Freezing Asparagus

Last month I froze about 10 1/2 pounds of asparagus. I figured I'd do a quick post about it for future reference. I know this is rather simple, but I thought it might be useful at some point. Most veggies need to be blanched, but they vary in the length of time you should do so. This was the first time I'd frozen any asparagus. I don't know why I've never done it before. Especially when there is a farm stand down the road from us that sells home-grown sustainable asparagus for only $1 per pound. So I figured I'd try it this year. I know I'll definitely be freezing it in years to come, with the 25 crowns of asparagus I planted this year. I've read that each crown will produce at least 1/2 to 3/4 pound of asparagus... that's a lot of asparagus!

Freezing Asparagus

Wash the asparagus thoroughly and sort the spears into sizes by thickness. Break off woody ends. You may cut them into pieces or leave the spears whole. I cut mine into about 2-inch pieces.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Prepare an ice bath in a large bowl or in your sink with cold water and ice. Sometimes I'll just run cold water over the veggies in my over-the-sink strainer. Both ways seem to work equally well for me.

You will want to blanch your asparagus in batches depending on the thickness of the spears. Blanch small spears for 2 minutes, medium spears for 3 minutes, and large spears for 4 minutes. Once the time is up in the boiling water blanch, scoop out the asparagus and plunge them into your ice water bath to stop the cooking.

Drain the asparagus and place into a clean kitchen towel. Wrap up the towel to soak up most of the water. You can then either put the asparagus into freezer containers or freezer bags, or flash freeze on a cookie sheet. Once asparagus is flash-frozen, you can package into freezer containers or bags. Leave no head space. This is what I do with most of my veggies. That way the veggies are individually frozen and I can package them into gallon-size freezer bags. Then I can just remove what I need from the bag when I need it. I used to use smaller bags and freeze in serving sizes, but I've found using the big bags lends a much more organized freezer.