Can You Freeze Edamame Beans?

Edamame beans are an excellent source of protein and are delicious when prepared in multiple ways. But no matter how you plan to prepare and eat them, you’re probably wondering how you should store them, particularly if you’re lucky to have a plant in your garden?

How to Freeze Edamame Beans

Freezing edamame beans is really simple. You just need to remember to blanch them first, as failing to do so will cause them to lose some of their taste and nutrients during the freezing process.

So, to ensure your edamame beans taste great when you come to enjoy them in the future, here’s what you need to do to freeze them: 

1. Boil Water
   Bring a pan of water to a boil (or use a kettle) and pour it into a separate bowl. Add a pinch of salt to the water. 
2. Prepare an Ice Bath
   Next to the boiling hot water, fill a bowl with cold water and ice. 
3. Add Edamame Beans
   Drop your edamame beans into the boiling water. It’s best to do this in a strainer or colander, as it’s difficult to pick them out individually. Leave them in the hot water for around two minutes. 
4. Place them in the Ice Bath
   Immediately after you have removed your edamame beans from the hot water, place them in the ice bath. You should leave them for another two minutes in the ice. 
5. Dry the Beans
   Using clean paper towels, pat your edamame beans dry and leave them to one side. 
6. Bag Up
   Ensuring they’re completely dry, drop your edamame beans into a suitably sized freezer-safe bag. You can split them into smaller portions at this stage if you wish. 
7. Label and Freeze
   Write today’s date and the use-by date on the front of the freezer-safe bag and place your beans in the freezer. Remember, you can freeze edamame beans for around twelve months.

3 Tips for Freezing Edamame Beans

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

Don’t Forget to Blanch
When you’re freezing vegetables, it can be tempting to skip the blanching stage. Granted, not all veggies need to be blanched, but edamame beans do. This crucial step ensures they retain their flavour and texture during the freezing process, and means they will taste great when you come to enjoy them in the future.

Dry Thoroughly
Before you bag your edamame beans up, make sure you have dried them thoroughly. If they’re still wet, they will stick together in the freezer.

Freeze Cooked Edamame Beans
Although it’s better to freeze edamame beans that are fresh, you can also freeze those that have already been cooked. Obviously, you don’t need to blanch them, and you should only really keep them in the freezer for around three months.

How Long Can You Freeze Edamame Beans?

You can freeze edamame beans for around twelve months, providing you have followed the necessary process. The blanching phase is so crucial if you’re hoping to freeze them for the long term, so make sure you don’t skip this step.

If you’re freezing cooked edamame beans, then you should only really freeze them for around three months.

You Can Freeze Edamame Beans for up to 12 Months

How Do You Defrost Edamame Beans?

The great thing about freezing edamame beans is that you don’t need to defrost them before cooking them.

Simply remove them from the freezer and proceed with cooking them in any way that you choose.

However, if you want to defrost them, transfer them from the freezer into the fridge and allow them sufficient time to thaw. To speed things up, you can place your bag of edamame beans in a bowl of water.

Can You Refreeze Edamame Beans?

There’s technically nothing wrong with refreezing edamame beans, at least from a safety perspective. But doing so might cause the beans to go a little mushy.

While this certainly isn’t always the case, we’d recommend freezing your edamame beans in smaller portions in the first instance, so you can easily remove the beans you need at any given time.

This will help to prevent wastage and hopefully rule out the need for refreezing them.

Do Edamame Beans Freeze Well?

Yes, like lots of other beans and legumes, edamame beans freeze really well. As mentioned several times, the key to the freezing process is blanching them, as this ensures they retain their nutrients, taste, and flavour.

Once blanched and bagged up, your edamame beans should be good in the freezer for at least a year.

Related FAQs

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