You are a fan of avocados, but avocados only ripe for a few months of the year. Wondering how to preserve delicious avocados and keep them for a long time? There are many ways to store avocados, and freezing avocado puree is the easiest and most effective way.
In the following article, we will show you how to freeze pureed avocado properly so that you can eat this good food all year round.
Avocados and health benefits
There are lots of avocado varieties around the world, including many hybrids and they appear in many shapes, sizes and colors. Most avocados are similar in taste, but they are slightly different in flavor. That is why, people may prefer one type over another. Some avocados are creamy and nutty, and others have a lighter taste.
Here are the common avocados and their taste.
- The creamy, nutty flavor can be found in the following avocados: Hass, Lamb Hass, Reed, Gwen and Sharwil.
- The lighter taste is the feature of Bacon and Zutano.
Avocado smoothie is a delicious, nutrient-rich beverage that is extremely good for your health and skin.
You may not know, avocado is considered a “superfood”. Avocados contain many vitamins C, E, K, monounsaturated fat (or good fat), potassium, lutein, omega-3, and many other essential nutrients. The calorie content in avocados is low but creates a feeling of fullness for a long time, which is very suitable for people who want to lose weight, have diabetes, or suffer from blood pressure problems. Of course, it is the delicious, characteristic fatty taste that makes this fruit so popular with food lovers.
However, avocados, as well as pureed avocados, spoil very quickly if left at room temperature. Therefore, if you want to use pureed avocado for a long time, freezing is the best way. However, you need to freeze it correctly.
Further reading: What Are the Best Cheap Freezers for Home?
Does avocado puree taste good after freezing?
The avocado season only has a seasonality of about 3-4 months, so many homemakers who are planning to store pureed avocado to eat gradually can not help but wonder how to store avocado to keep it for a long time but still delicious and nutritious.
If you store pureed avocados with fresh milk or condensed milk in the fridge, the pureed avocado is very easy to rot and spoil. If you are not careful, you will have diarrhea or stomach pain when eating such pureed avocado.
According to nutritionists, pure pureed avocado can be stored in the refrigerator for a particular time. If left for too long, the nutrients in avocado such as vitamin A, vitamin C, and magnesium will change. That will not be good for your health.
If you keep the pureed avocados in the refrigerator for about two days, you can still use them as usual. However, if you leave pureed avocados with milk for too long, you should not consume it.
Freezing avocado puree provides maximum shelf life, much longer than storing it in the refrigerator, up to 2-3 months. In particular, your pureed avocado retains its original flavor and nutrition. This is the way that a lot of people use to preserve avocados. However, you need to do the freezing steps correctly.
How to freeze avocado puree properly?
Step 1: Choose good avocado for freezing
- Shell: Pick the avocados with shiny, glossy skin and no dents, no bruises. When holding it, you feel heavy and firm in hand, not creaking.
- Shape: Long avocados are often fleshy; seeds are smaller than round ones but more fibrous than round avocados.
- Avocados’ stems. It’s best to buy the avocados that are ripe and creamy on the inside. You can check by peeling back the small stem or capping at the top. If you see the green color inside, the avocados are good. If it’s brown inside, the avocados are overripe, and you should not pick it.
Further reading: Best Top-Freezer Refrigerator without Ice Maker
Step 2: Prepare avocados before storing
- Wash the avocado: Wash the outside of avocado with water to remove dirt before storing.
- Remove avocado seeds: Using a sharp knife, cut the avocado into two pieces. When the blade touches the seed, rotate the knife around the avocado. Then use two hands to twist the two halves of the avocado in opposite directions to separate them. To remove the seeds, hold the halves of a seeded avocado with one hand, gently cut the seed with a knife, then lift the seed out.
Step 3: Freeze the pureed avocado
- First, Put the avocado into the blender. Mash the avocado and squeeze a little lemon juice into it.
- Then scoop this pureed avocado mixture into a container or zip bag.
