Over the years, frozen food has become a widely popular and affordable way to get your daily dose of fruit and vegetables. In fact, by adding frozen foods into your daily diet, you’ll be able to lead a healthier lifestyle because frozen foods are able to retain their vitamins and minerals.
The top reason why fruits and vegetables retain their nutritional values is due to the fact that they are immediately frozen right after they have been picked or harvested. By freezing these foods at their peak ripeness, the nutrients and flavor are locked in.
Advantages Of Frozen
Skeptical about frozen foods? Here are some top reasons as to why you should add frozen foods into your everyday diet:
- Frozen foods are able to retain their vitamins and minerals as well as carbohydrates, protein and fat content.
- Compared to fresh foods, frozen foods are able to offer more vitamins and minerals because over time fresh food loses their nutritional value. Frozen foods, on the other hand, are able to preserve their nutrients.
- It is much more affordable convenient to buy frozen foods. For example, once you buy a packet of carrots, they are already chopped and ready for you to toss into your dish at any given time. You don’t need to peel and chop up your carrots. As a result, using frozen carrots speeds up the whole entire cooking process.
- Buying frozen food is a lot more cost-effective. With a longer shelf-life, you don’t need to worry about using up or wasting the fresh foods you bought. By buying your frozen food in bulk, you’ll be able to save more without worrying about wasting your food.
In this article, we will answer the question, “Can you freeze potatoes?”, and find different ways to freeze and lengthen the shelf-life of potatoes.
To first answer the initial question, yes and no, freezing raw potatoes won’t lengthen its shelf-life because once frozen, raw potatoes end up discolored and wrinkly. However, there are certain ways you can prepare potatoes to freeze and lengthen its lifespan.
When you walk through the frozen aisle in your local supermarket, there is a wide selection of frozen potatoes from mashed potatoes, hash browns, and french fries. Similar to what you can purchase in the stores, you can prepare such variations of potato dishes at home.
Learning how to increase the shelf-life of certain foods is a very cost-efficient and non-wasteful hack that many should know more about. By finding new ways to repurpose or preserve the food in your pantry that are nearing their expiration date, you’ll lessen the amount of waste you contribute to the planet.
Before going ahead and freezing your potatoes, it is important to note that once they are frozen, the texture and taste will differ from a dish made of non-frozen potatoes. To help with the taste, you need to season the dish really well.
Steps To Prepare Potatoes For Freezing
While it may sound easier to simply chop up potatoes and toss them in the freezer, this method won’t work out because potatoes that are uncooked will go bad and even look gross. To make sure that you freeze your potatoes successfully, here are some of the best ways to prepare your potatoes before freezing.
- Pick out a good variety of potato. Red and Yukon gold potatoes freeze the best in comparison to other varieties like russet potatoes.
- Potato dishes that are mixed with other ingredients freeze very well. You can prepare potatoes with ingredients that have a good amount of fat in it, like cheese and cream. Using creamy ingredients helps the potatoes retain their texture after freezing.
Steps To Preparing The Potatoes
- Rinse and peel the potatoes well.
- Depending on what you plan on doing with the potatoes, cut them into the desired pieces, cubes, strips or shreds.
- Place the cut-up potatoes in a bowl of water and add some lemon juice or vinegar.
- Depending on how you’re preparing your potatoes, shape and cook the potatoes before freezing.
- Once done preparing, place the potatoes on a baking tray and place them in the freezer.
Here’s How To Prepare Frozen Potatoes For Cooking
Once you’re ready to cook up your frozen potatoes here are a few things you must keep in mind.
- When it comes to thawing your potatoes, we recommend defrosting them inside the fridge a few hours before using them to make stews, mashed potatoes, hashbrowns or soups.
- Add in the thawed potatoes as the last step of your cooking.
- To make mashed potatoes, it is better to add ingredients that are higher in fat. Cream, butter or cream are better than milk as they are able to produce the desired texture for the mashed potatoes.
- When roasting or pan-frying your potatoes, brush the frozen potatoes with some oil before putting them on the pan. Also, for the best results, cook slowly.
- For deep-frying, make sure that the potato pieces are separated before tossing them into the oil.
While freezing potatoes aren’t a viable option, you can definitely preserve your leftover potatoes by cooking them up and then freezing them. By doing so, you are making a whole lot of difference in both your finances and food wastage.
