Yes — kale freezes well. Strip the leaves from the tough stems, then either freeze them raw (best within about a month, and perfect for smoothies) or blanch them for two minutes for longer storage of up to around a year. Use kale straight from frozen. As with all leafy greens, cool cooked kale quickly, keep it chilled and reheat it only once until piping hot.
Hardy, handsome and stubbornly good value through the winter, kale is a vegetable that practically invites batch-buying — and the freezer is the natural home for the surplus. Frozen kale loses its raw bite but keeps its goodness, dropping straight into smoothies, soups and braises. A few minutes of preparation now saves a slimy bag later.
Raw or blanched: which is better?
Both work, and the right choice depends on how soon you will use it. Freezing kale raw could not be simpler and suits smoothies and any cooked dish, but raw frozen kale is best used within about a month and can turn a little bitter beyond that. Blanching — a brief dip in boiling water — halts the enzymes responsible for that bitterness and loss of colour, and lets kale keep its quality for up to around a year. For a winter’s worth of greens, blanch; for a bag you will get through in a few weeks, raw is fine.
For a winter’s worth of greens, blanch; for this week’s bag, raw is fine.
How to freeze kale
- Strip and wash. Tear the leaves from the tough central stems, then wash well — kale can hide grit — and dry thoroughly.
- Blanch (optional, for longer storage). Plunge the leaves into boiling water for two minutes, then lift straight into iced water and drain.
- Open-freeze or portion. For raw kale, spread the dry leaves on a tray and freeze until solid so they don’t clump, then bag; or pack smoothie-sized handfuls straight into bags.
- Bag and press out the air. Squeeze out as much air as you can and seal.
- Label, date and freeze.
How long can you freeze kale?
Raw frozen kale is best within about a month; blanched kale keeps its quality for up to around a year, and stays safe longer if it remains properly frozen. Frozen kale is brittle, so you can crush a bag of frozen leaves into smaller flakes with your hands — handy for measuring into smoothies and soups.
- Raw: simplest — best within about a month; perfect for smoothies
- Blanched (2 minutes): keeps quality up to around a year
- Prep: strip the tough stems, wash well, dry, open-freeze so leaves don’t clump
- Cooking: straight from frozen — crush the bag for ready-made flakes
- Safety: cool cooked kale quickly, keep chilled, reheat once until piping hot
How to use frozen kale
Use it from frozen: a handful straight into the blender for a smoothie, or into soups, stews, dals, pasta and braises in the last few minutes of cooking. Frozen kale thaws in seconds in a hot pan, so there is no need to defrost it first.
Or: don’t freeze it at all
A small confession to end on. I’ve recently discovered Waitrose Duchy organic kale, and it has rather changed my habits. I find that if you snip a corner off the packet, pull out just what you need and then make the packet airtight again with a freezer-bag clip, the contents stay nice and fresh in the fridge for a good three or four days. It cooks beautifully in a steamer — fifteen to twenty minutes, depending on how tender you like it — and a packet kept like this is a painless way to add another of your five a day to a meal, with no freezing required.
And if you grow your own, you may find — as I do — that the freezer is barely needed at all. Through the winter months, three or four plants in the garden give me all the kale I want. Kale stands happily in the cold, so I simply harvest a handful of fresh leaves just when I’m ready to use them. Little and often is the rule: the plants keep producing, the leaves never sit around, and there’s nothing to freeze.
A note on safety
Kale is a leafy green and, like spinach, contains naturally occurring nitrates — generally at lower levels than spinach, but the same sensible habits apply. Wash it thoroughly before freezing, cool any cooked kale quickly, keep it chilled rather than leaving it standing at room temperature, and reheat it only once until piping hot, in line with Food Standards Agency advice. If you are cooking for babies or young children, the same caution that applies to spinach applies to leafy greens generally: serve them freshly cooked rather than stored and reheated, and follow the NHS Best Start in Life guidance on storing and reheating baby food. You can read more in our guide to freezing spinach.
More family-friendly cookery
- Can you freeze spinach?
- Can you freeze cheese? Which cheeses freeze best
- Can you freeze scones?
- All our family recipes
Sources & further reading
- Food Standards Agency — How to chill, freeze and defrost food safely.
- European Food Safety Authority — Possible health risk for children from nitrate in leafy vegetables.
- NHS Best Start in Life — Storing and reheating baby food.
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