How to Freeze Avocados: 4 Ways
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Yes, you can freeze avocados—and it’s a great way to save money when they’re on sale or prevent them from going bad too quickly. While the texture changes after thawing, frozen avocados work really well in smoothies, dips, and dressings.
If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably had a few avocados sit on the counter just a little too long…and suddenly they’re overripe. I’ve definitely been there—especially when I stock up during a good sale.
So I started figuring out how to freeze avocados properly, and it turns out there are a few different ways to do it depending on how you want to use them later.
If there was an Avocados Anonymous we'd all be full-fledged members. And we might even be the heads of our local chapter. In fact, I'm sure that we would be.
But I have yet another problem.
My name is Adrienne and I'm a Frugalaholic.
When something is on sale, I feel the need to stock up.
My husband and I were the types who loaded all of the loss leaders into our cart and got funny stares from people in the checkout line.
Well, when you buy in bulk and make a lot of homemade healthy food, you need to figure out how to store bulk purchases so that they don't spoil, and that includes avocados.
Why I Had to Freeze Avocados
Recently there was a 3/$1 sale on avocadoes, and I started wondering how I could store avocados without them spoiling.
I mean, if you buy a lot of avocados, you can eat them plain, with salt, dip carrots into them (with a little salt on top), make this Zingy Avocado Dressing, these Chocolate Avocado Truffles (serious yum), these Chocolate Mint Grasshopper Bars, and this AIP Guacamole.
But there's a limit to how many avos you can eat before they turn to mush.
Problem is, that some of the information out there about freezing avocados is wrong.
I am instead going to share some great methods for freezing avocados.
And to make things even better, I've rounded up 4 different ways to freeze avocados, depending on the time you have and how you're going to use them.
Please note, that frozen avocados will not lend themselves well to eating thawed on their own or sliced on a sandwich. The texture will be more suitable to things like dressings, dips, etc. (or Chocolate Truffles!).
However, diced or cubed frozen avocados work great in smoothies like this delicious Strawberry Avocado Smoothie.
Ways to Store
- Zipper Freezer Bags
Some frugal folk have recommended this alternative to the Food Saver System: putting a straw into a Ziploc bag, then sucking the last bit of air out of the bag before sealing. I haven't tried it yet so I'd love to hear your thoughts on this as well! - Store in Jars
If you'd prefer to not freeze in bags due to concerns about plastic, storing in these jars is a good alternative. - Water instead of Lemon Juice
You can try water instead of lemon or lime juice, but the antioxidants in the citrus juice works better.
Shelf Life in Freezer
Avocados should keep for 3-6 months in the freezer. They will still be safe to eat after that time, but their flavor might be diminished.
Of course, their shelf life in the freezer will depend on the method used to freeze, as well as the quality and temperature of your freezer.
How to Defrost
To thaw frozen avocado, place either the halves or diced avocados in a bowl of cold water or in the fridge. Halves could be thawed on a plate for about 30 minutes and some say that they taste better when eaten a bit on the frozen side.
Other Ways to Preserve Foods
If this post has been a help for you, you might find these to be of help as well:
- How to Freeze Bananas
- How to Freeze Cucumbers
- How to Store Nuts and Seeds
- How to Freeze and Store Berries
- The Easiest Way to Store Tomatoes
- How to Store Prepared Beans
- The Best Way to Preserve Herbs
- How to Store Leafy Greens
How to Freeze Avocados–4 Ways
Ingredients
- avocados
- lemon juice/lime juice pptional but recommended for best color
Instructions
In Halves
- This is the easiest way to go about freezing avocados. Simply cut your avocados in half lengthwise, peel them (either before or after cutting), put them on a plate or tray, spritz each half with some lemon (or lime) juice. You don’t need to douse the avocados, but you do want to make sure that you are pretty much coating them.A good rule of thumb would be about 2 teaspoons lemon or lime juice per each large avocado, or 1 teaspoon for each small one. Place the avocado halves in a plastic storage bag and press as much of the air as possible. If you really want to get all of the air out, you can use a food saver system. I've had my eye on these and would love to know if you all find them to be a great addition to a frugal kitchen, or just one more gadget that doesn't get used much.
