Can You Freeze Lettuce?

I think that a lot of people may have had the same thought as me that lettuce isn’t the ideal candidate for freezing. But I couldn’t have been more wrong. In fact, lettuce will freeze just like any other vegetable. That said, the process of freezing does affect how crispy it is once it’s thawed but I’ll talk more about that later on.

For now, let’s look at how to freeze lettuce.

The best way to freeze lettuce is to chop it into smaller pieces using a good-quality knife. You’ll need to make sure you freeze it in a bag or container. But just follow these simple steps: 

1. Remove the lettuce from the wrapper you brought it in (if it’s homegrown lettuce then you’ll skip this step)
2. Cut the lettuce stalk and take off the leaves.
3. Wash the leaves and allow them to dry or gently pat them with paper towels
4. If there are any leaves that look a little worse for wear, such as discolouration or poor texture, get rid of these.
5. Cut the lettuce leaves into smaller pieces and pop them in freezer bags or a container. Zip-lock bags work best but as long as the container or bag is sealed, it won’t be an issue. Make sure not to overfill the bag as this will affect the quality of the leaves.
6. Remove any air from the bag before sealing it.
7. Put it into the freezer.

Freezing Lettuce: An Alternative Method

The above method is the quickest and simplest way to freezer lettuce but it’s certainly not the only way. You can puree the leaves and freeze them in ice cube trays which is ideal if you want to make something like lettuce soup or add the vegetables to a healthy drink. But do keep in mind that freezing pureed lettuce does involve a little more preparation. 

1. Start by taking the leaves off the stem and wash them.
2. You’ll then need to add the leaves to your blender with a small amount of water.
3. Blend them until you get a puree.
4. Now put the puree into the ice cube tray or any other container with moulded compartments.
5. Allow it to settle for a few minutes and then pop the tray into the freezer.

How Long Will Lettuce Keep in the Freezer?

If you freeze fresh lettuce, you’ll be able to keep it in the freezer for as long as six months. However, where possible, I would recommend keeping lettuce fresh and eating it within a few days of purchase. This is purely because the lettuce will be at its best quality at this point. When you freeze lettuce, it will lose a lot of that crunchy texture, although it will be fine to eat.

You see, when you freeze lettuce, ice will form which causes the lettuce cells to rupture and become damaged. It’s this breakdown of the cell walls that stops the leaves being as crisp once you defrost them.

But do keep in mind that this doesn’t make the lettuce bad to eat. It’ll still be safe and have all of the same health benefits.

Tips to Get the Most Out of Freezing Lettuce

As I have discussed, lettuce won’t have the same quality after freezing but there are some things you can do to improve the chances of decent quality once you take the leaves back out of the freezer. Here are some handy tips. 

● Home-grown lettuce will always freeze better because it’s fresher. When you buy lettuce from the supermarket, it’s not come straight out of the ground but has been shipped from the farm which could take a day or two.

● You’ll have much better results when you use thicker lettuce leaves. However, if you’re going to chop them up then this won’t really matter too much. It does mean that you’ll be able to freeze whole leaves if they are slightly thicker as there’s less chance of them tearing.

● Freezing lettuce once it has reached its best-before date is a big no-no. There’s still a good chance that it will go bad in the freezer so unfortunately, you’ll have to throw it out.

● Only ever freeze lettuce if you’re not going to use it within a few days. It’ll keep perfectly well in the fridge for three or four days and you’ll retain the quality.

● Make sure to not overfill your freezer bag as this will cause the leaves to crush one another which will further affect their quality.

What About Thawing Lettuce?

The good news is that thawing lettuce is really simple. All you need to do is take your frozen lettuce leaves out of your freezer and allow them to defrost at room temperature. Usually, this only takes about 60 minutes. However, you’ll want to defrost the lettuce in a bowl or container as leaving it directly on the worktop will cause a mess since there’ll be a lot of excess water from thawed lettuce.

Even if you don’t use all the lettuce after you have defrosted it, you’ll be able to keep it in the fridge for about seven days. Just make sure that you don’t try to freeze it again as the results will not be good.

If you’ve frozen your lettuce pureed lettuce then you don’t need to worry about thawing it. You can just put the lettuce cubes directly into your soup.

Final Thoughts

If you’re anything like me and end up buying far more lettuce than you’ll eat before it goes bad, then you may have wondered if you can freeze lettuce. The good news is that you can freeze lettuce if your freeze lettuce properly, but you need to be careful as freezing can affect the quality.

Once you’ve taken it out of the freezer, it’s possible to keep the lettuce in the fridge for up to a week so you’ll have plenty of time to eat it all!