How to Freeze Cauliflower? It’s very easy. In this post, I will show you my way to freeze cauliflower for a longer period of time. This way you can store cauliflower for a few more days without any worries.
So, We are in this situation where we have to think about storing our vegetables properly because of the current pandemic. I never tried deep freezing my vegetables even a single time when I was in India. I used to be a woman who plans their meals ahead of week and buy vegetables accordingly. I know, If ask you, many of you guys used to do the same thing.
But right now, We have to limit outdoor trips to protect ourselves, family, and community. This is the main reason I am focusing more on storing my food without losing their benefits. I tried freezing cabbage, brinjals, tomatoes, spinach, methi leaves, my vada batter, chili garlic paste and a mint sauce. So far, We are doing good. If you guys want such notes then let me know, I will definitely try to share the process of freezing different vegetables which we have stored so far and we are planning to store when we restocked it.
Coming to the cauliflower, I think Cauliflower is one of the versatile vegetable found in most of the kitchen. When It comes to a recipe, simple aloo gobi, roasted cauliflower and gobi ka paratha are one of my all-time favorite recipes. Ohh yes! cauliflower is known as “gobi” in hindi.
This vegetables is loaded with,
- fiber
- antioxidants
- vitamin C
- vitamin B and K
In many ways this regular vegetable helps to improve our health.
So, Freezing cauliflower is the best and easy way to preserve cauliflower. Don’t ever try to be so quick by chopping and putting cauliflower into a ziplock bag and freezing it directly. You will end up with clumps of frozen cauliflower that will be soggy and flavorless. The proper steps for how to freeze cauliflower include prepping, blanching, chilling, pre-freezing, and final-freezing.
So, how to Freeze Cauliflower?
step – 1 prepping
First and foremost, Wash your cauliflower. Cut cauliflower into a medium size florets. Remove the stems. Now, I like cauliflower stems so I am also keeping a soft part of stems. I am just removing the hard part of the stems. You can completely remove the stems if you don’ like. Just keep your cauliflower florets.
keep aside.
step – 2 blanching
This is an important stage of storing cauliflowers.
Heat water and add a pinch of salt(not more than that) into the water. Bring the water to boil. It will take around 8 mins on medium to high flame. Once your water starts boiling and bubbling, turn the flame off.
Transfer your cauliflower florets quickly into the boiling water and keep it in the hot water for 1 to 2 mins. This process is known as blanching. This will help to maintain the texture of cauliflower.
step-3 chilling
Drain your cauliflower completely. now, You can just transfer your drained cauliflower immediately into the iced water to cool it down quickly(make sure there is no extra water). However, I am allowing my cauliflower to cool down naturally. It will take 20 to 30 mins. Allowing cauliflower to cool down naturally will make it sure that there is no extra water remaining.
I mean this is the way I like to cool down my cauliflower.
step-4 pre freezing
To prevent the cauliflower florets from clumping together, a single layer of pre-freezing is recommended. This way the florets will stay loose, so it will be easy to take out a small amount of cauliflower for a recipe.
so, place cauliflower florets in a single layer on a freezer friendly plate or on baking tray and freeze it for an hour.
step-5 final freezing
After pre-freezing, Transfer the florets into a freezer friendly ziplock bags and deep freeze it. Use it as required.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long can they be frozen?
It depends upon how cold is your freezer and how you packed them. Thicker bags also help prevent freezer burn. In general, up to 4 months in a ziplock bag in an ordinary freezer. After that, they cauliflower won’t make you sick; they just won’t taste as good.
How to use Frozen Cauliflower?
Well, you can use this frozen cauliflower in almost every recipe where cauliflower is needed. For a quick reference, feel free to use this cauliflower in this roasted cauliflower recipe.
Because, We have blanched this cauliflower for 1 to 2 mins, It will take 3 to 4 mins less to be cooked perfectly.
Tools for freezing Cauliflower
- Recommended tools to freeze cauliflower – Freezer friendly ziplock bags( I always prefer to use zip lock bags to manage the freezer space) | freezer friendly containers ( alternate ziplock bag option) | pan (now, this is from my favorite brand) | strainer (now this silicon base strainer is a great space saver) |Chopping board (can you live without a chopping board?!)
That’s all.
hope you will like it 
. Have a great day ahead!
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