One useful garden-to-kitchen skill that isn’t talked about enough is how to freeze sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes are nutrient-dense and versatile (and, in my opinion, delicious) vegetables that can be grown in home gardens from the North to the South. With so many of us growing them at home, we should also learn how to freeze sweet potatoes to get the most from this crop. In this article, I’ll cover the reasons why I think you should learn how to freeze sweet potatoes, how to prepare sweet potatoes for freezing, various ways to freeze sweet potatoes, and how to use your frozen sweet potatoes in recipes, including baked goods and your favorite side dish.

Why freeze sweet potatoes

Sweet potatoes are starchy storage vegetables, and for that reason, many of us overlook the option of freezing them. There’s a list of reasons why we need to talk more about how to freeze sweet potatoes, including:

• When you harvest sweet potatoes in perfect condition and cure them properly, you can store them for months. When the harvest or the curing goes awry, you can freeze them to maintain their quality. This includes the sweet potatoes that the voles got to first and those that you nicked with the digging fork during harvest.
• Sweet potatoes can be frozen in various states of processing—mashed, sliced, cubed, or whole—so they’re ready to use out of the freezer. If you prep them now, you’ll be prepared for the holiday crush.
• Sometimes you just don’t have the right cool, dry, dark pantry conditions to properly keep your sweet potatoes long-term. Let your freezer do the storing.
• As sweet potatoes come to the end of their storage life, you can freeze them to keep them even longer.

How to prepare sweet potatoes for freezing

There are five steps in preparing sweet potatoes for freezing:

1. Let your sweet potatoes cure in a warm, dry place for at least a week after harvest. Curing concentrates the starches into sugars, giving sweet potatoes their “sweet” taste. You can skip this step, if necessary, but you won’t have the same flavor in the end. (Learn about how to harvest sweet potatoes in this article.)
2. Sort your sweet potatoes. Small blemishes are fine, but throw away any sweet potatoes that are showing signs of rot, including mold, soft spots, and off odors. With a paring knife, cut out any superficial blemishes.
3. Wash the dirt and debris from the tubers so they’re ready to cook. Use a vegetable brush, if needed.
4. This step essentially equates to blanching the raw sweet potatoes: Cook sweet potatoes until they’re just fork tender. You can cook them whole or cut them into chunks first. Boil them in a large pot, steam them over boiling water, pressure cook them, or roast them in the oven. Allow them to come to room temperature so you can safely handle them.

If you’re familiar with freezing other vegetables, you’ll notice this form of blanching skips the large bowl of cold water, the ice cubes, the colander, and the need to drain the vegetables into the sink. The starchy structure of the sweet potatoes doesn’t require these steps for proper preservation, though I do often run cold water over cooked sweet potatoes to make them easier to handle..

5. Peel the sweet potatoes by hand or use a spoon to scoop the flesh from the skin, and choose from the methods of how to freeze sweet potatoes below.

What kind of containers are best for freezing sweet potatoes?

You can use just about any moisture- and vapor-proof packaging for freezing sweet potatoes. This includes freezer bags, wide-mouth pint canning jars, half-pint canning jars, half-pint canning jars, and plastic containers that are labeled as freezer safe.

The flexibility of a freezer bag makes it easy to remove as much air as possible, which prevents oxidation and spoiling. You can also freeze bags in whatever shape best fits your freezer.

If using other freezer-safe containers, pack the sweet potatoes into the container with 1/2 inch headspace to give the contents room to expand.

How to freeze whole

If you want the flexibility to use your sweet potatoes in various ways after thawing, you can freeze them whole. Follow the preparation steps above, then wrap each whole sweet potato in aluminum foil individually before freezing several of them in freezer-safe bags. Remove as much air as possible from the bag before sealing it.

How to freeze slices or chunks

Frozen sweet potato slices and chunks can take the form of cubes, potato wedges, or French fries. These are a good option if you want to use your sweet potatoes in soups or stews, as sweet potato fries, and in other recipes calling for them in this form.

