Does your spinach go slimy and turn a yellow tint before you have the chance to eat it? In this new series, Veg Box Storage Tips, we share some our best tricks that have been working for us. Today let's look at the 5 ways you can keep Spinach fresh and lasting longer for your household.
Tip 1. Avoid Moisture
Excess moisture causes the spinach to rot. This includes moist plastic bags and containers. Rule of thumb is to always keep spinach as dry as possible when storing it in the fridge or a cool place to keep fresh for longer periods. Some other useful tips on this point are:
- Make sure the spinach dries once you receive
- Don't wash your spinach until you use it
Tip 2. Store fresh spinach in a clean container wrapped with paper towels
Greens can stay good for up to ten days when stored in this manner. We recommend containers because they rescue the leaves from being crushed by other heavier objects in the fridge.
- Paper towels here help to keep the spinach leaves dry, keeping everything fresh.
- Don't place it anywhere near ethylene-producing fruit, such as bananas or apples, or it will decay prematurely. This means that an over-ripened apple or rotten fruit can cause the spinach to wilt and decay faster.
Tip 3. Eating your spinach within a week? Or don't have a container to store it in, keep the leaves in a dry bag or sorts.
- Make sure all the moisture in the bag is removed before storing the spinach in it. Pat the spinach leaves completely dry before putting it in the bag.
-Leave a paper towel in the bag with the spinach to ensure all moisture is absorbed
Tip 4. Store Spinach as cold as possible without freezing it
Spinach can freeze in temperatures of 0 degrees Celsius or below, so ensure your fridge temperature does not go below this. Keep your fridge at 4 degrees Celsius to prevent the loss of folate and carotenoid content in spinach. Storing spinach in the fridge will slow down its nutrient loss
Tip 5. Freeze the spinach to keep for several months
With this method of preserving, you can keep the spinach for 9 to 14 months.
- Blanch the greens in boiling water for only a minute or two
- Cool in an ice water bath for the same amount of time
- Drain the water out by twisting it carefully in your hands
- Take about a handful and squeeze the spinach into nice small balls
- Wrap the spinach ball tightly in a plastic wrap and store them into a large freezer bag
-Freeze these and they are ready to use whenever, either as fresh greens, in a soups, etc.
*If you know you will use the frozen spinach in less than 6 months, you do not need to blanch it in boiling water first. *
*Also make sure you suck out most of the air from the freezer bag before putting it into the freezer so you avoid freezer burn*
Check out more posts like this by following our new series, Veg Box Storage Tips, and read all about how to store Coriander so that it stays fresh longer. Enjoy!