How To Freeze Avocados

Avocados have a very short window between rock hard and squishy. It's such a fleeting moment of perfection that I once jokingly emailed my boss that I couldn't come to work that day because my avocado was going to be ripe and I didn't want to miss it. Luckily for me, my boss had a sense of humor—and no idea how easy it is to freeze avocados at their peak and save them for later.

The folks at California Avocados have a handy guide to saving avocados for later. If you prefer whole or sliced avocados, say for a radish, avocado, and citrus salad or avocado fritters, follow these steps:

Halved Avocados on Pink Background
Halved Avocados on Pink Background

Getty/Westend61

How To Freeze Avocados Whole

  1. Slice the avocado in half, take out the seed, and then carefully scoop out of the peel.

  2. Brush the avocado halves with a bit of lemon juice to prevent browning.

  3. Wrap the avocado halves tightly in a plastic wrap making sure not to leave any room for air, including in the cavity where the seed was. If you have a vacuum sealer, this is a great use for it. In that case, skip the plastic wrap altogether.

  4. Place the wrapped avocado halves into a large freezer bag, press out the air, zip it closed, and store it in the freezer.

  5. When you’re ready to cook, simply pull out of the freezer and let it thaw.

If you're more of a guacamole, avocado lime sauce, or avocado toast person and prefer to have mashed avocados ready at a moment's notice, California Avocados have a recipe for that, too:

How To Freeze Avocados Mashed

  1. Cut, seed, and then scoop out the avocados into a bowl and drizzle with the juice of half a lemon.

  2. Mash the avocados to your preferred texture.

  3. Place in a freezer safe bag, remove the air, zip it shut, and stick it in the freezer.

Easy, right? On one hand, that means you can have avocado soup in a jiffy, but on the other hand, you have no excuse to miss work when your avocado is ripe.