Diced
- If you'd rather go an extra step to protect your avocados from browning due to air exposure, you can dice your avocados and toss them with lemon juice. Then place the dices in a Ziploc Bag or use a food saver system to get as much of the air out as possible.You can then use the dices in any recipes calling for avocados.I recommend bagging up 2-4 diced avocados at a time and noting how many avocados are in each bag by writing something on a label on the bag, so that you can easily grab some from the freezer and use them in recipes.
Puree
- Since you're likely going to be mashing up your frozen avocados, this is another great way to freeze them. If you freeze halves or dices, your final recipe will be chunkier than if you puree them, but pureeing works great for making dressings, sauces, guacamole, truffles :), or putting avocado into smoothies.Simply toss your avocado into a food processor or blender, squeeze in some lemon juice, and process to desired texture. Then scoop the puree into a plastic storage bag, remove as much air as possible, and freeze.Alternatively, you can store the pureed avocados in ice cube trays. Fill each cavity with some of your lovely and smooth avocado puree, and freeze. I would recommend buying separate ice cube trays for this as they might get a bit discolored. Silicone ice cube trays work best.Place the trays in the freezer until the puree is frozen. Then simply pop the cubes out and place in a plastic storage bag.
Guacamole
- Either freeze the guacamole in a plastic freezer bag or in ice cube trays. Silicone ice cube trays work the best for easy removal. Guacamole without tomatoes works best.Any guacamole recipe will work. I will say, however, that the texture of your guacamole will be better after freezing if you avoid the tomatoes. Even though my Easiest Way to Store Tomatoes is a great option, the results aren't optimal and I think you might not be happy with less than optimal results guac.You can either freeze the guacamole in a plastic storage bag, or try the ice cube tray method again. This would be particularly handy if you are making Taco Salads (or any kind of salad or meal) in a Jar ahead of time. These jars would be perfect for this!Simply toss a cube or two of your frozen guacamole onto the salad the night before. It will be thawed and ready to eat by lunch the next day.
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. It may vary depending on ingredient brands, substitutions, and preparation methods. Optional ingredients are not included. Net carbs are typically calculated by subtracting fiber and sugar alcohols (such as erythritol) from total carbohydrates. This information should not be relied upon for medical or nutritional purposes.
If avocados were on sale 3/$1 where you live, how many would YOU buy?
Thanks for that. By the way, you can get a food vaccum sealer (works exactly the same as ‘food saver’) on aliexpress for about $18, with 20 bags included.
As a side note, aliexpress and alibaba is where 95% of sellers on amazon get their items from (and then sell it on amazon for about 10-20 the price of what it costs on aliexpress).
So if one wishes to save A LOT of money and avoid paying the unnecessary markup for the middleman then can get most items that appear on amazon directly from aliexpress for 10-20 times less the cost (depending on how much one used to buy on amazon, one can save literally thousands of dollars a year by simply skipping the amazon middleman).
Here’s an example of the cost breakdown of what you are actually paying for when buying a $100 item on amazon:
*Cost on aliexpress/alibaba $10
*Money that the amazon private seller pockets $45
*Fees that amazon charge for publishing the item on its platform $45
Literally 90% of what we are paying on amazon is a markup on the actual cost of the item.
Any wonder Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world? Simply being the middleman and making sure everyone thinks that amazon is the only place to buy those marked up items..
Good point! So the question is–how do you know what you are getting as far as specifications like whether a product really is stainless or if it’s been tested for lead and other heavy metals, etc.
I don’t always ask these things when I should, but I don’t see a way to communicate with sellers on that platform. Am I missing that? Thanks!
There’s definitely a way to contact the seller on aliexpress and ask questions. I did that a few times. To be honest I don’t remember exactly if there is a dedicated button for that or if you have to first go to the seller’s page.
I did it on the desktop site, might be different on the mobile site or the app.
Also need to remember that sellers there are mostly Chinese and their English isn’t always great (though I doubt if the amazon seller could tell you more about the item than they can, since the amazon seller is getting the item from the exact same source).