- Finally, close the lid of the box or zip bag, then place it in the freezer.
Depending on the amount of avocado, you can consider to add enough lemon juice, only about two teaspoons of lemon juice at most.
The sourness of the lemon will not affect the taste of the avocado. According to nutritionists, lemon juice keeps the color and nutrients in the purest avocado puree.
What are other ways to freeze avocados?
Besides puree, you can freeze avocado as whole, halves or dice.
Freezing avocado whole. This is the simplest way, and you can keep them in freezer for 3 to 6 months.
- Wash the avocados thoroughly and wait it dries
- Use plastic wrap to cover each avocado carefully
- Put them in Ziploc bags and let them go into the freezer
Freezing avocado halves. This method is convenient when you need a small amount of avocado each time.
- Wash the avocados and cut them in half
- Squeeze a little lemon juice on each piece and wrap each avocado in plastic warp
- Place them in a freezer bag, press out the air and zip tightly before putting in freezer
Freezing avocado diced or sliced. With some frozen slices or dices of avocado, fruit and veggies you will have a perfect smoothie. Here are the steps.
- First, wash and peel the avocados.
- Then, slice in half and remove the pits. Continue to slice avocado into dices or wedges.
- After that, sprinkle a little lemon juice on them. Place them on a cookie sheet and flash freeze in an hour.
- Finally, transfer the frozen dices, wedges into safe freezer bag, press the air out and put them in freezer.
As avocados can stay a long time in freezer, you should label the date, so you know when to use them.
How to thaw the frozen avocado puree
When you need to use it, defrost the frozen pureed avocado by submerging the whole bag or box of avocado in warm water for about 2 hours.
If you want to make an avocado smoothie from this frozen puree, just put the avocado under cold running water for about 30 seconds and then blend as usual. Defrosting avocado with warm water instead of cold water will help it retain its aromatic fat and not become mushy or watery.
With frozen fruit like avocado, you can defrost it by placing it in the refrigerator for 6-8 hours.
How to use frozen avocado puree
After being frozen, avocados have changes in texture so defrosted avocados can be used in the following recipes where texture is not very important.
Chocolate avocado mousse
It takes about 10 minutes and very easy to make this healthy drink.
Put all ingredients like avocado, chocolate, sweetener, and vanilla into a blender. Then, blend until smooth. Pour the mixture into individual glasses and place in refrigerator. Enjoy it whenever you like.
Keto green smoothie
To make this, you need avocado, coconut cream, almond milk unsweetened, chia seeds, fresh mint leaves, and ice cubes.
Throw all ingredients in a blender and pulse until the mixture becomes smooth. You can taste and add the sweetener and peppermint as your liking.
Sugar-free mint ice-cream
Use a blender to blend all the ingredients including avocado, heavy whipping cream, milk, sweetener, mint extract and salt into the blender.
Then, pour the smooth mixture into an ice cream maker and wait until it’s frozen and light but creamy. It’s better to enjoy immediately.
Avocado cilantro salad dressing
To make it, you need to blend a few pieces of thawed avocados together with ranch dressing. Add some fresh cilantro and a little lemon juice to the mixture. Now the dressing is ready for your salad.
You may also like: Can You Freeze Pasta Salad with Italian Dressing?
Conclusion
Avocados are preferred for their taste and versatility; you can freeze avocado puree for later use. With the proper preparation and storage, pureed avocados can be frozen up to 2 or 3 months. When freezing avocado puree, you should add some lemon juice to keeps its color and nutrients. After thawing, they can be used in many dishes like smoothie, dressings, guacamole dips, sauces or spread on sandwiches.
Reference
1. How to Use Frozen Avocados in Keto Recipes, hip2keto.com, Retrieved on Jan. 15, 2022
2. Easy Avocado Puree, Amy Palanjian, Nov. 2019
3. How To Freeze Avocados – 3 Ways, Libbi Jenkinson, Mar. 2021
