How to Blanch Greens

We have LOTS of spinach sitting under the high tunnel.

This winter, Farmer Kurt has been growing spinach under two of our high tunnels. Yeah, that’s a LOT of spinach.

It just keeps coming. Every week, Kurt goes out and harvests it. Sends it to the chefs. But we just can’t get rid of it fast enough. And it’s starting to get away from us.

So when Kurt told me last week, “I need to make room in the high tunnel for a new crop of carrots. The spinach has got to go.” I panicked.

Wait! How are we going to get rid of all that primo spinach? We can’t just let it go to waste.

That’s when a lightbulb went off.

“I know,” I said. “I’ll freeze it.”

Did you know you can freeze greens like spinach? And did you know you can do it in 2 minutes?

Why would you want to learn how to freeze greens?

If you’re a member of our CSA membership program, you know there are times when you start to drown in an abundance of greens.

Here’s a scene that plays out every year for some of our newbie customers: They open up their CSA box and among other things, they spot a big fluffy bunch of kale.

(Silent groan)

“But I still have some from 2 weeks ago!” they say. “And I don’t even like kale!”

(Trying to have a good attitude and spirit of adventure) “Well, I’ll just stuff it in the crisper. Maybe I’ll eat it next week.”

CSA Newbies like this are often stumped for ideas for how to use unpopular greens we expose them to during the summer — things like collard greens, broccoli leaves or Swiss chard.

Add to that the fact that greens can take up so much space in the fridge. Plus they tend to wilt quickly. So if you don’t do something with them early on in the week, you lose them to the compost pile.

And there’s nothing we hate more than wasting food, right?

Many people also don’t know that the tops of beets, radishes and turnips are all equally edible. But CSA rookies can feel overwhelmed by learning how to cook these strange items, so again, these often end up in the compost pile.

More guilt.

This is when it helps to find out that you can freeze greens to use later.

“But why would I want to freeze those greens if I don’t like them raw?” you ask.

Well, I’m glad you asked because I used to think that too. (Not a fan of kale).

What you may not know is that once greens are blanched, the “off-flavors” of many of these greens turn dynamic and almost sweet.

For example, you won’t even taste the cabbage-flavor of the broccoli leaves after they’re blanched and thrown in a soup — but you’ll gain all their nutritional zest and health benefits.

You have to trust me on this. Learning how to blanch and freeze greens is probably the second most important “vegetable exit strategy” to learn if you’re a CSA member.

Greens are a big part of your CSA share. They can start to pile up if you’re not experienced in using them. Sometimes, it’s better to just freeze them, and then figure out how to use them later after you’ve got a few months of CSA under your belt.

These turnips are heading to the greens washer. You can also eat the tops of turnips, radishes, and beets. Simply blanch and freeze.

So how does this freezing greens thing work?

To freeze spinach, you need to blanch it first.

Blanching is a process that involves boiling something in water for a brief time, then dunking it in ice water to stop the cooking.

You could just throw your greens raw right into the freezer (and I sometimes do with kale), but here’s what would happen long-term with your more delicate greens…

Enzymes begin to break down the cell walls, the leaves turn mushy, the nutritional content decays, and the beautiful green color darkens into an unattractive brown.

You could probably get away with this “throw it in a freezer bag raw and run” technique, if you plan to eat the frozen spinach within a week or so. But for long-term storage, blanching is the way to go. It’s the only way to protect the nutritional content, color and quality of your greens.

Ingredients and Supplies for blanching:

To make a cup of cooked greens, you’ll need about 12 cups of raw spinach. You’ll also need a big stock pot, a strainer, a dish towel, salt, and a bowl of ice water (with ice cubes).

Remember this technique works for all greens, except maybe lettuce.

Technique:

1. First fill your stockpot half-way with water. Add a teaspoon of salt and bring it to a boil.

The salt is important. It keeps too many of the minerals and vitamins from leaching out into the water. And we know that spinach is packed with iron and calcium — don’t lose that power-punch.

2. Wash the spinach and take off the stems if they’re large.

Since spinach is such a fragile green you don’t really need to do this. But if you were blanching something like kale or collards or chard, you would want to remove the large stem before you boil the leaves. (You can save those stems and chop them up to use for stews as well).

3. Then throw them all at once into the pot of boiling water.

Boil them until the leaves wilt and the color brightens. This takes about 30 seconds for spinach, longer for tougher greens. For tougher greens like kale and collard greens or broccoli leaves, you may need to blanch for 2-3 minutes.

4. As soon as the greens wilt, drain the spinach and dunk them into the ice water.

This will immediately stop the process of cooking. Let it chill for the same amount of time you cooked them for. Note: you can keep reusing the same cooking water if you want to make several batches.

5. Remove the greens and squeeze out the excess water as best you can.

You want to prevent the formation of ice crystals.

6. Then place the greens into the desired portion sizes into a ziplock bag.

Remove the air, label it with the date, and store in the freezer.

Some of our CSA members suggest freezing it in ice cube trays for small portion sizes. You can also place them in small clumps on a jelly roll pan, cover them with plastic-wrap, and freeze them.

Once they freeze, pop them into a Ziplock bag and they won’t stick together. Then you can pull out small, more manageable portions to add to your eggs or other dishes.

Follow this technique, and you’ll soon begin amassing a collection of frozen greens that you can easily pop into your dishes later to save time… things like soups, side dishes, sautes, pastas, frittatas. Simply run them under some water to thaw them out, or microwave or throw them right into the dish you’re preparing.