Can You Freeze Curry Paste?

4 minutes

Who doesn’t love homemade curry? You can create so many curries at home that it’s difficult to know where to begin. But what’s the best way to keep a batch of curry paste so you don’t have to prepare it from scratch each time?

How to Freeze Curry Paste

If we wanted to introduce you to all the curry paste variations, we’d have to write a book! But let’s just assume you’ve put together your own curry paste consisting of delicious spices from around the world for a minute.

While there are several ways of freezing curry paste, we recommend freezing it in an ice cube tray, as we explain below:

1. Prepare Ice Cube Tray: Spray a little cooking oil into the ice cube tray – this will help protect your plastic from stains. 
2. Add Paste: You can add as much or as little curry paste to each slot as you like. Some measure it out, so they know exactly how much paste they need per recipe. It’s up to you how technical you want to get! 
3. Flash Freeze: Place your ice cube tray (uncovered) into the freezer and leave it for a few hours. The flash freezing ensures they won’t stick together in your freezer bag (see next steps).
4. Label & Date: Write the use-by date on the front of your freezer-safe bag(s). Remember, you can freeze curry paste for around three months.
5. Add to a Freezer-Safe Bag: Now your cubes of curry paste have frozen solid, transfer them into the labeled freezer-safe bag.

3 Tips for Freezing Curry Paste

Now you know how to freeze it, we’ve got our 3 top tips which we strongly recommend following when freezing curry paste to have the best results:

Use Plastic Wrap Instead
If you don’t have an ice cube tray or are skeptical about dropping curry paste in a tray made for ice, you can use plastic wrap or cling film instead. Tear squares of cling film and spoon the desired amount of curry paste on each. You can then place the individually wrapped paste in a freezer-safe bag and place it in the freezer.

Avoid Garlic and Onions
If you’re planning to freeze curry paste, don’t put garlic and onions in the mixture (fresh, powdered, or granules). This is particularly true of powdered and granule garlic or onion, but all of the above can cause your paste to go bitter, so it’s best to leave them out. You can always mix them after defrosting each cube or directly into the recipe as you cook.

Use From Frozen
Once ready to use your frozen curry paste, remove a cube from the freezer and drop it in a pan. You don’t need to defrost it first, which saves time and hassle in the kitchen.

How Long Can You Freeze Curry Paste?

You can freeze curry paste for around three months. Some people will almost certainly freeze curry paste for longer than this, but you should use it within three months to ensure you can benefit from all of those exciting and exotic flavours!

The longer you leave it in the freezer, the less impactful the taste will be when you come to cook with it.

How Do You Defrost Curry Paste?

As mentioned, you don’t need to defrost curry paste before cooking with it. Simply drop a cube in your pan and watch it sizzle away. This is such an easy way to cook with curry paste, and you will wonder why it has taken you so long to do it on earth!

But if you need to defrost your curry paste for any reason, transfer a cube to the fridge and leave it for 5-6 hours. By then, it should have thawed sufficiently. 

Can You Refreeze Curry Paste?

Technically, there’s nothing wrong with freezing curry paste more than once. But at the same time, we wouldn’t recommend it. The whole point of curry paste is to bring exotic and exciting flavours to your dish, so you don’t want to risk diluting them.

By freezing your curry paste in ice cube trays, you should be able to take out whatever serving size you need for your chosen recipe, taking away the need to refreeze it. 

Does Curry Paste Freeze Well?

Curry paste freezes well, providing you don’t include garlic or onion.

We’d go as far as to say that freezing curry paste is the best way to preserve it, as it makes your life much easier when preparing your favourite homemade curry dishes. 

Related FAQs

If you’ve still got questions about freezing curry paste or curry in general, then these may help: