Get a great deal on potatoes? Prep them for the freezer to maximize your savings.
This weekend I’ve been freezer cooking. That is, I’m making lots of meals to store in the freezer to save me time, energy, and money later in the month. And one of the things I recently added to the stash was potatoes.
Potatoes are a filling, inexpensive food. They are full of fiber and offer that stick-to-your-ribs good eating that is so desirable during winter time. This season, they regularly are available for about ten cents per pound or $0.98 per bag.
This is a great deal! And one that I wanted to take advantage of for freezer cooking. So, I stocked up!
However, sometimes potatoes go funny in the freezer.
Let me repeat that: Sometimes potatoes go funny in the freezer.
I’ve seen all kinds of recipes circling on Pinterest that show folks just chopping potatoes to toss in the freezer. This is a bad move. Trust me. Raw potatoes will get gross. Even cooked potatoes sometimes go funny.
I’ve tried making soup with potatoes and the spuds generally develop a funny texture. Russets aren’t always friendly to freezer cooking. However, there are a few ways to make it work.
Here’s the process I followed to prep my potatoes for freezing.
Wash
WashRecently, I bought thirty pounds and proceeded to process two bags for the freezer. I kept one bag on hand for spontaneous cooking.
I’ve found that the best way to clean potatoes is to give them a good scrub with a vegetable scrubber.
Mash
I prepared ten pounds by peeling and mashing. My freezer mashed potato recipe is really easy. Mash tender, boiled potatoes until smooth. Beat in 8 ounces of cream cheese for every five pounds of potatoes. Season with salt and pepper.
Then, I divide the mixture into meal-sized portions, dot with butter, wrap in foil and freeze. When I’m ready to serve, I thaw the pan overnight and then reheat in the oven, 30 minutes at 350 °, depending on how cold they are to being with.
Bake
BakeI took another ten pounds and baked them. You can bake them in the oven for an hour, microwave them, or make crockpot baked potatoes. I prepared stuffed potatoes with half of those potatoes and chopped the rest for hashbrowns.
I will bake the stuffed potatoes covered with foil for 30 minutes at 350 °. I’ll cook the homefries/hashbrowns according to this recipe. You have to make them crisp and hot to make it really worth it, though. Fresh is obviously better. But, when you’re pinched for time or need to use up some potatoes, this works.
Tools I use for this process:
- vegetable brush
- potato masher
- Pyrex baking dishes with lids
- sheet pan
- Ziplock gallon freezer bags
- Rubber spatula
- stainless steel mixing bowls
How ’bout you?
Have you had good success with freezing potatoes? What’s been your experience?
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When you say you rinse them in the dishwasher…do you stick them on the top rack with nothing else in the dishwasher (and no soap, of course)? I’ve never heard that before!! Do you always do that or just when you’re going to freeze them?
That is what I did. I’ve only done it once because I had read that tip from The Happy Housewife. I think the link is in the post.
I just did some potato freezer cooking, too, and did Mashed Potatoes and Oven Fried Potato Wedges. I like the idea of hash browns ready to go, so I’ll save that for my next list of freezer cooking! Great idea!
Be sure to cook the potatoes first before freezing, freezing raw potatoes will turn black.
I have frozen mashed potatoes (but w/o dairy, for my food-allergic son) before, but that’s it. I have to comment, though, b/c I’m jealous of your .10/lb prices. The LOWest we get around here is .50/lb and that’s not very frequent.
A 10 pound bag is now $2 at the 99 Cents Store if you have one nearby. Still about a dollar a bag at some of the ethnic/cheap grocery stores when they are on sale. They are all smallish, with an occasional potatoto or two that are dinner baking size.
I would like to try the frozen hashbrowns…..We eat lots of potatoes…
I get about 500 pounds or so every fall and keep them in our root cellar room off our basement. They are still dirty and keep really well, so I have never tried freezing them.
@Martha Artyomenko, the hashbrowns from frozen aren’t as good as regular, but they work.
i have a mashed potato recipe similar to yours that i’ve done for the freezer before; works great!
I grow my potatoes. So storage is not an issue. When I do make a huge batch for events or to freeze, I use the dishwasher to wash them too. Kids giggle at me. Glad to know I am not alone. I tell my kids all the time Laziness Breeds Ingenuity! The faster and easier I can do it all the better.
I actually had some potatoes awhile ago that were nearing the end… lol… I had never tried freezing them before, but didn’t want to waste them, so I chopped them up (into homefry-sized portions) and stuck them in a ziplock freezer bag (well, 2 bags). I know that when you don’t want apples to brown you can dip them quickly in lightly salted water before you refrigerate them. It doesn’t affect the flavor but it keeps them from getting that unappealing look (and rubbery texture). I figured, why not try it with potatoes (so that they didn’t turn gray, which I learned by trial & error one Thanksgiving when I was trying to “get ahead” of the meal.) so I dunked the potatoes into a salt water bath (a little more salted than for apples since they are potatoes & are good with a dash of salt) and it worked great. They looked perfectly fresh when I pulled them out of the freezer & cooked up perfectly. LOVE the mashing idea, though, I will definitely be doing that next time there’s a great sale on potatoes!
