Freezing Fresh Herbs, Garden Tomatoes, and Vegetables
I’ve been gardening for many years and this round-up post has all my tips for Freezing Fresh Herbs, Garden Tomatoes, and Vegetables!
PIN tips for Freezing Fresh Herbs, Garden Tomatoes, and Vegetables!
For everyone who’s growing vegetables and herbs and starting to feel that longing to keep the garden produce around a bit longer, here are my tips for Freezing Fresh Herbs, Garden Tomatoes, and Vegetables. My favorite way to preserve garden goodness is by freezing things like tomato sauce, fresh herbs, pesto, and other garden sauces to use during the winter.
I’ve written a lot of posts about freezing things from the garden, and I’m collecting them all here into a round-up of freezing tips for garden produce. If you have a garden or buy produce at the Farmer’s Market I hope you’ll find some of my tips useful!
And I know there are other vegetables or herbs that can be frozen that I haven’t tried, so if you have other tips about freezing garden produce, please share those in the comments. See Cooking for Gardeners for more recipes and tips using garden veggies and herbs.
Freezing Fresh Tomato Sauce and Pasta Sauce
Let’s start with How to Make and Freeze Fresh Tomato Sauce. My method doesn’t require a food mill, although you can strain the sauce if you want to. I love to use this plain tomato sauce in soups and stews during the winter.
If you have fresh tomatoes and basil in your garden, I recommend making Sausage and Basil Marinara Sauce and freezing it in containers to eat over pasta or use to make lasagna when it gets cold outside. If you have a lot of garden tomatoes you can use more fresh tomatoes and fewer canned tomatoes in that sauce.
Freezing Slow Roasted Tomatoes
If you’re growing Roma tomatoes, you’ll want to read How to Make Slow Roasted Tomatoes. This is something I love to have in the freezer and your house smells amazing while you’re making them.
How to Freeze Fresh Basil
One of the most popular posts on my blog is How to Freeze Fresh Basil. I use this chopped frozen basil that’s coated with olive oil all winter long in soups, stews, and pasta sauce. (I bought these little containers at a store that’s no longer in business, but any small container with a snap-tight lid will work.)
Making and Freezing Pesto or Pistou
If you have an abundance of basil you might also want to make Basil Pesto with Lemon for the freezer. (That post also has Ten Ideas for Using Basil Pesto, so make a double batch so you can eat some right away!) I also love to freeze Spinach and Basil Pesto, Kale and Basil Pesto, and Garlic Scape Pesto with Chard, so keep reading for those.
Another sauce made with fresh basil that freezes beautifully is Julia Child’s French Pistou Sauce. This doesn’t contain nuts or cheese, and it’s often used as a topping on vegetable or bean soups in France.
Something new that I made and loved is this Chard and Garlic Scape Pesto, shown here in mini-muffin tins ready for the freezer. This is good on pasta, but I also like it stirred into rice or scrambled eggs. (If you have chard but no garlic scapes, the recipe has a suggestion for making it with minced fresh garlic.)
If you like kale and don’t have much basil you might like this Kale and Basil Pesto with Lemon and Parmesan which is also great to freeze in a mini-muffin tin!
I also loved this Spinach and Basil Pesto which can also be frozen in ice cube trays or mini muffin tins like any of my other pesto recipes!
Freezing Rosemary and Thyme
Another popular post (despite some pretty horrible old photos) is the one on How to Freeze Fresh Herbs: Rosemary and Thyme. I never have to buy fresh rosemary or thyme in the winter, because I always have it in the freezer!
Freezing Sage, Tarragon, and Mint
I also have a post about Freezing Sage, Tarragon, and Mint. (All froze very successfully, but I didn’t find the frozen mint to be something I used nearly as much as the frozen sage or frozen tarragon.)
Freezing Roasted Red Peppers
If you’re lucky enough to have an abundance of green, red, or yellow bell peppers in your garden, read my post about How to Roast Red Bell Peppers on a Barbecue Grill, and then chop up the roasted peppers and freeze them. (I’m not that great at growing bell peppers, so if anyone has pepper-growing tips lay them on me in the comments, please!)
Freezing Anaheim Chiles
And if you’re growing any kind of spicy chile pepper just follow the instructions for How to Roast Anaheim Green Chiles on a Barbecue Grill, and they can be frozen once they’re roasted. I didn’t grow any hot chiles this year, but I think Poblanos are on my list for next year’s garden!
