Feijoas are a small fruit that doesnāt look too dissimilar in shape and size to a lime. Theyāre quite brightly flavoured, a little like lemon. Just a little of their sharp flavour characteristics go a long way, so you might have some leftovers in a recipe. In that case, what do you do with them?
Can You Freeze Feijoas?
Yes, you can freeze feijoas for up to 12 months. Cut any of the fruit you might have in half and scoop out the inside pulp of the fruit. Move that fruit to a large freezer bag, seal the bag and pop it into the freezer.
Do Do Feijoas freeze well? Yes
Can you refreeze Feijoas? Yes
How to Freeze Feijoas
Before you go and throw a handful of whole feijoa fruits into the freezer, stop right there! This is not the right way to freeze feijoas. Instead, you’ll want to follow our simple method.
The best way to freeze feijoas is to freeze only the pulp, in much the same way as when you might have to freeze avocado.
- Prep Fruit: Get started by slicing any feijoas that you might have in half, before scooping out the flesh on the inside. A teaspoon is generally the best tool for doing this, though the choice is yours.
- Discard Skin: Once youāve scooped the flesh out of the feijoa, feel free to discard the skin itself. Thatās not edible and can be thrown away.
- Transfer to Bags: With the flesh in your hand or on your chopping board, transfer the pulp into a freezer bag. When the pulp is in the bag, press as much excess air out of the bag as possible before sealing it completely.
- Label and Freeze: Label the sealed bag with the correct date, and then transfer it to the freezer. Whenever you need to add a little hit of feijoa to a smoothie or something similar, you can simply grab a portion or two out of the freezer.
3 Tips for Freezing Feijoas
Now you know how to freeze them, we’ve got our 3 top tips which we strongly recommend following when freezing feijoas to have the best results:
Ensure the Bag is Sealed
If the bag that youāre storing your feijoas in isnāt sealed properly, then that allows air into the bag. This air circulation introduces moisture and smells from your freezer into the bag with your feijoas. Over time, smells from your freezer will likely make their way into the fruit.
Remove Excess Air
Pressing the excess air out of the bag is a great way to avoid freezer burn with your precious feijoas. This is because the air within the bag will slowly start to condense into moisture which, in turn, will freeze into frost and then true ice crystals.
As these ice crystals form, theyāll push their way through your food, disrupting the food itself by the structure of the ice crystals.
Store at the Back of the Freezer
Temperature variation can allow a very small amount of bacterial growth in your freezer. This is, of course, something to be avoided since it means that the food youāre working with will become unsafe over time.
The best way to avoid unsafe food conditions is to be sure that you keep the food in an environment thatās entirely inhospitable to bacteria. To do this, keep the food at the back of the freezer, where the temperature will be steadily low.
How Long Can You Freeze Feijoas?
You can freeze feijoas for around a year before the freezer burn damages their inherent structure.
Thatās quite a sad moment indeed, as it means that the pulp will need to be discarded or pureed into a smoothie, where the texture wonāt matter so much.
If you’re keeping feijoas at room temperature, then they will last for 3-5 days. If you pop them into the fridge, then they will last for around 10 days.
How Do You Defrost Feijoas?
The best way to defrost feijoas is to allow them to sit in the fridge for five to six hours per pound of fruit. That will result in you having fruit thatās just as good as the fresh fruit you used when it was in season.
If you’re going to use the pulp in a smoothie or juice, then you can use it from frozen. If you know your future use for feijoas is a smoothie then consider freezing the pulp into ice cubes which can far more easily be popped into a blender.
Can You Refreeze Feijoas?
Yes, you can refreeze feijoas, though we wouldnāt recommend it.
After the second freezing, the fibre content will be so damaged by ice crystals that the fruit will have lost a lot of its inherent texture, leading to a poor experience.
Do Feijoas Freeze Well?
If theyāre not thawed and refrozen, feijoas freeze quite well.
The reason for this is that they contain a good amount of water and fibre relative to one another, leading to them retaining their structure after that first freezing.
Related FAQs
If youāve still got questions about freezing feijoas or feijoas in general, then these may help:
No, feijoas do not need to be cooked before you freeze them. Just scoop the pulp out from the centre of the fruit and pop it into good-quality freezer bags.
The best way to store feijoas will come down to how quickly you use them. If you keep them at room temperature, they will retain most of their flavour but will only last for a few days, for example.
Sources
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