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Freezing Fruit
In an ideal world you would make smoothies with locally sourced organic produce that is in season. But what if a) the produce is not locally grown, or b) it’s not available (for any reason) when you want it? What I would love to suggest to you though is that freezing fruits is a wonderfully useful and delicious thing to do.
You’ll do this for a number reasons.
- Frozen mangoes, bananas, pineapple, peaches, apricots and so on give your smoothies that smooth texture that you’re after and that consistency.
- You can stockpile lots of fruit ready for the months when that fruit is not available fresh for you. At least you’ll know where it came from!
- Berries are fragile and have a short bench or even fridge life. So besides giving great consistency and temperature, berries will last all year round. They give great color to your concoctions too.
- Frozen fruits are ... um ... cold! So you may not need to add ice at all.
How To Freeze Fruit For Smoothies
Seems simple. Pop that fruit in the freezer. There is a little more to it however!
Bananas
Peel your bananas. Put them in a container or sealable bag, just one banana deep. They will be much easier to remove. Bananas are not rock hard when frozen. They are actually quite easy to slice from the whole fruit when you have a good knife. Just be careful with all frozen fruit. Keep an eye on your blade and your fingers well away. Try always to apply the blade by securing it in the fruit and then apply the pressure straight down.
I like to keep the bananas whole. When you take the bag or box out of the freezer you’ll easily prize the number of bananas you need. All the recipes that need bananas need them in whole units to keep it easy.
You can liberate space in your freezer by placing your already frozen fruit in a resealable bag. Or you can liberate the flatter freezer containers and add more frozen fruit to a deep container that can stay frozen for months without risk of freezer burn to your precious cargo. Just keep whatever you choose well closed.
Pineapple
Peel your pineapple. Cut the pineapple up in wedges that involve a portion of the core. It’s best to use sweeter specimens if you can manage. When you cut the fruit, see if the core is particularly woody. You shouldn’t have to remove the core. I prefer to blend as much of the usable fruit as possible. The core provides you with great fiber too. If you leave a little of the eyes in the flesh, don’t worry too much. It’s just a little fiber that will blend up well.
Store in bags and let freeze flat. Then, if you like, you can break up the frozen pieces in the bag. When you need then fruit you’ll take out ½ and 1 cup amounts.
Mango
Mango is a sensational fruit in smoothies. Can you tell I love them? I do my very best to store as many mangoes as I can. It’s a real delight when I can get the taste of summer in the middle of winter.
There are 2 ways to chop up mangoes. One is to leave the skin on first. Then, with the fruit lengthways take a knife and slice off the cheeks taking the length of the blade to skim it along the broad side of the flat stone. You’ll be left with 2 cheeks and the stone, all with flesh on them.
Take a cheek flesh-side up in one palm. Take a tablespoon and introduce the tip between the skin and the flesh and work the tip around the cheek and towards the center. This will pry the flesh away from the skin quite cleanly.
With the stone, remove as much of the flesh as you can and remove the skin too.
Freeze the flesh either in a shallow freezer box or in plastic storage bags. Once frozen for the first time I actually remove the flesh and slice thickly and then replace in the freezer in an airtight container or bag to prevent freezer burn.
You’ll find that mango is also quite easy to chop in the frozen state. If you have pieces already roughly chopped then they are simple to portion out with your fingers whenever your recipe calls for it.
Berries
Strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, red and black currants, boysenberries, you name it, they are all excellent candidates for freezing. Berries don’t normally stay fresh for long periods of time and some berries have very short availabilities when in season, so freezing makes sense.
Many berries are also available in the freezer section of your supermarket, both organic and non-organic varieties.
However, if you choose to freeze your own here are a couple of tips. Prepare your fruit when you bring them home. Wash them in fresh (possibly filtered) water and then let them drain in a colander and then to dry on a dry tea towel.
Hull your berries if necessary or if called for. Remove any inedible bits. Cut large strawberries into smaller teaspoon size portions while still fresh. Strawberries freeze quite hard and you may find them hard to cut safely.
Freeze flat in a bag or shallow box. They should be as dry as possible when they are put into their containers so that they don’t become coated in ice. You can transfer frozen fruit into a deeper container when frozen through.
