Freeze spinach: the best tips and tricks

Spinach is very easy to freeze. All you have to do is keep a few things in order for the leafy vegetables to retain their color and important nutrients. So you can enjoy spinach all year round.

Freeze spinach - the preparation

If you've harvested too much spinach in your garden and haven't used up the leafy greens, you can freeze it. For this you need a freezer bag or a suitable plastic container.

1. First the spinach leaves have to be sorted out. Discard leaves that are starting to rot or wither and the stems.
2. Before freezing the spinach leaves, blanch spinach to remove some of the nitrates and bitter substances from the leaves.
3. Bring water to a boil in a saucepan. Put the spinach leaves in a colander and hang it in the pot.
4. The leaves should remain in the boiling water for about two minutes.
5. Then hang the strainer in ice water for ten minutes.

Drain the spinach well before freezing

After blanching, it is important to drain the spinach leaves well. If you do not do this, the water will freeze with the spinach and you will then have iced spinach in the freezer.

• First let the leaves drain very well. Then dab the spinach with an additional kitchen towel. Either a paper kitchen towel or an ordinary kitchen towel made of fabric is suitable for this.
• You can either put the spinach leaves completely in a container or a freezer bag or chop them small. You can also freeze the spinach without plastic.
• You can also divide the spinach leaves into portions so that you can thaw a suitable amount later.
• If you want to freeze spinach that has already been cooked, then you should make sure that the leaves cool quickly and go into the freezer.
• The longer cooked spinach remains at room temperature, the more of the nitrate can be converted into the toxic nitrite. Bacteria can also multiply faster in spinach.

Spinach is not only healthy, but can also be turned into tasty dishes. The three most delicious dishes with spinach can be found in our next post.