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Pumpkins are at the height of their popularity in Autumn, but also make a great ingredient throughout winter and early spring. If you’ve bought too much pumpkin for your roast, you’ll be pleased to know that you can freeze pumpkin in lots of different forms, such as purée as well as raw. We’ve got some tips for how to best store these veggies in the freezer.
Pumpkins can be easily frozen in their raw, puréed, or cooked state. They can be stored safely for up to three months, at which point you should make sure you use them up. Stocking up on this vegetable is perfect for the colder seasons and you’ll be glad you’ve got some saved when you’re in a cooking rut – we’ve got some cooking ideas for frozen pumpkin below.
Got more veg that’s in need of storing, but you’re not sure how best to do it? Take a look at our guides on freezing celery, asparagus, and cucumber. Not a veggie hoarder? Maybe carbs are your thing, in which case knowing about freezing bread or rice could be useful.
You can freeze raw pumpkin or pumpkin purée. Cooked pumpkin is also fine to freeze. However, before you go chucking a whole pumpkin into your freezer, consider that defrosting the whole thing will take ages. If you cut up your pumpkin into cubes before freezing it, you’ll have it prepped and ready to go straight out of the freezer when you need it. Freezer bags are good for this, but you can also re-purpose an old ice cream tub to store your frozen pumpkin. Yes, we’re obsessed with all things nifty – any excuse to upcycle or get creative (we’ve got some tips for diy gifts here, too!)
For freezing pumpkin purée, you can use ice cube trays to get the same small cubes without making a mess. Alternatively, silicone muffin cases are great for portioning pumpkin purée, too.
It depends on how much of a pumpkin fan you are – we love it in pretty much everything. Frozen pumpkin can be cooked into stews and curries or used in soups. Sweet pumpkin dishes are a great choice, too – pumpkin cookies or subbing pumpkin for carrot in cake is a creative twist on an old classic! Freezing pumpkin purée is perfect if you want to make a pie, or baby food in the future.
Frozen food gets a bit of a bad rep for losing some of its flavour, and while this can happen, you can prevent too much flavor leakage by blanching your pumpkin before you freeze it. It doesn’t take too long, but if you’re not too worried about the loss of flavour, you can skip this step too.
Hopefully, you’ve got your answer to whether you can freeze pumpkins and a few more tips to go along with! You can also register with Ask Team Clean to get fantastic articles and special rewards sent straight to your inbox.