Hope that helps 🙂
I’ll have to see if I can find that – thanks. I don’t have a problem w/ foreign language issues. I taught ESL for years in Japan and in the US and my husband taught in China. I typically am thinking about an Amazon seller that is a real company based in the US rather than someone buying Chinese goods to sell.
Whenever you see ‘fulfilled by amazon’ you can be sure that the seller bought it from China and had it sent directly to the amazon storage unit in the US and listed on amazon for a premium rate. It is called dropshipping and literally hundreds of thousands of people are doing it since it is so profitable. Most of those doing it also know that people don’t want to just pay a premium for a middleman for goods bought in China so most create a brand name that gives the impression of it being an American company selling American goods, though in reality about 95% of (non-perishable) items on amazon are dropshipped from China.
Yes, this makes sense. So why aren’t we making more in the US? Do you think that Food Saver is really something on Alibaba but has another name on it?
How much does a Commercial packer cost?
What kind do you mean?
food saver is the way to go. i use mine all the time. and now that i can use it to seal “used” potato chips etc, even better.
I’ve heard that works great!
I LOVE MY VP IT HAS SAVED ME SO MUCH MONEY AND YOU CAN ALSO LEAVE IN THE FREEZER FOR OVER A YEAR AND NOT FREEZER BURN
That’s so great!
The straw method of removing excess air from bag? It works, but I’ve found, no more or less than folding bag over and gently pressing air out with about inch of bag unzipped.
Thank for the tips! Bought 10 avocados on sale, only 2 eaten and fear of them going bad on horizon. Will freeze!
Thanks and you are welcome!
Adrienne,
We recently purchased the Food Saver System and it is my BEST investment EVER!!! It’s definitely a lifesaver when it comes to saving my well spent grocery money rather than throwing away spoiled food. And with the new ziplock bags that have the ability to vacuum the air from the bags, it’s even better! Just thought I would share.
Thank you! Glad to hear it! I need to really consider this. I have some other new food preservation ideas as well–hope to get to those soon so hope to see you around again!
We wore the food saver vacuum packer out, real fast! So, we opted for a commercial grade VP. It gets used on a weekly basis, in fact we are on the 2nd one having worn out the first after 5 years of use!
We cook big (like smoked meats) bag, freeze then when using drop the bag in boiling water for 20 minutes. The food is like fresh off the grill etc!
A commercial grade VP? How much did that cost?? I do wonder about cooking in the plastic and what might be leaching into your food, however. Have you thought about that at all?
Thank you so much! I’ve been buying loads of avocados lately. I’ve been working a new diet and most days lunch has a tuna salad sandwich on wheat, but I’ve been using avocado instead of mayonaise (not bad btw). Problem was the ratio is half an avocado to 1 can tuna, and 1 can of tuna makes 2 lunches. It will be nice to stop hitting the grocery store every 2 days. Thanks!
You are so welcome! Hope it works well for you and YES to avocados instead of mayo! I love mayo but am avoiding eggs at the moment. 🙂
I used my Food Saver to package up mine for the freezer. Worked great.
So great!!!!
I’m going to try this using my Food Saved which is well worth the money!
Saver!Not Saved! Another auto correct!
Hope it works well for you!
I live in central FL and we have a Brogdon avocado tree in our yard. These avocados are larger than Haas, and have a smooth dark skin (like an eggplant) when they are ripe. They have a wonderful nutty flavor. They ripen in July & August. This year it looks like we are going to have an abundant crop of them. I love them, and look forward to having them. At the moment, I am buying Haas avocados. This week they are 49 cents each at Aldi, so I have bought a dozen already. I make a mean guacamole! I like it chunky. I cut my avocados in about 1/2” squares, and freeze them in plastic bags. I tried lemon juice once, and they tasted awful. Thanks for your post.
I am soooo jealous! My family would go nuts w/ an avocado tree!!! I hope this works well for you. I’m trying out another more promising method soon–more pricey but probably will work out a lot better. Stay tuned!
My name is Yehudit.
I would like to know (you didn’t mentioned it) how have to be the texture
of the avokado when you freeze it.
Is it O.K. if it is hard or it has to be soft?
How much time I can freeze it?
Yehudit
Hi there–it should be ripe. Thanks for reading!