of salt in 4 litres of warm water in a large bowl. Then place the heads of cauliflower upside down and leave for 30 minutes. Then rinse thoroughly and drain on a clean tea towel.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 3 minutes
- Category: Food Preservation
- Method: Blanching and Freezing
- Cuisine: Modern Australian