Thursday, March 8, 2012

How to Freeze Avocado

Did you know that you can freeze avocados? Until last week, I didn't either - and the discovery came just in the nick of time.


You see, I have a little avocado addiction. Every time I have a salad, I scoop the flesh of half an avocado into it. It works as a great substitute for salad dressing, adding some much appreciated flavor and a helping of healthy fats without any unusual chemicals or unwanted oiliness. I buy up handfuls of avocados when the price is good, ripening them one by one on my kitchen counter and keeping the others in the fridge until they're needed. This system works well as long as I keep eating them, but last week's stomach flu left me with no appetite and a bowlful of overripe avocados.

Even without the flu, it can be tough to catch an avocado when it's perfectly ripe. I'm sure some of you have been there - you poke and prod your avocado, thinking you have a few days before it reaches peak softness and then, suddenly, it's going downhill fast and you're desperately trying to figure out ways to add guacamole to every meal.

I couldn't bear the thought of wasting one more of these gorgeous green gems, so I decided to give freezing a try. After a few minutes on the internet, I came up with the following method - which I can honestly say is pretty amazing. The avocado is pureed and combined with lime juice (to prevent oxidation), so its use will be slightly limited, but it's still great thawed over salads, stirred into guacamole, or eaten, as is, with tortilla chips.

The best part: you're only three steps away from never having to waste another avocado again!

Step 1. Scoop avocado flesh into a blender and combine with 1 Tablespoon lime (or lemon) juice for each avocado. Puree until the mixture is smooth (this also helps distribute the lime just evenly, so your avocado won't turn brown).


Step 2. Spoon into airtight containers or resealable bags (folding the top of the bag over, as shown above, will prevent the seal from becoming dirty during this process). Seal bags, removing as much air as possible. Using a pair of chopsticks, create a grid of indentations (as shown below) in the unfrozen avocado. This will make it easier to remove and thaw the frozen avocado as you need it.


Step 3. Place on a flat surface in the freezer until avocado is frozen solid. To use, 'break' off as many sections of avocado as you require and return the rest to the freezer. Thaw in the refrigerator (you can thaw at room temperature, but the avocado may brown slightly - if you need to speed the process, try stirring the frozen avocado).

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26 comments:

  1. I am so glad this worked out! I also didn't know that keeping them in the fridge trick either!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh yeah - I always keep them in the fridge until the night before I'm ready to eat them. Otherwise they all ripen at once!

      Delete
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  2. This is a brilliant idea - BRILLIANT!! I'm so going to pin it.

    :)
    ButterYum

    ReplyDelete
  3. Perfect!! Wasted avocado makes me so sad... I would love if you would link this up to Food Adventure Friday where my focus this week is on "Green" in anticipation of my St. Patrick's Day "Green Feast!!!"

    http://teachinggoodeaters.blogspot.com/2012/03/food-adventure-friday-green-feast.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. I had no idea either that you could freeze avocados! Good to know.

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  5. I'm going to try this one.

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  6. Such a great idea! I have had an avocado addiction with this pregnancy. Thanks for the idea! Visiting from 6 sisters stuff.
    Ashley
    OurHandsHisHands.blogspot.com

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  7. Who knew??? This is fantastic. Thanks!

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  8. I looooove avocados too, and never even thought of freezing them! What a great idea! Thanks!

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  9. I am so doing this! I hate wasting my over ripe avocados. Thanks for sharing :)

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  10. Great tip! I am your newest follower!
    Rachel @ the brown abode

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  11. This is so incredibly SMART! My hubby and I have always wondered how to keep our avocado saying fresh because he has an avocado obsession too. Thanks SO much and thanks for sharing at oopsey daisy!

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  12. Love this!! I love avocado but the rest of my family is so-so on it. But now I am so happy to know that I can freeze it! Thanks for sharing at Scrumptious Sunday at Addicted to Recipes!

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  13. Thank you for linking this to Handmade Tuesdays. You're being featured!

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  14. This is a great post and great information! Hope you are having a great week end and thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday.
    Happy St. Patrick's Day!
    Miz Helen

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  15. I didn't realise you could freeze it either!

    I would love for you to link up at the Mommy Archive - we're focusing on favourite freezer recipes and tips this week, Alice x

    ReplyDelete
  16. This was great. I froze mine in ice cube tray and then transferred to ZipLock - perfect. Now I can throw one or two into a green smoothie or blend for green goddess dressing.

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  17. hi this is good method to store avos during off season.
    how long do you think we can store avoes in the freezer.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Hi We make smoothie with avoes so I m not sure about the taste after using lime for long term storing. I will try this. Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  19. I tried this tonight as I'm leaving town & had 5 avos on the counter I didn't want to spoil. Didn't use a blender b/c I didn't want to wash it -- just mashed it up with a potato masher. Seemed to work fine. However (!) there's no way those indentations with the chopstick indentations would stay. As soon as I removed them, the avo filled in the spaces & it became one flat mashed up avocado pillow. So, I placed it on the bottom of the freezer & will just break parts of it off as needed. The grid was a no-go. Thank you for the post. I'd never thought of freezing avocado, but why not? You can buy frozen guacamole!

    ReplyDelete
  20. I tried this tonight as I'm leaving town & had 5 avos on the counter I didn't want to spoil. Didn't use a blender b/c I didn't want to wash it -- just mashed it up with a potato masher. Seemed to work fine. However (!) there's no way those indentations with the chopstick indentations would stay. As soon as I removed them, the avo filled in the spaces & it became one flat mashed up avocado pillow. So, I placed it on the bottom of the freezer & will just break parts of it off as needed. The grid was a no-go. Thank you for the post. I'd never thought of freezing avocado, but why not? You can buy frozen guacamole!

    ReplyDelete
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