• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Blog
    • Chickens
    • Goats
    • Small Scale Farming
    • Gardening
    • Food Preservation
    • Frugal Living
  • Shop
    • Profitable Homesteading System
    • Jumpstart Your Homestead
    • Organized Chicken Keeper
    • G.O.A.T. Herd Management System
    • The Ultimate Planner for Breeding Goats
    • Couponing for Beginners Planner
  • Nigerian Dwarf Goats for Sale
    • Nigerian Dwarf Goats
  • About

Mranimal Farm

All About Silkies, Nigerian Dwarf Goats & More

menu icon
go to homepage
search icon
Homepage link
  • Chickens
  • Goats
  • Gardening
  • Frugal Living
  • Food Preservation
  • Shop
  • Profitable Homesteading
  • Goat Breeding Planner
  • Homesteading Consult
  • Goats for Sale
  • Nigerian Dwarf Goats
  • About
×

Home » Food Preservation

Apr 3, 2020 · Modified: Mar 6, 2022 by MrAnimal Farm

How To Freeze Bananas

This site contains affiliate links. We may earn a commission if you purchase from one of these links. Learn more Here.

Ever wondered how to freeze bananas? If not, you probably should have at some point.+

knife cutting banana in half

I know you’ve done it. We’ve done it too. You buy a whole bunch of bananas and then they sit on the top of your refrigerator or counter until they start to turn brown. You consider tossing them before the fruit flies show up. But wait!

You can totally make good use of those bananas. If we can avoid wasting food, we will always do what we can. We try to stick to our food budget as best we can. Which means we preserve all sorts of food like freezing peppers, freezing eggs, freezing milk; and bananas are no exception.

In fact, with just a little bit of prep work you can freeze those bananas and make them last a whole lot longer.

Now, before you freeze them you do want to make sure that they aren’t over ripe. If they are too close to turning they’ll be way too mushy once you thaw them out. If they are over ripe, you can always use them to make banana bread.

half peeled banana on blue plate

How to freeze bananas

Now that you have determined if they are over ripe or not, it’s time to prep them for freezing.

This part is way easy. First you want to peel your banana. Like I said, easy.

Take out a sharp knife and cutting board. Use the knife to cut the banana in half. We recommend cutting the banana in half because it’s easier to put in the bag that way. You can freeze a whole banana just as easily, if you prefer.

banana that has been cut in half on blue plate

Take each half and place them into a freezer bag. Be sure to squeeze out as much air as you can without squashing the banana halves.

Put the bag into the in freezer and allow to freeze. Should be frozen in a few hours.

You can also freeze banana chips

Again, you’ll want to peel your banana.

Using a sharp knife you’ll want to carefully cut the banana into slices. About a ¼ inch thick should hold up nicely.

Pull out a sheet of parchment or wax paper and put it over a cookie sheet or baking pan. Place each individual banana slice flat on the parchment paper and place pan in the freezer.

banana chips on parchment paper

After a few hours your banana slices should be pretty well frozen. Pull the baking pan out of the freezer and pull your frozen banana chips off. Place them into a quart sized freezer bag and put them back in the freezer.

The reason you want to freeze them on parchment paper first is because they will clump together and freeze as a big banana ball. As funny as that may sound this is not the result you want.

The best way to get individual banana slices for later is to pre-freeze them. Plus, if you slice them, you can always make dehydrated banana chips later.

How to thaw your frozen bananas

Again, this is pretty easy. When you’re ready to eat your frozen bananas, just pull them out of the freezer and stick them into the fridge.

It shouldn’t take very long for your bananas to become soft enough to eat.

Common questions

Q1. How long can you freeze bananas?

The FDA website says they can be frozen for 2-3 months without a significant loss of quality. They can actually last a lot longer but I wouldn’t recommend longer than 6 months.

Q2. Why would I want to freeze bananas? What can I do with frozen bananas?

Aside from not having to toss out perfectly good fruit, there are a couple of reasons. You can put them in a blender with some milk and other frozen fruits and make a smoothie. You can also use frozen bananas to make a great ice cream alternative.

Frozen bananas (or unfrozen), along with many other foods like rice, tomatoes, peanuts, blueberries, grapes, and peaches, can make great snacks for your chickens and some other animals (definitely chickens, check before feeding them to other animals first).

Q3. Can you freeze mashed bananas?

Absolutely! In fact, as we mentioned above, frozen mashed bananas are a really tasty and healthy alternative to frozen yogurt or ice cream.

Q4. When you freeze bananas do you need to peel them first?

Yes, you won’t want to freeze them in the peel. The peel gets dark and smushy. They also tend to stick to the banana and is a hassle to remove. So, it is safe to freeze them in their peel but life is easier if you peel before freezing.

pinterest image with plate of banana slices. text overlay says, "Can you freeze a banana? here's why and how"

For more frugal living tips

[pt_view id=”3dd74e01d7″]

« Vegetable Fried Rice
How To Make Banana Bread »

Primary Sidebar

Welcome, we are Kristin & Justin and this is MrAnimal Farm! We are excited to have you join us!

We love to share our knowledge on homesteading, livestock and poultry, gardening and food preservation. Learn more about us here.

Footer

Amazon Affiliate Disclosure

We are a participant in the Amazon Services, LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising and linking to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

Privacy Policy

For details on our privacy policy click here.

Copyright © 2023 · MrAnimal Farm