John Myers
The asparagus season is short and fresh asparagus only last a few days in the fridge. Good reasons to extend the season of the stick vegetables with the help of the freezer: you can freeze asparagus without any problems. We explain what needs to be considered when freezing green and white asparagus.
The season for fresh asparagus from Germany is short: our spear vegetables are in season from mid-April to 24 June, St. John’s Day. During this time, asparagus lovers enjoy the precious vegetable in many ways: Classically with ham and potatoes, as a soup or au gratin from the oven.
If you want to extend the asparagus season and freeze the spear vegetables, this is easily possible – for both green and white asparagus. Here you can find out how frozen asparagus stays crisp and tastes aromatic even after defrosting.
How to freeze asparagus
Important when freezing asparagus: The asparagus should be as fresh as possible and should be frozen raw – i.e. not cooked or blanched. It doesn’t matter whether it’s white or green asparagus: the spears will keep in the freezer for around nine months – almost until the start of the new asparagus season.
You can recognize fresh asparagus by the moist and fresh cut surfaces and closed asparagus heads.
If you want to freeze asparagus for the asparagus-free period, it is best to freeze it at the peak of the asparagus season (around Pentecost), when it is cheapest.
Freeze white asparagus: Here’s how
Before freezing, wash the asparagus and pat dry carefully.
Remove the woody ends.
Peel the asparagus carefully.
Place the raw asparagus spears in a freezer bag and seal the bag airtight. When sealing the bag, let as much air out as possible.
Asparagus keeps best in the freezer if you vacuum seal it.
Tip: If you want to use the asparagus later for a soup, you can cut the asparagus spears into smaller pieces before freezing.
Freeze green asparagus
Freezing green asparagus is even less of a problem, because you don’t even have to peel the green spears:
Simply wash the green asparagus, dry them, cut off the ends and pack them in an airtight container or in a freezer bag and freeze them.
Prepare frozen asparagus
Under no circumstances should you take the frozen asparagus out of the freezer and then let it thaw slowly at room temperature. So that the healthy vegetables lose as little of their flavor as possible, put the frozen sticks directly into boiling water and prepare them. However, not for twelve minutes as usual, but only briefly. This keeps the delicious vegetables aromatic and al dente and tastes like it was fresh from the market.