@Amber H, thanks for that tip I’m going to try it because I would love to have them cut and ready to fry when I’m in a hurry. Was worried about them getting black and mushy! Just got 3 10 lb bags from my brother in law and was wondering how to use them up.
The potato people wrote me (it might be a comment on this string) and very specifically said not to freeze potatoes. So, I guess I would recommend doing a test batch before you do all 30 pounds. 😉
Isn’t that a little crazy, considering all the frozen potatoes we buy pre-packaged. I’m not trying to make a fuss, here, it just doesn’t make sense. Of course the pre-pkg. stuff is loaded with sulfites or something. @Jessica,
I know. It’s what they’re treated with. So, I assume that the home cook can’t treat fresh potatoes in the same way for it to work. Your guess is as good as mine.
Hi Amber, so I want to totally understand your post, because I have a large amount raw potatoes that I would like to freeze. So I take the raw potatoes slice them up whatever way I want and then dip them into salt water? Do I just dip them in saltwater or do I soak them for a period of time? I’d appreciate any help I can get, thank you in advance!
you must wash, peel and chop into shapes what you want to make, par boil, salted and light veg oil cold water bath immediately, rack dry, single layer freeze before putting in freezer bag. Otherwise bacterial will build up. Russel potatoes works best I have tried. Now I have tons of red potatoes which are a pain to peel but must again to keep bacterial out.. ok to have skin on very small diced hash browns small dices or skinny french. Smaller the cut less chance of bacterial getting under skin. It is a pain to freeze potatoes this way but they come out better than the store and can stand up to reboiling of soups, baking or frying.
This is great! I often want to buy big bags of potatoes when they go on sale but I stop myself b/c potatoes are something we don’t eat often, and they always go bad when I get a big bag. Thanks to you now I can get those big bags and cook and freeze. Thank you!
I live alone, and if I don’t go through them quickly in the summer, many do go bad. That’s why I’m here!
HELP! Just tried to to make mashed potatoes using the russets, which I don’t normally use. I cut up 10 lbs and have already cooked and prepped 5 lbs. Unfortunately, the potatoes turned out kind of mealy (before freezing). Any ideas on whether that was user error or the type of potato? I have made them before with great success, but I have always used the yukon gold. I am hoping to come up with a solution before I ruin the last 5 lbs.:(
I almost always use russets, so I don’t know –except that maybe they weren’t cooked enough? I typically boil until very soft. Drain well and let the heat in the pan steam off extra liquid. Then mash really well before adding any butter or other fat. Then add the liquid. I’m not sure what else to tell you. Bummer.
When you freeze the mashed potatoes, what kind of a container did you freeze them in? thanks
Usually in a glass baking dish, double wrapped in foil.
I double bake potatoes and freeze them I scoop out the potatoe season them and add butter cream cheese sour cream but no milk as I found that the milk tends to seperate when frozen, My kids love them we add cheese afterwards
I have also added cooked ground beef and brocolli
I make my mashed potatoes up to 2 days ahead and store them in whatever size dish I need (9×13, chafing dish…whatever needed). After cooking them, I take them out of the pan and place them in a bowl with a dot of butter on top and you would never know they were prepared ahead of time. They’re delicious.
I’ve never tried freezing them. I guess I’m a little leery since I hear so many have mixed successes.
Here’s an easy way to make hash browns for your freezer: bake as many russet potatoes as you can fit into a big roasting pan, bake only until 3/4 cooked. Let cool, peel and shred. (I shred the potatoes with my box shredder instead of a processor since the processor makes the potatoes mushy). Then, I package them in quart sized zip-top bags. When ready to cook, I thaw a bag in the refrigerator over night and fry them in oil/butter in my electric skillet. They brown nicely and are very tasty! Sometimes, I top them with a little grated cheese (also from my freezer). I have also canned potato chunks and often put leftover mashed potatoes in the freezer. Both ways with success. And I always make my potato cassarole ahead and freeze it for the holidays.
Thanks for all the great comments.
I have only frozen twice baked potatoes! They came out nice!
can you freeze already cooked potatoes ? we had a fund raiser and had dozens of baked poatoes left over is it possible to freeze in vacaum bags ?
Yes, you can. When you reheat them they probably won’t be light and fluffy. But, they’ll be edible. I’ve found if I season them heavily and serve hot, we like them. If you have time to make twice baked with those, they will freeze better and have better texture.
