Can You Freeze Avocado? Inquiring Guacamole Lovers Want to Know

When they’re ideally ripe, avocados are creamy, rich and a tasty addition to a salad or sandwich. But so often, our avos go from rock-hard to rotten in the blink of an eye. So we wondered, can you freeze avocado? We freeze all kinds of produce to extend their lifespans. And we’ve even seen frozen avocado advertised at stores like Aldi. But can it be done at home? Here’s what you should know.

According to both the California Avocado Commission and Avocados from Mexico, you can indeed freeze avocado fruit. But there’s a disclaimer: The texture will be a little different than fresh avocados. That’s because the water content in the avocado expands as it freezes, so the fruit loses its texture and gets a little mushy after thawing. (It’s less of an issue with mashed avocado, which is mushy to begin with.)

No matter the method you choose, the most important factor to freezing avocado is the ripeness you begin with. If your avocado is already too far gone, no amount of freezing will preserve it. It’s best to start with an avocado that’s on the firmer side of ripe (but not rock hard).

1. Freeze whole: Simply toss the whole avocado in the freezer and go.
2. Freeze in halves: Slice the avocado in half and remove the pit. Squeeze lime or lemon juice over the exposed flesh, then wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Store the halves in a Ziploc bag in the freezer.
3. Freeze sliced or mashed: Peel and pit the avocado, slice or mash the flesh and store in a Ziploc bag, making sure as much of the air is removed as possible. Transfer to your freezer. If you want to preserve the bright green color of the flesh, you can add lime or lemon juice when slicing or mashing. This is the best way to freeze avocado, since its texture won’t change too much.

If you froze your avocado in slices or mashed up, you can gently thaw it by placing the Ziploc bag in a bowl of cold water.

If you froze a whole or halved avocado, you can thaw it on the counter. With any method, you should use that avocado as soon as it’s thawed—it’ll start to brown as soon as it’s exposed to air.

Here’s where it gets tricky. Food52’s Sarah Jampel documented her own attempts at freezing avocado, writing that she “couldn’t recommend, in good conscience, that anyone do this.” Her halved avocados came out of the freezer mushy and spongy.

But she also mentioned that many of her readers have had great success freezing avocados. True, most avocado-freezers say that while the texture isn’t quite the same as fresh avocado, it’s still perfectly fine to use in guacamole or blended in a smoothie. If you’re looking for impeccably ripe slices for a salad, your best bet is to buy a fresh avocado and use it as soon as it’s ripe.

And keep in mind, just because you stuck your avo into sub-zero temps doesn’t mean it will last forever. Frozen avocado is best used within a month of freezing, so eat up.