Recipes, guides and kitchen know-how. Mostly useful, occasionally silly.
How to Freeze Bananas (Plus Avocados, Herbs and Spinach) - Freeze It, Don't Bin It
Peel and slice bananas, open-freeze them on a lined tray, then bag them. Avocados freeze best mashed with lemon, herbs in oil in ice cube trays, spinach blanched and squeezed into balls. All best used within about 3 months.
Here's how to freeze bananas so they don't turn into one giant brick: peel them when they're speckled, slice them about 1cm thick, freeze the slices on a lined tray for two hours, then tip them into a bag. That's it. That's the whole trick.
Avocados, fresh herbs and spinach get the same treatment further down, because they're the other three things that go off the second you look away.
In our house the fruit bowl has a half-life of four days. Day one, a bunch of perfect yellow bananas. Day four, a crime scene.
Nobody eats them on days two or three. On day four, everyone looks at the brown ones and buys a new bunch. Aaron calls this "rotation". I call it a banana-based pyramid scheme.
So we started freezing them. Then the avocados. Then the herbs. Then Isaac labelled the freezer drawers, and now nobody's allowed to touch anything. Progress, of a kind.
Why freeze it instead of binning it
Freezing stops the ripening clock, so the banana you'd have binned on Thursday is still good for a smoothie in February.
Hubbub, the environmental charity, keeps a list of freezer-friendly foods you didn't know you could freeze, and bananas are near the top. Their verdict: they freeze fantastically, as long as the skin comes off first.
The other thing nobody tells you: a brown banana is a better banana for freezing. The starch has turned to sugar, so it's sweeter, softer and blends smoother. A yellow banana is a snack. A speckled banana is an ingredient. A black banana is a warning.
Same goes for the avocado that's perfect for eleven minutes, the coriander you bought for one curry and the spinach turning to swamp water in the salad drawer. All of them can live in the freezer for months, quietly, without judging you.
What you need
A lined baking tray, some freezer bags or lidded tubs, a pen, and an ice cube tray or two for the herbs.
- Ripe bananas - speckled is perfect. Fully black still works for baking, but it's past smoothie age
- A baking tray and baking paper - so the slices freeze apart, not in one lump
- Ice cube trays for herbs in oil and portions of mashed avocado. We use a pair of big 2X silicone trays - the cubes pop out with a push instead of a fight
- Lidded trays or tubs for anything smelly. Ours is a set with snap-on lids, so nothing ends up tasting of last week's curry, and they stack
- A lemon - for the avocado, which goes brown faster than a British tourist in Spain
- A marker pen - Isaac's favourite piece of kitchen kit. He labelled the pen.
Banana slices, step by step
Peel, slice, open-freeze on a tray for about two hours, then bag. Ten minutes of work, and you'll never bin a banana again.
- Peel them. Always. Peeling a frozen banana is like trying to take a wetsuit off a seal.
- Slice them about 1cm thick. Thin enough to blend easily, thick enough not to vanish. If you only ever bake with them, you can freeze halves instead.
- Lay the slices on a lined tray in a single layer, not touching. Ayden places each one like he's setting a dinner table for the King.
- Freeze for about two hours, until they're solid. This is "open freezing", and it's the bit everyone skips.
- Tip them into a bag or tub once they're hard. Because they froze separately, they stay separate. You can take out five slices instead of chiselling off a lump.
Want them for banana bread? Mash them first, then freeze the mash flat in a bag, in the amount your recipe uses. Write how many bananas it is on the front. "Some" is not a quantity, Aaron.
Bag it, label it, use it
Squeeze out as much air as you can, write the date and what's inside on the bag, and lie it flat so it freezes fast and stacks like a book.
Air is the enemy. It's what gives you freezer burn: the dry, grey, leathery patches that make fruit taste of the inside of a freezer. Which, for the record, tastes of fish fingers and regret.
Flat bags freeze faster and stack in a drawer. A round bag freezes into a shape that fits nowhere. Our freezer used to look like a game of Tetris that had lost.
Can you freeze bananas in their skins?
