Can You Freeze Raw Sweet Potato? Can i freeze fresh cabbage You Freeze Fresh Sweet Potatoes? Can You Freeze Whole Raw Sweet Potatoes? What Is The Best Way To Freeze Sweet Potatoes?
Sweet potatoes are delicious and often used as a healthier alternative to regular white potatoes. If you’ve got some that need using up, you might be thinking about freezing them. Can you freeze raw sweet potato? This post takes a look at whether it’s possible and what other options there are when it comes to freezing sweet potatoes. Unfortunately, you cannot freeze raw sweet potatoes if you want an edible product after thawing.
Even though just chucking whole sweet potatoes in the freezer and hoping for the best might seem like a good idea, blanching first is essential for good results. Can You Freeze Raw Sweet Potatoes Without Blanching? Freezing raw sweet potatoes without blanching is not a good idea. Because sweet potatoes have a high water content, like many other vegetables they do freeze well without being cooked first. Blanching is the easiest and quickest way to prepare sweet potatoes for the freezer but they could also be mashed, roasted or fried before freezing.
Can You Freeze Raw Sweet Potato Fries? No, you cannot freeze raw sweet potato fries unless you want to end up with a horrible soggy mess! The best thing to do is cook or blanch the raw sweet potato fries before freezing. Freezing fresh sweet potatoes is not a good idea.
If they’re nice and fresh then they should be kept in a cool dark place and should remain edible for at least a week. If you don’t think they’ll get eaten within that time frame then consider cooking and freezing instead. Another option if you don’t want the hassle of freezing could be to juice sweet potatoes, which is something that can be done while they are still raw. Freezing whole raw sweet potatoes isn’t advisable BUT sweet potatoes can be frozen whole if you bake them first. There are lots of different ways you can freeze sweet potatoes and in all honesty, some do work better than others. For example, in my experience making the sweet potatoes into a soup or mash has better results when defrosting and than defrosting and reheating a previously frozen baked sweet potato. However, as long as you cook them in some way first, freezing sweet potatoes is a great method of preserving them.
Before freezing raw sweet potato, you’ll need to blanch it. Blanching is a method that cooks vegetables for a very short period of time and then cools them quickly too to stop the cooking process. Bring a large pan of water to a boil. Dice the sweet potatoes into chunks roughly 1-2 inches in diameter. You don’t need to remove the skin for this but you can if you want to. I recommend setting a timer for this!
After the two minutes is up, drain the potatoes in a colander and then pour them into a large bowl or pan filled with cold water and ice cubes for a further two minutes. Drain the sweet potato chunks again. They are now ready for the freezer. While blanching sweet potatoes does start the cooking process, they will need to be properly cooked before being eating.
This can be done by roasting them or boiling them in water until fully cooked. Once blanched, it’s pretty simple to freeze sweet potato. Below I’ve given instructions on flash freezing as well as more general freezing tips. Flashing freezing means your chunks of potato won’t all be stuck together so you can take out as much as you need each time.
This method also works well for sweet potato fries or slices of roasted sweet potato. Place the pieces of sweet potato on a baking tray leaving about half an inch between each one. Keeping the tray nice and flat, place in the freezer and freeze for 1-2 hours until the pieces are frozen solid. Once frozen, the chunks, chips or slices of sweet potato can be bagged up together or placed in a freezer container and you can be safe in the knowledge they won’t clump together. Label and date the sweet potato so you know what it is and when to use it by.