After preparing the sweet potatoes in the steps above, you have two choices:

• Cut the sweet potatoes and put them directly into the container and into the freezer.
• Cut the sweet potatoes and freeze them in a single layer on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Transfer the vegetables from the sheet tray into their containers, and put the containers in the freezer. While this adds an extra step, the benefit of the sheet tray method is that it’s easier to remove them from their freezer container as individual portions when needed.

How to freeze sweet potatoes as mash

Gearing up for making sweet potato pies and cakes, sweet potato casserole, and sweet potato muffins, you can freeze mashed sweet potatoes to save time in the kitchen later.

From its cooked-tender, peeled state, mash the sweet potatoes with a fork or potato masher. Then put the mash into the freezer-safe packaging, and freeze.

Freezing previously prepared sweet potatoes

Another freezing option is to add the sweet potatoes to a recipe first, then freeze the whole dish. Sweet potato pies, breads, soups, and stews freeze beautifully and easily defrost in the refrigerator in a day or two. Use caution when freezing dishes that contain creamy dairy ingredients, as sometimes these will separate and create an odd texture.

How long do frozen sweet potatoes last?

Frozen sweet potatoes will last for a year while maintaining quality. It’s possible that by giving your sweet potatoes a flash freeze, you could extend their frozen life, but access to a flash freezer is hard to come by.

Be sure to label the packages with the date you processed them. Use the oldest packages of sweet potatoes first.

Defrosting frozen sweet potatoes

Depending on how you’re using the frozen sweet potatoes, you may need to defrost them first, or you could get away with adding them straight to your recipe. Use this guide:

• To serve whole baked sweet potatoes, let your frozen sweet potatoes remain in their foil wrapping and reheat them in a 350-degree-F oven. How long depends on their size.
• To add cubed or sliced sweet potatoes to a soup, you can drop them in while still frozen. Add a little more cooking time to your recipe.
• For sweet potato fries, pull your frozen sweet potato chunks from the freezer; toss them with olive oil, salt, and pepper; spread them in a single layer on a baking tray; and bake them from frozen at 425 degrees F for 20 minutes. No defrosting necessary!
• For most other frozen sweet potatoes, put them in the refrigerator a day or two ahead of when you need them. You can also submerge the still-sealed freezer package in cold tap water, changing the water every 30 minutes. In a pinch, you can use the defrost function on your microwave, though this method can result in uneven heating. Be sure you’re using a microwave-safe container.

Using frozen sweet potatoes in recipes

One detail to remember in learning how to freeze sweet potatoes: The frozen-and-thawed sweet potatoes will have a softer texture than their never-frozen counterparts. For most recipes—particularly those involving honey or cinnamon sugar—you’ll find this makes little difference.

As I mentioned above, some recipes will do fine when you add your sweet potato cubes or slices still frozen, while others will require thawing.

Other tips for success

Sweet potatoes can turn a darker shade of brown-orange when exposed to the cold, such as in a freezer. A little bit of citrus can prevent this, if you’re concerned about it:

• Sprinkle 2 Tbsp of orange or lemon juice over each quart of mashed sweet potatoes, and mix it in well.
• Dip whole, sliced, or cubed sweet potatoes into a solution of 1 quart water and 1/2 cup lemon juice for 5 seconds—just long enough for a coating.

Sweet freezing know-how

Knowing how to freeze sweet potatoes is one more way for you to get the most out of your garden harvest. You can prepare your holiday-cooking ingredients ahead of time, store last season’s sweet potatoes for just a little while longer, and preserve damaged tubers.

You have several options for how to freeze sweet potatoes, so choose the ones that work best for you. With a little bit of forethought, these frozen whole, mashed, cubed, and sliced sweet potatoes will be ready for your recipes. It’s nice to know, too, that you can freeze your sweet potato soups, pies, and breads to pull out of the freezer whenever you’d like.

For more on growing sweet potatoes and regular spuds, please visit the following articles:

• Growing sweet potatoes
• When and how to harvest sweet potatoes
• Planting seed potatoes 
• When to harvest potatoes
• How deep to plant potatoes