How To Freeze Pumpkin

Do you have spare pumpkin or other winter squash that you don’t want wasted? Then let me show you how to freeze pumpkin and all the different ways we preserve our pumpkin for later.

Based on my own system with pumpkin, we do this every year after Halloween and then can enjoy pumpkin for months rather than days.

Preserving Pumpkin

It was my late neighbour Maria, who first got me fascinated in pumpkin beyond Halloween. She was in her 80’s when she became my neighbour when we lived in Portugal and had this cute little allotment behind our house and grew everything.

From pumpkin to spinach to carrots to sweet potatoes, she did the LOT.

Then she had a dark room that was away from the sunshine that she would keep her pumpkins and then get one out as she needed it.

Maria would then make delicious Portuguese soups of pumpkin, sweet potato and spinach and they were so creamy and amazing.

I then started preserving my own pumpkins. Making them last longer, making pumpkin soup, making pumpkin puree, or just blanching the pumpkin and then freezing them for another time.

Today, I wanted to show you my favourite ways for preserving pumpkin and how I use pumpkin across my different kitchen gadgets.

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Can You Freeze Pumpkin?

Yes, you can freeze pumpkin and there is so many different ways to freeze your pumpkin.

You can freeze already cooked pumpkin puree, uncooked and prepped in zip loc bags, homemade pumpkin soup, blanched ready for the air fryer and the list goes on and on.

Are Pumpkins Still Good After They Freeze?

Yes, pumpkins are amazing after they freeze, and you will love frozen pumpkin. Using frozen pumpkin is one of those amazing ingredients to include when you are making freezer meals for later and you can add raw pumpkin and other soup ingredients to a zip loc freezer bag and save for later.

Is It Safe To Freeze Raw Pumpkin?

Yes, it is 100000% safe to freeze raw pumpkin and I do this a lot. But for the best results in cooking and preparing your frozen pumpkin its best to chop the pumpkin into cubes before freezing.

How Do You Store Fresh Pumpkins?

Like my late neighbour Maria (who I mentioned above) its best to store pumpkin in a dark, dry, cold place. You don’t want your pumpkin getting rotten. You don’t want the pumpkin getting too hot and you want it to last as long as possible.

A good place we have found for preserving the pumpkin before freezing, is in our garage.

Can You Freeze Pumpkin Puree?

Yes, you can freeze pumpkin puree and what I love is these freezer soup trays as they are really good for pumpkin puree (not just soup) and then you can quickly freeze some for later.

Then once frozen you can move these frozen pumpkin puree cubes into a zip loc bag.

What Can I Make With Pumpkin?

There are a lot of different great recipes you can make with pumpkin, so there is no need to waste any of your leftover pumpkin.

You can make pumpkin soup, puree for baby food or for pumpkin pie, you can use pumpkin for stews and casseroles, you can air fry pumpkin cubes or you can use it as a hidden veggie base for a lot of your curry, stews and vegetable dinner dishes.

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How To Freeze Pumpkin?

So now I have answered a few of your important pumpkin questions, lets dive in and let me show you how to freeze pumpkin and my favourite 7 methods for freezing the pumpkin for later.

#1 – Freeze Pumpkin Puree

I love pumpkin pie and when I think of pumpkin, I am making pumpkin pie in the air fryer, as well as freezing pumpkin puree for later.

If you want to know how to make from pumpkin do check out our instant pot pumpkin puree recipe.

BUT once you have made all that pumpkin puree and have leftovers it is perfect for freezing.

What I recommend is spooning leftover pumpkin puree into an ice cube tray, freezing it, then once frozen, push out the ice cube puree and loading into a zip loc bag.

#2 – Make Pumpkin Soup Freezer Bags

Now this is the easiest option when you have leftover pumpkin and you want to make soup, or a stew or a casserole in the future.

Get a nice husband (I am showing off here!!!) that will kindly peel and dice your large pumpkin for you. True love that isn’t it? Especially when he hates pumpkin.

Then once you have prepped your pumpkin or found someone amazing to do it for you….then add it to freezer bags with the rest of your dry soup ingredients. So, I am talking the cubed pumpkin, chopped onion, garlic and seasonings and shake in a bag.

Then label them up for the freezer and you have soup bags.

These were made as meal prep for our soup maker pumpkin soup recipe. But you could do it with any and its just a brilliant, quick way to get through your pumpkin.

Here is a batch below of our soup maker pumpkin soup dry ingredients ready for the freezer. I will then place them flat in the freezer and then let them freeze and then they can be stored anywhere in your freezer. Whatever works best for you.

You can of course, do the same with any of our soup recipes and not just with pumpkin for when you have some leftovers that need using up.

#3 – Make Ahead Pumpkin Soup

This is probably the most popular way to preserve and store leftover pumpkin. Most people that do meal prep and like to make ahead food will be mass producing pumpkin soup this week.

I include myself on that list!

You can make a big batch of slow cooker pumpkin soup, soup maker pumpkin soup, thermomix pumpkin soup, or instant pot pumpkin soup.

Though when you do, just find some good freezer containers, and load up the soup once cold. Then label up the containers ready for the freezer.

#4 – Make Ahead Sauces

This will probably surprise you, but it’s a real winner for making use of leftover pumpkin and turning it into something other than soup.

My soup maker cheese sauce is often made in bulk, from you guessed it…..pumpkin.

Pumpkin makes a fantastic hidden veggie sauce and you can freeze it already made into a cheese sauce, or into a Mexican sauce for your next air fryer nachos and its perfect for those lazy days when you need a sauce later on.

Or if you are looking for how do you freeze pumpkins UK, then note you can use the leftover pumpkin cheese sauce for when you make your air fryer cauliflower cheese this Christmas.

#5 – Air Fryer Pumpkin Cubes

This is my favourite way for cooking pumpkin, and I will do this in the masses around Halloween and beyond, or until all my pumpkins are gone.

Or I will have a large bowl of cubed pumpkin in the fridge, and just grab it and air fry it as I want it.

Check out our air fryer pumpkin cubes recipe for my ideas on this.

#6 – Freezing Air Fryer Pumpkin Cubes

You can also make ahead, and air fry the pumpkin cubes and then place them into the freezer for later.

To do this – allow the pumpkin cubes to cool and then place them into your freezer bags (I love these zip loc bags set) and then label up and freeze.

Then you can use the air fryer to reheat your frozen pumpkin cubes.  

#7 – Instant Pot Blanched Pumpkin Cubes

If you don’t want to freeze pumpkin as raw pumpkin cubes, you can use the instant pot to blanch the pumpkin for you into just cooked cubes. Then you can defrost and cook the pumpkin whenever you want.

I do this by cooking pumpkin in a pressure cooker as cubes, then doing it for a much shorter cook time of JUST 0 minutes. (read more about instant pot zero minute cooking here)

Then you give the pumpkin a really quick cold water (or ice water) soaking to stop the cooking process immediately.

Then the pumpkin is cooled and then into freezer bags.

Or if you want instant pot pumpkin cubes to eat, just adjust the cook time to 1 minute instead.

As the instant pot pumpkin cubes method doesn’t have any main recipes on our website to refer back to, I have featured it below in the recipe card.

How Long To Steam Pumpkin?

The cooking time for steaming pumpkin varies, based on how you would like the pumpkin.

If blanching the pumpkin for the freezer, then we recommend a cook time of 0 minutes on the pressure cooker.

However, if you would like to cook pumpkin and serve as pumpkin chunks for dinner, then I would recommend a cook time of 1 minute.

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Learn how to freeze pumpkin below, note you can print it out with or without photos, adjust servings, or click between metric and imperial depending on where you are in the world.

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