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Freezing eggplant in slices is a smart move if you love dishes like eggplant parmesan or vegetable lasagna. Harvesting eggplant is exciting, but it’s easy to end up with more than you can quickly use. Wondering what to do with all that eggplant before it goes bad? Imagine enjoying a cozy eggplant Parmesan during the winter months.

Here’s our simple guide to freezing eggplant in the fall so you can have it ready for winter dishes. This method isn’t just for eggplant Parmesan; you can also use it for stir-fries, curries, or baba ganoush.

Just tossing eggplant into the freezer isn’t the best approach for keeping it well-preserved and ready to use. It’s important to blanch the eggplant first to stop the enzymes that cause it to go bad.

Depending on the dish you plan to make later, the way you freeze the eggplant might change. We’ll show you how we prepare eggplant for freezing when we want to use it in casseroles like eggplant parmesan or vegetable lasagna.

You can also freeze eggplant in chunks for stir-fries or curries using this method—skip the breading step! This technique works really well for Japanese eggplant too.

Frozen Eggplant

How to Freeze Eggplant in Slices

Ingredients

  • 2-3 medium to large eggplants
  • One large stock pot filled with 4-6 quarts water
  • A large bowl of ice water
  • Freezer bags or a vacuum sealer
  • Slotted spoon or spider strainer
  • Kitchen towels
  • Parchment Paper
  • Sheet Pans (that will fit in your freezer)

Instructions

  1. Bring your large pot of water to a boil on the stovetop.
  1. Once the water is boiling, begin peeling your eggplant and cutting it into 1/2 slices one eggplant at a time (if you cut them all up ahead of time, they will quickly oxidize and turn brown; try to do just as many slices as will fit in your boiling water pot).
  1. Drop the eggplant slices into the boiling water, adding only as many as just about filling the surface with a bit of overlap (you’ll probably have to do 3-4 rounds of boiling). Please leave it in boiling water for 3 minutes, flipping once halfway to avoid browning on top (you can also use the spider strainer to weigh it down so it is fully submerged).
Eggplant in Ice water bath
  1. Use your slotted spoon or spider strainer to remove the eggplant from the boiling water and immediately transfer it to the ice water bath to stop the cooking. Allow to sit in the ice water for 2-3 minutes (while you get the next round going).
  2. Remove the eggplant from the ice water and place it on a kitchen towel to air dry (aiming a fan at it can help).
  3. Optional Step—If you know you are going to make eggplant parmesan, you can bread your eggplant slices before freezing. Follow just that step in your favorite eggplant parmesan recipe, and then go to Step 7.
  4. Lay your eggplant slices (breaded or not) on a sheet of parchment paper on a sheet pan and stick the sheet pan in your freezer for 12-24 hours. This way, the slices freeze individually instead of in one big clump.
Frozen Eggplant
  1. Once the slices are frozen, put them in a freezer bag or use a vacuum sealer to seal them. If they are breaded, we suggest keeping parchment paper between layers of frozen eggplant slices.

When you want to make your eggplant Parmesan, lasagna, or other similar dish, remove the slices from the freezer and add them to the recipe! If they are breaded, you may need to follow your recipe’s directions to bake them on a sheet pan before adding to the casserole.

We typically use about two medium to large eggplants for each lasagna, so we try to freeze that same amount in one freezer bag.

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Carrie Williams Howe is an educational leader by day and an aspiring homesteader by night and weekend. She lives on a small homestead in Vermont with her husband, two children, and a rambunctious border collie. She blogs about her family's homestead life at The Happy Hive.

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