Yes, it's safe, but the skin turns black and gets very hard to peel, so it's only worth it if you're baking with them.
Whole frozen bananas go jet black in the freezer. It looks dreadful, but the fruit inside is fine. The problem is getting at it. You'll be stood at the sink with a butter knife, swearing at a banana. We've all been there. Erin's still there.
If you've already done it, let them thaw for 10 to 15 minutes, then slit the skin lengthways with a knife and squeeze the soft fruit out like toothpaste. It's perfect for banana bread and muffins. Less perfect for anything you want to look nice.
Rule of thumb: skin on for baking, skin off for everything else.
Can you freeze avocado?
Yes. Avocado freezes best mashed with lemon or lime juice, pressed flat in a lidded tub, and it comes out perfect for guacamole, toast and smoothies.
What it won't do is come back as neat slices for a salad. Freezing breaks down the flesh, so thawed avocado is soft. Great on toast. Sad in a salad. Like most of us after Christmas.
- Mashed (best): mash ripe flesh with about 1 tsp lemon or lime juice per avocado. Press it into a lidded tub, smooth the top flat and press cling film onto the surface so no air touches it
- In cubes: spoon the mash into an ice cube tray, freeze, then pop the cubes into a bag. One cube is one slice of toast's worth
- Halves: brush the cut side with lemon juice, wrap each half tightly, then bag them. Fine for smoothies, a bit sad for anything else
Thaw it in the fridge for a few hours, give it a stir, and use it the same day. A brown top layer is just the air getting at it. Scrape it off. It's not personal.
How to freeze fresh herbs
How to freeze fresh herbs: wash and dry them, chop them, pack them into an ice cube tray, cover them with olive oil or water, freeze, then move the cubes into a bag.
Each cube then goes straight into a hot pan, a soup or a sauce. No thawing. It's like having a herb garden, except it doesn't die while you're on holiday.
- Soft herbs (basil, parsley, coriander, chives, dill): chop and freeze in oil or water. They'll darken a bit in the freezer, so use them in cooking, not as a garnish
- Woody herbs (rosemary, thyme, sage): these freeze happily as whole sprigs in a bag. Strip the leaves off straight from frozen
- Oil or water? Oil for anything that's going in a frying pan. Water for soups and stews
Hubbub suggests freezing herbs in a clip-lock box, not a bag, so they don't get frostbite. Lidded trays do the same job. Herbs: more delicate than you'd think. Like Ayden.
Can you freeze spinach?
Yes. Blanch it for a minute in boiling water, cool it in cold water, squeeze out every drop, roll it into balls and freeze them on a tray before bagging.
Blanching stops the enzymes that turn it brown and bitter in the freezer, and it shrinks a whole bag down to a few tennis balls. Isaac does a superhero pose every time. Spinach, strength, you know the drill. Erin has seen the pose. Erin is unmoved.
- Blanch: 1 minute in boiling water, then straight into a bowl of cold water
- Squeeze: really squeeze. Wet spinach freezes into green ice
- Ball it: roll it into portions, open-freeze them on a tray, then bag or box them
- Use it: straight from frozen in curries, soups, pasta sauces and omelettes. Not in a salad. It's not coming back from that
No time to blanch? Baby spinach can go straight into a bag raw. It'll be fine for cooking, just floppier and a bit darker. Aren't we all.
What to make with frozen bananas
Smoothies, banana bread, pancakes and one-ingredient "nice cream" - frozen slices are better in most of these than fresh ones.
- Smoothies: frozen slices make a smoothie thick and cold without watering it down with ice. A handful of slices, milk, a spoon of peanut butter, blend
- Banana soft serve: blitz frozen slices in a food processor. It goes crumbly, then gummy, then suddenly smooth and creamy. Keep going. Have faith. It gets worse before it gets better. Like a haircut. For the full-fat version, there's the condensed milk and double cream one that skips the churning
- Banana bread: thaw the bag of mash in the fridge, tip off any brown liquid if you want a lighter loaf, or stir it back in for a stickier one
- Pancakes: thaw a few slices and fold them into the batter, or warm them in a pan with butter and pile them on a stack thick enough to need a structural engineer
How long it keeps
All four are best used within about 3 months. They stay safe for longer at -18C, but the taste and texture slowly fade.
