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How to Freeze Eggplant - Easily! With Step-by-step Photos, Recipe, Directions, Ingredients and Costs
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If you like frozen eggplant, like eggplant parmesan, in the winter, justimagine how good it would taste if you had picked a firm, fresh eggplantsyourself and then quickly froze them at home! It is also one of thesimplest ways to put up a vegetable for the winter. Here's how to do it,complete instructions in easy steps and completely illustrated. The eggplantwill taste MUCH better than anything you've ever had from a store. Andthis page has a nice summary about how to grow eggplants in your own garden.
Directions for Freezing Eggplant
Ingredients
- fresh eggplant - any quantity. I figure one medium sized eggplant perserving (it does cook down)
- lemon juice (1/2 to 1 cup)
Equipment
- 1 Large pot of boiling water
- 2 large bowls, one filled with cold water and ice.
- 1 sharp knife
- Vacuum food sealer or "Ziploc" type freezer bags (the freezer bagversion is heavier and protects better against freezer burn.
Instructions
Step 1 - Get yer eggplant!
Start with fresh eggplant - as fresh as you can get. If there isa delay between harvesting and freezing, put it in the refrigerator or putice on it. Harvest before the seeds become mature and when color is stilluniformly dark. Some varieties and size freeze better than others.Like many vegetables, eggplants do become soft after freezing and shedwater as the cell walls rupture. The traditional black varieties hold up abit better than the purple Chinese and Thai types, but in many dishes(like Indian baigan bharta) it won't matter.
Step 2 - Wash the eggplant!
I'm sure you can figure out how to rinse the eggplant inplain cold water.
Step 3 - Peel and slice the eggplant
Just take a sharp knife and cut of both ends (about 1/4 of an inch, orhalf the width of an average woman's little finger). Then peel theeggplant - an ordinary vegetable peeler works best.
Step 4 - Slice the eggplant
Slice 1/3-inch thick slices. Prepare quickly, (if you leave it sit cut for more than a half hour, it willstart to discolor). Do enough eggplant for one blanching at a time.
Step 5 - Get the pots ready
Get the pot of boiling water ready (about 2/3 filled), and add 1/2 cupof lemon juice to each gallon of water. Also get a LARGE bowl of ice andcold water ready to receive theeggplant after blanching.
Step 6 - Blanch the eggplant.
All fruits and vegetables contain enzymes and bacteriathat, over time, break down the destroy nutrients and change the color,flavor, and texture of food during frozen storage. eggplant requires abrief heat treatment, called blanching, in boiling water or steam,to destroy the enzymes before freezing.Cook (blanch) the eggplant for 4 minutes.
Begin counting the blanching time as soon as you place the eggplant inthe boiling water. Cover the kettle and boil at a high temperature for therequired length of time. You may use the same blanching water several times(up to 5). Be sure to add more water from time to time to keep the waterlevel at the required height.
Step 7 - Cool the eggplant
Remove the eggplants from the boiling water with a slotted spoon andplace in 
icewater to cool for about 5 minutes (until cold).
Cooling them quickly prevents overcooking. Keep adding more ice asneeded.
Drain thoroughly (2 or 3 minutes)
If you plan to make eggplant parmesan later, you can now batter dip theslices, coat them with bread crumbs wrap in wax paper and proceed tostep 7.
Step 7 - Bag the eggplant
I love the FoodSavers (seethis page for more information) with their vacuum 
sealing!I am not paid by them, but these things really work. If you don'thave one, ziploc bags work, too, but it is hard to get as much air out ofthe bags. remove the air to prevent drying and freezer burn. TIP: If you don't own a vacuum food sealer to freeze foods, placefood in a Ziploc bags, zip the top shut but leave enough space to insertthe tip of a soda straw. When straw is in place, remove air by sucking theair out. To remove straw, press straw closed where inserted andfinish pressing the bag closed as you remove straw.
If you want slicesfor frying later; pack the drained slices with plastic wrap between slices.That will help to keep them from sticking to each other.
Note:
If the eggplant is very wet, after draining it, just put it in thefood saver bag and freeze it (unsealed and upright) in your freezer.THEN, several hours later or the next day, when it is frozen, you canseal it with no mess!
Step 8 - Done!
Pop them into the freezer, on the quick freeze shelf, if you have one!
Tips:
- Harvest the eggplant at its peak maturity (firm, not limp or old)
- Process promptly after harvesting, or keep cooled in the fridge or withice until then.
- This page has a recipe for Lemon-Dilled Eggplant and Summer Squash
Frequently Asked Questions
- How long can they be frozen?
It depends upon how cold is your freezer and how you packed them. Colder(deep freezes) are better than frost free compartments, which actually cycleabove freezing (that's how they melt the ice). Vacuum packing results inlonger storage capability, too. Thicker bags also help prevent freezerburn.In general, up to 9 months in a ziploc bag in an ordinary freezer, and 14months in a deep freeze in a vacuum packed bag. After that, they beanswon't make you sick; they just won't taste as good.
Eggplant Varieties
Large Oval Fruit
Dusky (60 days to harvest, good size, early production)
Epic (64 days, tear-drop shaped)
Black Bell (68 days, round to oval, productive)
Black Magic (72 days)
Classic (76 days, elongated oval, high quality)
Black Beauty (OP-80 days)
Burpee Hybrid (80 days)
Ghostbuster (80 days; white, slightly sweeter thanpurple types; 6 to 7 inch oval).
Elongated Fruit
Ichiban (70 days)
Slim Jim (OP-70 days; lavender, turning purple whenpeanut-sized; good in pots)
Little Fingers (OP-68 days; 6 to 8 inch, long, slimfruit in clusters).
Ornamental Fruit
Easter Egg (52 days; small white, egg-sized, shaped,turning yellow at maturity; edible ornamental)
Comments and Tips from Visitors
- Freezing on a cookie rack: "Thanks for all the great info onthis site. Re: freezing eggplant - after blanching and drying it a bit,I put it on a rack over a cookie tray in the freezer before packing inserving size and sealing in vacuum sealer. I did the same thing with mygreen beans - freeze first and then seal.(This is my first year usingthe vacuum seal, so I may be going a little overboard!) Thanks for allthe advice. Lorraine"
