We love potatoes at our house. We like them as jacket potatoes with baked beans or mashed to creamy perfection, and, of course, roast potatoes are just the best. Although we tend to keep a couple of potatoes on the kitchen counter, if we don’t use them right away, we store them in the pantry.
While the pantry is the best place for potatoes, I still seem to find that my potatoes begin to sprout after a mere few days. Instead of letting them reach this stage and then throwing them in our compost heap, I wanted to test whether I could freeze them. Potatoes can last up to a year when stored in the freezer, but according to the experts at Love Food Hate Waste, they are best eaten within three months.
However, I couldn’t just throw the starchy vegetable straight in the freezer; there were a few steps I needed to follow first. The first step is to partially cook them.
You should only freeze cooked or partially cooked potatoes, as raw potatoes contain a significant amount of water. This water freezes and, when thawed, makes the potatoes mushy and grainy.
To freeze them, I started by peeling the potatoes. This step isn’t required, but it’s helpful because blanching works best without the skin.
I then submerged the potatoes in a pot of cold water and placed them on the hob on a high heat and brought them to a boil. As I was working with medium-sized potatoes, I left them cooking for 10 minutes.
After, I transferred the potatoes to a colander to drain before placing them in a single layer on kitchen paper towels to absorb excess moisture. I then sliced them up into thick rounds.
I arranged the potatoes in a single layer on a baking tray and put them in the freezer for four hours.
After four hours, the potatoes were frozen and ready to be transferred to a freezer-safe storage bag.
A month after freezing the potatoes, I took out half of them to defrost in the fridge overnight, then finished cooking them in boiling water until they were cooked through. The potatoes tasted just like when I keep them in the pantry.
I then cooked the other half of the potatoes after three months, and they still tasted fresh.
Not only does freezing potatoes preserve freshness, but it also saves you time when it comes to prepping the potatoes for cooking.
