How to freeze and preserve courgettes

With the right method, you can preserve courgettes while protecting their valuable nutrients and retaining their beloved flavour perfectly. We will explain how to freeze any surplus courgettes in a way that saves time here.

For best results, we recommend dividing the courgettes into portions before freezing. Small pieces are easier to freeze, contain less water and have a more aromatic taste. If you then defrost the courgettes slowly in the fridge, they will also stay nice and crunchy.

You should prepare the raw courgettes before freezing them. First, wash the courgettes thoroughly and then dry them. Now you can cut the vegetables into slices or cubes according to your preference. Then place a colander in the sink and transfer the pieces into the colander. Next, sprinkle a generous amount of salt over the pieces. This draws water out of the summer vegetable and keeps it extra crispy after defrosting. After ten minutes, the excess water should have dripped off and you can briefly dry the courgette pieces before transferring them into a freezer-safe container or freezer bag and sealing this airtight. If frozen in a Liebherr freezer, courgettes can still be enjoyed four months later.

Freezing blanched or cooked courgettes

Instead of raw pieces, you can also freeze courgettes that have been briefly blanched or fully cooked. Before blanching courgettes, you should also wash and divide them into portions. After three minutes in the boiling salted water, pour the courgette pieces into a colander and rinse with ice water to stop the cooking process. After everything has cooled down, pat the vegetables dry and freeze them in a freezer bag or an airtight container.

Generally, you should use courgettes as soon as possible after buying or harvesting them. However, if there are still a few days before your next barbecue, these tips will help you store your courgettes perfectly until then. If the vegetables are packaged, remove the wrapping first, as courgettes will keep longer if stored in an airy place. It is also easier to check your courgettes for bruising and freshness when they are stored loosely.

The small, younger fruit taste best, but they also have a shorter shelf life. Larger courgette varieties can be stored a little longer, but their taste is also less intense. Common to all varieties is a preference for dark, cool and dry places. The best place to keep courgettes is therefore in the cellar or the larder. At about 12 °C, the fruit can be kept for up to eight days after harvesting. Courgettes do not do well in cold storage, which is why we do not recommend storing them in the BioFresh Fruit & Vegetable safe. However, the fruit can instead be stored in the fridge compartment (7 °C and dry) for up to 12 days. You can store courgettes for up to 14 days in the Liebherr EasyFresh safe. At room temperature, courgettes quickly become soft or mouldy, which is why they only remain edible for a few days if left there. A little cooling is advisable for courgettes.

If stored incorrectly, the vitamins that are sensitive to light and heat are the first to be lost. The first signs that courgettes have become spoilt are brown, watery spots or mould on the outer skin. If you notice that the dish with courgettes tastes bitter, you should also discard it.

If your vegetable garden produces a particularly large harvest, it may not be sufficient to store the surplus properly until the next barbecue or to freeze it in portions. Fortunately, there are several other methods for preserving the surplus harvest and simultaneously emphasising the varied flavours of this summer vegetable. Using spices, herbs and optionally with other vegetables, you can pickle courgettes and make them edible for longer.

Entire dishes can be preserved in sterile jars for up to a year. Simply cook your favourite dish with a large helping of courgettes. Fill everything into jars while it is still hot and seal them tightly. You can use this simple method to conjure up a variety of dishes – and make courgettes last longer.

Alternatively, for delicious recipes, it is a good idea to pickle courgettes together with tasty spices and seasonal vegetables. You can cook everything together with vinegar and sugar to make a quick dish later. Alternatively, you can put your selection of vegetables together with spices and oil in an airtight preserving jar. The jars can be stored in a dark, cool place for up to 6 months.

Instead of an entire dish, you can also preserve the courgettes on their own and season them later. Courgettes can easily be dried in the air or in a dehydrator and thus preserved for longer. To air-dry courgettes, you should first wash and dry the vegetables and then cut them into finger-width slices. Then simply thread the slices onto a string and hang the vegetable garlands up for a few days to a few weeks. However, this method is only suitable in warm, dry temperatures, as the vegetables tend to become mouldy when exposed to the cold. A dehydrator speeds up the drying process considerably. For a great result, set the appliance to 40 to 50 °C and dry the courgettes for six hours.