I have a surplus of zucchini, thought about making it into fritters and freezing them but I made corn fritters last night, and tonight I reheated them in my ever so clever bench top oven and they were not as soft, were a bit dry.

So instead of freezing the zucchini fritters, I thought how about freezing raw grated zucchini.

Has anyone done this, should I squeeze the liquid out of them before freezing?

Look forward to hearing from you

cheers Gran

I think if you froze it raw, on thawing much of the water would drain out of it and you would be left with a soggy mess not suitable for much use. Try it with a little bit and see what happens.

That was my concern Lorna.

I have frozen zucchini puree for loaf making. Grated zucchini could be successfully used for muffins, cakes or loaves.
I am not sure about fritters as the texture is more important for those.
Courgette soup recipe here on foodlovers is delicious and could be made with frozen zucchini or make the soup and then freeze it. Either would be fine.

Will invite friends for a big fritter fry up so we eat them all on the day. Also will make the soup for those cold winter days (how I would love a cold winter day at the mo) - the temps in Paraparaumu have been so high its hard to cope.

It will be lovely to have some gorgeous green courgette soup in the freezer for later when they are so expensive in winter, they seem as elusive a memory as a cold winters day does now!

I keep them in containers. All my fruits and vegs I also keep in special freezer room here in Auckland, NZ. I cook a lot and that's the only way for me to store all products. There is large variety of reliable, and low maintenance commercial cold storages and refrigerated warehouses.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/15/2018 09:58PM by alanz.

Danube, is it possible to have the soup recipe. I've not thought of a zucchini soup. Having said that, I'm about to make a few batches of parsnip soup, as our parsnips have gone crazy, and that's great to have in the freezer.

I have frozen grated zucchini to use in zucchini slice before, which worked fine. Just squeeze out excess liquid once they have thawed.

A couple of weeks ago I made a "zucchini slice" - a sort of "self crusting" quiche, but made in a large lamington type tin. I used a few zucchini (ours were crowded by the lemon grass plant, and have only just taken off), lots of scallopini, a few carrots from the vege bin, some onions and bacon. This time I added lots of ground pepper, some mixed herbs and chilli. flakes. I tried to pile it into the tin, but in the end saw reason and also filled some Texas muffin tins, as I had grated far to many veggies. Most of it went in the freezer, then yesterday I dragged some out for lunch. They were sooooo good, so I've decided to repeat the exercise with the aim of getting perhaps 12 "meal" lots in the freezer for the coming year. Today it was a frittata using last nights left over roast and green veggies, mushrooms and some chorizo sausages that needed using up. Fingers crossed that it is as nice. Definitely a great way to use the excess veggies - of all sorts, and to have a meal already made AND no dishes!

Hi, I was referring to the courgette soup here on foodlovers that Helen mentions in her post on this thread. I have had a look at it and it looks delicious, just search in the recipes. I am going to make it in the next few days too.

Although I did have frozen raw zucchini in the freezer at the time when this topic came up, I couldn't comment because I hadn't used any of it, and naughty me because it was from the previous summer's zucchini harvest!! Prior to freezing, I had squeezed as much liquid out as I could and then used my food sealer to remove all the air and seal. When it came time to use them, I left the package in the fridge to thaw over night and when I came to use it I had to squeeze all the juice out of it again but it was quite usable. What had started off as a bit under 3 cups of fresh squeezed zucchini reduced down to about 3/4 cup of thawed, re-squeezed zucchini! Although limp and soft, it wasn't a mush. My aim was to make a recipe of mussel and zucchini fritters for dinner last night and I decided to also add a cup of grated pumpkin (or grated kumara could be used at great cost!) to the batter as well to make up for the lesser substance of the zucchini. Very successful and very yummy fritters!

So my thoughts are yes, I would freeze grated zucchini again as it was successful in my eyes to be added to fritter batter provided it is well squeezed. What nutrient it still has in it by then I wouldn't know, as I suspect that has all been squeezed out in the liquid, however that wasn't going to deter me. I wouldn't use them solely as zucchini fritters - they need to be used as an addition to an already substantial ingredient fritter such as the mussel and zucchini and pumpkin fritters I made last night.

I will be using the remainder of my frozen packages for fritters again, and also to add to savoury slices, soups, and casseroles. And I will be freezing future surplus zucchini simply because I can't bear to toss them out when nobody else wants them!
Regards,
Dawn.

The soup on the site is delicious, I make and freeze it most years.

Stephanie, I love courgette soup and I freeze it as well. Helen's recipe looks very nice. My recipe is different in that there is no curry but quite a few mint sprigs and some spring onion which gives it another flavour altogether.
Regards,
Dawn.

I love courgette, especially the noodles. Im not into faddy stuff BUT these noodles especially with noodle carrots stir fried are really really good.

Id love to freeze the noodles when courgettes are in season so thanks for the information.
Im wondering if I freeze them after stir frying them then I just need to defrost, heat heat up and add meat.

Many of you mention grating the courgettes. I HIGHLY recommend a Miracle Peeler, Im sure there are many different ones around but its basically a peeler on one side and makes noodles on the other. Its so easy, low mess. I even do my veg this way for soups, sauces, mince ect.

A real time saver with grate ;-) results.

Vanessa



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/13/2018 12:39AM by Vanessa45.

Vanessa I don't know what the result would be if you freeze courgette noodles after stir frying them. It could be quite successful - you should try a small batch and see how it goes.

However, freezing them raw, and then relying on preparing them to eat as courgette noodles "to defrost, heat up and add meat" I think you would be very disappointed with the result. I don't think it would work as you would be left with long strands of very limp courgette fibre and they will have lost all their all their fluid and have no bulk. What you freeze raw virtually thaws down to a quarter of the original frozen amount after you remove all the liquid which thaws out of them. IMHO they would only be suitable as an addition to mixtures to give them lot more substance i.e. in a fritter batter with other ingredients, soups, casseroles, stews etc. as I have mentioned above.
Regards,
Dawn.

Yes I think so too, Dawn.

Vanessa, just to add a different description to what Dawn and Stephanie have already said.. freezing expands the water in the vegetable's cells, this causes the cell walls to break and veges to lose their texture and moisture. The higher the water content of the vege, the soggier it will be when defrosted. This is why zucchini doesn't fare well at all, but broccoli, for example, freezes well.

Blanching helps with a different issue, I can't remember exactly the process, but it helps retain colour and texture in some vegetables, such as beans, spinach etc.

Jenna Wrote:
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>
> Blanching helps with a different issue, I can't
> remember exactly the process, but it helps retain
> colour and texture in some vegetables, such as
> beans, spinach etc.

As I understand it blanching vegetables kills enzymes which are part of the spoilage process, which means that they survive the freezing in better condition.