How to Freeze Spinach (And Retain Maximum Freshness!)

This quick and easy recipe will show you how to freeze spinach and retain all its goodness. It only takes a few minutes of prep work, but it will ensure that your spinach remains as nutrient-dense as possible, while also minimizing the chances that it loses texture when thawing out.

How to Freeze Spinach

Here’s the absolute best way to freeze spinach – 100% hassle-free:

• Rinse the spinach. Rinse the spinach leaves thoroughly under cold running water.
• Dry the leaves. Put the leaves into a salad spinner in small batches (no more than ½ full at a time) and spin the leaves dry.
• Pack the spinach. Once they’re dry, loosely pack the spinach leaves into a Ziploc freezer bag.
• Seal. Seal the bag.
• Freeze. Freeze the spinach.

How to Cook with Frozen Spinach

The first thing to keep in mind when cooking with frozen spinach is that you can substitute about 10 ounces of frozen spinach leaves for 1 to 1 ½ pounds of fresh spinach leaves; keep that in mind when measuring out amounts to use when following recipes.

You can either use spinach in recipes straight out of the freezer (when making smoothies for example) or some recipes may call for thawing the spinach out first. In that case, simply leave the spinach in the fridge overnight to thaw.

How to Use Frozen Spinach

For obvious reasons, it’s impossible to use frozen spinach in salads, but there are plenty of other uses of frozen spinach. Here are some of them:

• Smoothies
• Juices
• Pasta Dishes
• Casseroles
• Slow-Cooker Meals

3 Incredible Health Benefits of Spinach

There’s a reason why Pop-Eye loved his spinach so much – this leafy green veggie is absolutely jam-packed with incredible benefits for your health. As a matter of fact, here are 3 science-backed health benefits that can be gained by adding more spinach into your diet:

• Loaded with antioxidants. Along with a fantastic variety of essential vitamins and minerals, spinach is also an excellent source of disease-fighting antioxidants. Studies have shown that certain specific antioxidants found in spinach can help with both reducing your risk of developing cancer, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and macular degeneration. (1)(2)(3)
• Supports brain health. Key nutrients found in spinach have been shown to help support brain health and they may even work to prevent cognitive decline to a certain extent. (4)
• Keep blood pressure under control. Spinach is especially rich in both nitrates and antioxidants, both of which have remarkable benefits when it comes to relieving symptoms of hypertension. Adding spinach into your diet can help to lower high blood pressure and reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease. (5)

(Also try: How to Freeze Garlic)

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