| What | How | Best within |
|---|---|---|
| Banana slices | Open-frozen, then bagged | About 3 months |
| Mashed banana | Flat in a bag | About 3 months |
| Avocado | Mashed with lemon, in a tub | About 3 months |
| Herbs | In oil or water cubes, or sprigs in a bag | About 3 months |
| Spinach | Blanched, squeezed, in balls | About 3 months |
A freezer at -18C stops bacteria growing, so food doesn't go off in there in the way it does in the fridge. It just slowly gets drier and less tasty. Like Aaron's jokes after the third time.
That's why the date on the bag matters. Aaron does a stock-take every Sunday with a clipboard. Nobody knows where he got the clipboard.
The freezer cheat sheet
Here's all of it on one chart - bananas, avocados, herbs and spinach, plus how long they keep and how to thaw them. Save it, print it or stick it on the freezer door. Isaac has already laminated ours. Twice.
Thawing it safely
Thaw anything you're not cooking straight from frozen in the fridge, not on the worktop, and use it within 24 hours.
That's the Food Standards Agency's line too. Their guide to chilling, freezing and defrosting food safely says defrost in the fridge, eat it within 24 hours, and don't refreeze it unless you've cooked it first.
- Banana slices: no thawing for smoothies or soft serve. For baking, a few hours in the fridge
- Avocado: a few hours in the fridge, then stir and use the same day
- Herb cubes and spinach balls: straight from frozen into the pan
Baked something with thawed banana? The banana bread can go back in the freezer, because it's been cooked. That's the loophole. Eesha checked. Twice.
If it goes wrong
Bananas froze into one big lump? They went straight into a bag without open-freezing first.
Fix: Spread the slices on a lined tray for two hours before they go in the bag. For the lump you've got, leave it in the fridge for 15 minutes and break it up. Or use it as a doorstop. Your call.
Grey, dry patches on everything? That's freezer burn. Air got into the bag.
Fix: Squeeze the air out, use smaller bags or lidded tubs, and use things up within about 3 months. It's safe, just sad. Cut off the worst bits.
Avocado came out brown? Air touched the surface, or there was no lemon in it.
Fix: Mix in lemon or lime juice and press cling film right onto the mash before the lid goes on. Scrape off any brown top layer. The green's underneath. It's just shy.
Herb cubes taste of freezer? They were in an open tray, picking up every smell in there.
Fix: Once they're frozen, move them to a sealed bag or a lidded tray. Basil should taste of basil, not fish fingers.
Spinach thawed into a puddle? It wasn't squeezed hard enough before freezing.
Fix: Squeeze until no more water comes out, then squeeze again. If it's already a puddle, cook it down in the pan first. Nobody wants spinach soup by accident.
Freezer questions people actually ask
Can you freeze grapes?
Yes. Wash and dry them, freeze them on a tray, then bag them. Frozen grapes are a brilliant summer snack, like tiny sorbets. For little ones, cut them lengthways first, the same as you would fresh. Dexter has asked about grapes. The answer is no. Grapes are dangerous for dogs.
Do strawberries go mushy when you freeze them?
Yes, once they thaw. Hull them, open-freeze them on a tray and use them in smoothies, sauces, jam or crumbles rather than on a plate. Erin examined one closely and declared it unfit for Wimbledon.
Can you refreeze thawed bananas?
Not raw. The FSA advice is to only refreeze food once it's been cooked. Bake the thawed banana into bread or muffins and you can freeze those. One trip in, one trip out. The freezer isn't a revolving door.
Why have my frozen banana slices gone brown?
Air got to them. They're still fine to eat, especially blended or baked. Squeeze more air out of the bag next time, or use a tub with a lid. Brown is a colour, not a verdict.
Garlic's a different story. It's happiest at room temperature, so here's where a bulb likes to live, and why it isn't the fridge. It's not a banana. It has its own needs.
Now go and rescue a banana. Before Aaron buys another bunch.
