Asparagus, can you freeze it?

[juliejulez]

Silly question probably, but can you freeze asparagus and have it come out OK? One of my stores has it on sale for $1.49/lb which is crazy good for this time of year, so it'd be nice to buy a few bundles and save some for later.

[juliejulez]

Thanks. How long do you blanch for? Last time I tried to blanch broccoli then freeze it turned out sort of bad, but I think I blanched too long.

[sandylc]

I'd give it one to two minutes, then do an ice water bath. Dry it thoroughly and suck all of the air out of the bags with a straw.

[juliejulez]

OK cool, thanks :) I'm going to buy a few bundles as asparagus is our favorite veggie but it's often too expensive for my budget.

[jmcarthur8]

Julie, just a quick minute will be enough. And as sandy said, chill it to stop the cooking.
I'm going to check my local stores and see if it's a good price here, too. When we lived in Indiana near some asparagus growers, we could get it at roadside stands for 88 cents per pound. Those were the days!

[juliejulez]

If you have Sprouts in your area, that's where it's on sale for $1.49/lb. It's usually $5.99/lb in my normal grocery store.

Side note, I also noticed they have navel oranges... 3lbs for $1!

[jmcarthur8]

We have Publix, Kroger and Ingle's here, so I'll check there soon as I can. Oh, and there's a small chain called Food Depot that has the best deals on produce. They shop the big farm market in Atlanta every morning and bring back cases of whatever's cheap that day.

[jmcarthur8]

Yes! Just blanch it for a sec and bag it up. We do 10 pounds when the price goes crazy cheap. It tastes like freshly steamed asparagus when you cook it later.
I use my FoodSaver to seal it up good.

[mrbigshotno.1]

Absoultely, blanch them first and put them in plastic bags (not zip lock) suck the air out of the bag, tie off and freeze for a good year or more. It starts to get cheap around now through Easter. This time of the year it usually comes from Chile or southern Mexico.