Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Freezing Shredded Zucchini

Our garden is producing a boatload of zucchini right now.

Not that we have a boat. But if we did, I'm sure it would be full of zucchini.

But even with several families gathering the harvest and sharing lots with others, there is still plenty to go around. 

I guess that's what happens when you plant twelve zucchini plants.

Yes.

I did say 12.


Several years ago, my mom told me that you could successfully freeze shredded zucchini and use it for zucchini bread later. Like in the winter, when you'd like a taste of summer. 

The first year, I froze it in 2 cup portions of zucchini with the amount of oil that the recipe calls for. I thought my mom told me to do it that way. I must've read it somewhere else because she let me know that particular bit of information most certainly did not come from her.  "Why in the world are you adding oil? Oh, Mary Ann!"

So now I freeze it by itself and it works just fine and is simpler.

Freezing it with the oil worked too and baked up nicely without adding more oil to the recipe. You just want to remember if you added anything. When thawing, set bag on a plate or something, since you do not want oil leaking all over your counter. Not that I've experienced this, of course.

Anyways, all that to say that you can successfully freeze shredded zucchini to use in baking. Just shred and measure recipe-sized portions into baggies.

The frozen zucchini gets quite watery when thawed. That's ok for zucchini bread since the moisture is all part of the zucchini. At least it works well for my recipe. For other recipes, I'd recommend squeezing the moisture out for best results. 

Last night after supper, I ran several zucchinis through my food processor. Then while I washed dishes, my sweet husband bagged them up for me.

I may or may not have bribed him with ice cream. 

It will be so nice to have the zucchini in the freezer ready to use!

6 comments:

Tea said...

Thanks for sharing this!! :)

Denise said...

Yes, thanks for sharing. I don't have a place for a garden yet, but every year someone always gives me zucchini.

Debbie J said...

This is good information to know because there's always an overabundance of zucchini!

Mary Ellen said...

Good to know! I shredded some last night and put it in the freezer for the first time.

Mary Ellen

Wendi said...

I recently ran across two bags from last summer. They had gotten hidden and am so sad that I didn't find them a couple of months ago! I had been craving banana zucchini bread.

Ramble with Carole said...

Zucchini does freeze up wonderfully for bread later on. I am definitely missing our garden. We usually have oodles of zucchini and tomatoes by this time. We just did not get it in this year. Oh well, maybe next one..........