Can You Freeze Tomatillos?

3 minutes

Tomatillos are an essential ingredient in Mexican cookery, but they can be challenging to find outside of South America. If you’ve managed to get hold of some, what is the best way to store them?

How to Freeze Tomatillos

Freezing tomatillos is a little involved but worth doing to ensure you can still get their flavour long after they’ve been harvested.

1. Prepare: Remove the outer papery husks from each of your tomatillos, and ensure that they’re clean by giving them a quick rinse. Once rinsed, allow them to dry.
2. Place on a Tray: Place the clean, dry tomatillos onto a lined baking sheet, and ensure they aren’t touching. Considering that they can roll, this can be tricky – place the sheet into the freezer first, then arrange the tomatillos.
3. Freeze: Freeze the whole baking sheet of tomatillos for between 45 minutes and 2 hours, by which point the tomatillos should be very firm.
4. Bag Up: Transfer the tomatillos into freezer bags, and press out as much excess air as possible.
5. Freeze: Once you’ve done that, seal the bags, and transfer them to the centre of the freezer to freeze more permanently.

3 Tips for Freezing Tomatillos

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

Limit Flash Freezing
When you’re freezing the tomatillos on the baking sheet, they just need to be firm enough that you can pack them into a freezer bag; they don’t have to be totally frozen solid. Therefore, check on them regularly, and freeze them when they’re at the right texture rather than after a certain length.

Don’t Saturate Them
When washing the tomatillos, bear in mind that their skin is a little permeable, and if they’re exposed to too much water, they’ll begin to soak it up. You want to avoid this, so don’t allow tomatillos to sit in water for a very long time.

Dry Thoroughly
Ensure that the tomatillos are as dry as possible before you freeze them. A great way to do this is to ensure that you wipe each tomatillo down with a dry towel. 

How Long Can You Freeze Tomatillos?

You can freeze tomatillos for around 3 months before they lose any level of their flavour or texture.

This means they can reliably be frozen from harvest, well into the winter, allowing you to enjoy authentic Latin and Mexican food throughout the year.

How Do You Defrost Tomatillos?

The simplest way to defrost tomatillos is also the best way – place the tomatillos into your fridge overnight, and allow them to thaw slowly.

This will prevent the plant cells from defrosting too quickly and losing texture while also storing them at a safe temperature once they are thawed.

Can You Refreeze Tomatillos?

Yes, you can refreeze tomatillos endlessly.

You will likely notice textural degradation over the course of the tomatillo being repeatedly refrozen, since the water molecules are likely to expand and contract several times over, damaging the structure of the tomatillo itself.

Do Tomatillos Freeze Well?

Yes, tomatillos do freeze well.

The main reason for this is that, like a significant number of fruits and veggies, they can maintain their texture when not quite ripe, and their flavour maintains very well even beyond that.

Towards the end of the freezing cycle, the texture may soften but when you’re likely to use tomatillos in a sauce, salsa or dressing, this isn’t a big deal.

Related FAQs

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