John Myers
Do you love pumpkins? Then we have good news for you. Because in addition to preserving and pickling, you can also freeze pumpkins. Here you can find out how this works and what you should bear in mind.
Year-round enjoyment: Freezing the pumpkin
For many, the pumpkin season is a culinary highlight of the year and is often felt to be too short. If you preserve pumpkin, the delicious fruit vegetables can be enjoyed beyond the fall and processed into a delicious pumpkin and coconut soup, for example. Freezing as a preservation method is particularly practical because you can freeze the pumpkin raw and process it flexibly. To do this, peel it, cut it into small pieces and freeze them in a freezer bag. Squeeze the air out of the bag beforehand or use a vacuum sealer. A simple trick helps to make it easier to remove the raw pumpkin in portions. Spread the pieces out on a baking sheet in the freezer for a few hours so the pieces don’t freeze together. Then pour into the bag – and if necessary, the required amount can be easily removed.
Freeze pumpkin with skin? No problem with some varieties!
If you want to freeze the chopped pumpkin with the skin, you can use the Hokkaido, Butternut and Patisson varieties – the skin is edible for them. You can add the raw pumpkin pieces directly to soups, bake them in the oven or fry them in a pan. If the pumpkin is to be used as a topping for a pumpkin quiche or tart, it is better to freeze grated pumpkin flesh or very thin slices.
Freeze pumpkin puree – practical for cream soups
For creamy soups, it’s a good idea to cook the squash before freezing and freeze it in freezer tins as a mush. It can also be used as an ingredient in baby porridge recipes. To do this, crush the pulp and steam it in a saucepan with a little water for about 20 minutes. Once soft, drain the water thoroughly and puree the squash with an immersion blender. After cooling, simply fill into suitable boxes, put in the freezer, done. Allow the pumpkin puree to thaw briefly before processing so that it is easier to remove from the container. Whether sliced or cooked, the pumpkin will keep frozen for up to four months.
Freeze-ready meals with pumpkin
Another way to freeze pumpkins are ready-made dishes with fruit vegetable. Soups, for example, can be preserved in this way and thawed on the stove or in the microwave and warmed up at the same time. With pure vegetable dishes, you can often even freeze leftovers again without having to fear any loss of taste or even hygiene problems. You can read more about this in the expert article on freezing food twice. You can also freeze a ready-made part of the pumpkin dish, such as the toppings for a quiche. Before baking, simply put it frozen on the dough, the baking time specified in the recipe may be slightly longer.