My Favorite Freezing Tool:
Finally, one of my best freezing tips no matter what you’re freezing is to seal the food inside a plastic bag using a FoodSaver Vacuum Sealer (affiliate link) before you put it in the freezer. I’ve had a FoodSaver for more than 20 years and couldn’t imagine how I would get by without it; read more here about why I love the FoodSaver. I’m now on my second FoodSaver, a standing model that holds the bags inside, and I like it even more than the original one I had for many years. (FoodSaver probably doesn’t know I’m alive, and the company has certainly never paid me or given me free merchandise to mention their products on my blog. )
More Gardening Info on Kalyn’s Kitchen:
I’ve been growing a garden for more years than I can remember, although the last few years I haven’t been reporting on my garden as much as I did in the early days of the blog! If you’d like to see more of my earlier posts about gardening, you can find them all collected together in Garden Updates. And happy gardening everyone!
50 Comments on “Freezing Fresh Herbs, Garden Tomatoes, and Vegetables”
This is great, Kalyn. The only things I'd add would be
1.) to eliminate the icecube tray for pesto. We've started to simply mound big lumps of pesto into a piece of plastic wrap, tightly close it and put THAT into a ziplock bag to freeze. When we want to use it, it's really easy to unwrap the pesto lump, cut off the amount we want with a sharp knife, rewrap and put the remainder back in the freezer
2.) Freeze washed and towel-dried Roma tomatoes whole. My sister's vegetable vendor told her about this last year. She says it works brilliantly. Of course, the tomatoes can only be used for making sauce because they pretty much turn to mush when they're thawed but they are as fresh tasting as if they had just been vine picked.
Once frozen, just putting them in hot water to cover for a few seconds, they peel super easy… Then add to soups, sauces, etc…
Joy, how fun hearing from a friend of Pam's. I just adore her and love her blog. I do hope you get a chance to grow some herbs and cook with them; so fun!
I take a look at Kalyn's Kitchen this morning and click on a link about freezing herbs and who's the first comment from? Pam. Kalyn, I love your blog and love Pam's blog (and not just because she's a good friend of mine). SOMEDAY, (hopefully next spring) I am going to grow herbs and actually DO some of the things that you ladies make look so fun and easy and beneficial. Please keep blogging!
Michele, isn't it great. I've been doing it for years.
My mom would freeze fresh basil from the garden. It would last through the winter and we had the wonderful taste when she used it.
Dawson, great idea to look at a kitchen store for those little containers. Glad you enjoyed the post.
Fantastic post, Kalyn! I, too, like those small containers you showed with your basil…but use them to freeze roasted green chiles every year.
Couldn't find any at BB&B or online, but I eventually found some 4-oz ones at my local kitchen store. They were marked as baby food containers so you might keep that in mind. They're also dishwasher-microwave-freezer safe, which is an added bonus IMO.
ChicaJo, thanks. Here's wishing you a great crop of herbs!
Oh my goodness Kalyn! Awesome link round up and tips!! Now, if only I had a garden to produce excess herbs and tomatoes! I am starting to cultivate some herbs in my tiny balcony…if I have a bumper crop I know where to look 🙂
So glad you are enjoying it! Thanks for the tip about epsom salts; will definitely try that on my peppers!
I just found your blog today and am enjoying going through your posts!
This was my first year growing bell peppers and my 12 plants did really really well (well after I fenced them in, a groundhog nibbled the tops of of thankfully only 3 plants) A friend of mine gave me a tip, mix 3tbsp Epsom salts to a gallon of water, fertilize how you normally would either with miracle grow or compost (you can also make compost or manure tea). My peppers would be big enough to make stuffed peppers if only my kids liked them!
Jeanette, I am a bit of a freezing maniac this time of year. (And yes, Rand and Jennette are the greatest!)
Love all these tips – I've never frozen roasted peppers before, but I have frozen roasted tomatoes. You are lucky to have a brother and Jennette (I like that name ;)). help you! Love the canning header.
Donna, you will LOVE the FoodSaver! I can't say enough good things about it.
Kelly I have heard about freezing tomatoes whole but haven't tried it. I think I'll try that this year, thanks!
I've frozen tomatoes whole for years. Skin cones off super easy ad it starts to thaw. A large freezer bag makes a nice fresh sauce for dinner
Okay, I have to try that!
LOVED this post, Kalyn! So many good ideas to try. I actually freeze my tomatoes solid (like berries as well) then put them in freezer bags, weigh them, and have them on hand for soup, sauce, etc. later. Easy way to keep fresh things around. My goal is to have as much space as you do to grow (or get more pots!)
You have inspired me to go out and buy a Food Saver – I bought a freezer about a year ago and still have some space – so THANK YOU for your timely post!
Donna
Wanda you could cook the sauce partly in a slow cooker, but you might need to reduce it in a pan on the stove at the end. It's the slow reducing and cooking the water out that makes this sauce so good.
Arrghh! I gave away my last bag of tomatoes since I am taking off for California tomorrow for a week. I really love the idea of freezing the sauce and do not like canning. Would the sauce cook okay in a slow cooker for the 6 hours?
Great post, Kalyn.
Thanks.
That's just how I feel too!
Thanks so much Kalyn! I love to freeze my herbs! It makes me really miss the summer in the winter!