? Since I live alone, and on a budget, I’ve started freezing more since it is cheaper to buy in larger quantities. A 5lb bag of potatoes is cheaper than buying 2-3. I am currently baking potatoes in the crock pot (summer time), after washing the tatters, I lightly coated the skins with olive oil. The skins look really good and I didn’t have a bunch of eyes looking at me. After cooking in the crock pot, I was going to let them cool, place most of them in a zip-lock-bag and put them in the freezer. Then cock them in the micro-wave when ready? Is this a good plan? Also, I’ve started using greek yogurt instead of sour cream, it’s close but when you have to watch what you eat. I’ve also subbed greek yogurt for mayonnaise when making old fashion potato salad. I would greatly appreciate any suggestions. Again, I am a bachelor and can use all the help I can get that doesn’t require a diamond ring :).
The baked potatoes might get mealy during freezing. If you can do twice-baked potatoes, where you mix the potato with some fat, like the greek yogurt or olive oil and seasonings, the potatoes tend to reheat better. Hope that helps!
I love your site and posts. When you talked about freezing russet potatoes dos you bake them in the oven for an hour, let them cool and freeze them whole? Then pull them out when you wanna make fries or stuffed potatoes? OR did you bake them, then make your stuffed potatoes and then freeze them?
I have found the best success with baking potatoes, then stuffing, then freezing before the second baking. Potatoes really need fat combined with them so as not to get mealy while frozen.
We make what we call potato boats. We buy baking potatoes in bulk scrub with vegetable brush & cut in half, then take a large spoon & scoop out each half leaving about 3/4” of potato. Take the halves and fry in oil until they start to brown (potato won’t be done) drain on paper towels and place wax paper in between layers. Then seal in vacuum seal bags. These freeze really well for up to 6 months. The scooped out potatoes would be great for the mashed potato freeze recipe. We thaw potatoes in fridge then place in oven at 350* for about 15 minutes then take out and place 1TBSP Bacon Pieces, 1TBSP green onions and 1/4 c. Grated cheese or just fill . Place back in oven and heat until cheese is melted, top with ranch dip. These freeze really well without loosing texture. Great to have on hand for unexpected company or large meals.
I have a wonderful stew recipe. However, I froze it once with the cooked potatoes in it and they were horrible (mealy) when I served it later. I now just cook it with carrots if I plan to freeze it, but miss the potatoes. Any suggestions for successful frozen potatoes in stew?
Russet potatoes definitely do that once frozen. Yucky, I know. I’ve had better luck with waxy potatoes, like small red ones. These tend to hold their texture better.
I have cooked slices potatoes. Can I freezes them.
If they are cooked, you can freeze them, but they may be mushy or mealy after freezing, depending on what kind they are.
How do you do the potato wedges to freeze? How would you do potatoes for french fries would you cook those first?
You can only freeze (successfully) potatoes that have been cooked. And even then, your mileage may vary. I don’t recommend freezing French fries. I prefer mashed potatoes and stuffed potatoes for freezing.
I was my potatoes and cut and bag them meal size as there is only tow of us and then I vacuum seal them they last a long time in the freezer now and a gain I get a pack that turns grey but as soon as I see them start turning I cook them up .
On the freezer mashed potatoes can you put the potatoes directly onto the foil to freeze?
Sorry for the delay in replying. I wouldn’t recommend putting them on foil. Foil tends to disintegrate it spots. I prefer a plastic or glass dish with a lid.
I accidentally left potatoes in the vehicle in Alberta at -24C overnight. They froze solid. I scrubbed them clean, wrapped them in tin foil and baked on 350 F for about an hour. They were a bit dry because I didn’t put butter in, just the potato. My homemade garlic butter and some sour cream made them taste pretty good. The long yellow banana potato had a texture like freah. The red potato had a different texture, not bad, but noticable.
Good to know. Did you cook them right away?
frozen potatoes are not worth the effort. The texture is always terrible. The Cream Cheese trick does not fool my mouth. Yuck! Never again on frozen potatoes.
Ah, sorry you were disappointed, Michael. The texture is definitely changeable.
We buy baker potatoes in bulk on sale. Soak in water and scrub thoroughly with a vegetable brush. Cut potatoes in 1/2 and then scoop out the centers until about 3/4” thick. Lay face down to dry place pieces in water bowl for later. Fry in 350*oil until brown potato will not be completely done. Drain, place in vacuum seal bags and place wax paper between layers. They freeze nicely for later use. Can freeze for up to 6 months. Cook your scooped out parts for the freezer mashed potato recipe. When ready thaw potatoes in refrigerator and place in a 350*oven for 15-20 minutes until done. Take out, put Capps Rub in potato and 1TBSP of real bacon bits, 1TBSP of chopped green onions, & enough grated cheese to top off potato. Place back into oven until cheese is thoroughly melted. Top with ranch dressing or serve on side. Enjoy! We have been making these since before TGI Friday’s did potato skins and like them better. You don’t sacrifice the texture on these!