Vegetables
Can You Freeze Raw Sweet Potato?

Can You Freeze Raw Sweet Potato?

Sweet potatoes are delicious and often used as a healthier alternative to regular white potatoes. If you’ve got some that need to be used up, you might be thinking about freezing them. Can you freeze raw sweet potato? This post takes a look at whether it’s possible and what other options there are when it comes to freezing sweet potatoes.

Can You Freeze Raw Sweet Potatoes

Unfortunately, you cannot freeze raw sweet potatoes if you want an edible product after thawing. Even though just chucking whole sweet potatoes in the freezer and hoping for the best might seem like a good idea, blanching first is essential for good results.

Can You Freeze Raw Sweet Potatoes Without Blanching?

Freezing raw sweet potatoes without blanching is not a good idea. Because sweet potatoes have a high water content, like many other vegetables they do freeze well without being cooked first. Blanching is the easiest and quickest way to prepare sweet potatoes for the freezer but they could also be mashed, roasted or fried before freezing.

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Freeze raw sweet potatoes

Can You Freeze Raw Sweet Potato Fries?

No, you cannot freeze raw sweet potato fries unless you want to end up with a horrible soggy mess! The best thing to do is cook or blanch the raw sweet potato fries before freezing.

Can You Freeze Fresh Sweet Potatoes?

Freezing fresh sweet potatoes is not a good idea. If they’re nice and fresh then they should be kept in a cool dark place and should remain edible for at least a week. If you don’t think they’ll get eaten within that time frame then consider cooking and freezing instead.

Another option if you don’t want the hassle of freezing could be to juice sweet potatoes, which is something that can be done while they are still raw.

Can You Freeze Whole Raw Sweet Potatoes?

Freezing whole raw sweet potatoes isn’t advisable BUT sweet potatoes can be frozen whole if you bake them first.

What Is The Best Way To Freeze Sweet Potatoes?

There are lots of different ways you can freeze sweet potatoes and in all honesty, some do work better than others.

For example, in my experience making sweet potatoes into a soup or mash has better results when defrosting and than defrosting and reheating a previously frozen baked sweet potato.

However, as long as you cook them in some way first, freezing sweet potatoes is a great method of preserving them.

Freezing Sweet Potatoes

How To Blanch Sweet Potato For Freezing

Before freezing raw sweet potato, you’ll need to blanch it. Blanching is a method that cooks vegetables for a very short period of time and then cools them quickly too to stop the cooking process.

  1. Bring a large pan of water to a boil.
  2. Dice the sweet potatoes into chunks roughly 1-2 inches in diameter. You don’t need to remove the skin for this but you can if you want to.
  3. Add the sweet potatoes to the water and blanch for two minutes (I recommend setting a timer for this!)
  4. After the two minutes is up, drain the potatoes in a colander and then pour them into a large bowl or pan filled with cold water and ice cubes for a further two minutes. (If you don’t have any ice cubes you can run the sweet potato chunks under cold water (in a pan) for around five minutes or until they feel cold)
  5. Drain the sweet potato chunks again. They are now ready for the freezer.

While blanching sweet potatoes does start the cooking process, they will need to be properly cooked before being eaten. This can be done by roasting them or boiling them in water until fully cooked.

How To Freeze Sweet Potatoes

Once blanched, it’s pretty simple to freeze sweet potato. The main thing to remember is that no matter how you’ve cooked them (blanched, roasted, mashed, or made into a soup) they need to be completely cooled before freezing.

Below I’ve given instructions on flash freezing as well as more general freezing tips. Flashing freezing means your chunks of potato won’t all be stuck together so you can take out as much as you need each time. This method also works well for sweet potato fries or slices of roasted sweet potato.

How To Flash Freeze Sweet Potato Chunks, Chips or Slices

  1. Place the pieces of sweet potato on a baking tray leaving about half an inch between each one.
  2. Keeping the tray nice and flat, place in the freezer and freeze for 1-2 hours until the pieces are frozen solid.
  3. Once frozen, the chunks, chips or slices of sweet potato can be bagged up together or placed in a freezer container and you can be safe in the knowledge they won’t clump together.
  4. Label and date the sweet potato so you know what it is and when to use it before placing in the freezer.
  5. Sweet Potatoes will keep for up to six months in the freezer.

How To Freeze Sweet Potato (Soups, Mash, or Puree)

  • Once cooled, place the sweet potato into a suitable freezer container such as a zip-lock bag or plastic tub.
  • Leave some space around the top of the container as the sweet potato will expand slightly while freezing.
  • Label and date the sweet potato so you know what it is and when to use it by before placing in the freezer.

How Long Does Sweet Potato Last In The Freezer?

Sweet Potatoes will keep for up to six months in the freezer although if you have made a soup or puree to a specific recipe you may want to check the recommended freezing instructions.

How To Defrost Sweet Potato

The best way to defrost any type of sweet potato – whether that’s soup, mash, fries, chunks or puree – is in the fridge overnight. Of course the bigger the portion the longer the thaw time – so if you have a very large portion of soup to defrost, for example, allow up to 24 hours.

It is worth mentioning that some sweet potato products can be used straight from frozen. Sweet potato chunks or fries could be placed straight into the oven or air fryer for cooking and don’t need to be defrosted first.

How To Reheat Sweet Potato After Freezing

There are a lot of different ways to reheat sweet potatoes after they have been frozen and how you do this will depend on how they were cooked and prepared in the first place.

I’ve given a few quick examples below but of course, this list isn’t exhaustive.

Reheating Sweet Potatoes In the Microwave

Baked sweet potato, sweet potato puree/mash and sweet potato soup can all be reheated in the microwave. Try 1-2 minutes on high and then stir or turn as need until the product is piping hot all the way through. Microwaves do differ quite a bit in strength so times to reheat can vary.

Reheating Sweet Potatoes In The Oven

Sweet potatoes that have previously been baked, fried or roasted come out best when reheated in the oven. Cover with foil and bake for around twenty minutes at 180 degrees c. Poke some holes in the foil to allow steam to come out and help the potatoes crisp up without burning.

How To Cook Blanched Sweet Potato

Did you use the blanching method above for your sweet potatoes? Here how to cook them! Both of these methods can be done from frozen.

To Boil – Place the frozen sweet potatoes into a pan of boiling salted water. Cook until the potato chunks are soft and a knife gently slides through them. Mash and add seasonings or serve as they are.

To Roast – Place the chunks of potato on a baking tray and oil and any seasonings you wish to use. Bake the sweet potatoes at 220 c for around 30 minutes until brown and crisp.

Freezing Other Vegetables

Do you know which vegetables can be frozen raw and which can’t? Take a look at our hand guides below to find out more.

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Can You Freeze Cooked Swede?

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