Frozen veg get no respect and I’m wondering why.

Opinion pieces about food deserts complain that fresh veg aren’t available but never suggest frozen. Programs designed to help people eat in a healthy way invariably emphasize fresh, even though fresh veg go bad quickly and often take a lot of time to prepare. TV contest chefs, when faced with making a meal that can’t include fresh veg, always reach for cans.

I’m a child of the 60’s, and I grew up on frozen veg. They were promoted as superior to canned (they are), convenient to store and use (they are) and nutritionally equal to fresh (close enough). Some frozen veg are equal to fresh in various recipes (corn in chili) and others are hard to distinguish from their fresh versions (lima beans).

So why no love for frozen veg? The packers are doing the system a favor by sorting through and packing veg that aren’t pretty enough to sell fresh. The price is right - no waste. The prep is a cinch. Everyone has a freezer. Maybe it’s all about nostalgia for how grandma used to cook, or maybe it’s the influence of Julia Child the French chef.

What am I missing? Do you use them?

Edit to add: my Grandma worked every day of her adult life. She used canned everything.

Texture. Never quite right. Frozen corn is pretty good. Other than that I use frozen prechopped onions and mirepoix.

I grew up on frozen vegetables too.

I use frozen corn sometimes. I use frozen spinach for a biryani dish my son eats, and i'll use frozen peas in stir-fries.

But as for frozen vegetables that I just heat and serve, it's only corn. And that only sometimes.

Some frozen green beans are very good.

Until they sit in my freezer for months! And that may be part of the reason - people try to treat frozen just like canned, thinking they will last forever if frozen.

Maybe if we treated them more like fresh, and used them within a couple of days of purchase??

I remember reading somewhere that nutritionally, flash-frozen right near the fields is better than fresh that has been trucked across the country?

I use frozen corn, peas and green beans with some regularity, but not as "stand alone" veggies. They go into stews, soup, etc. They are far superior to canned, IMO. BUT I also grew up on canned veggies, and the taste of canned green beans really takes me back to being a kid. Every now and then, I will just pick up a can and eat it. Don't judge.

Oh, I also use frozen pearl onions. I think that's it.

I use frozen corn, petite peas, petite green beans, edamame. I don’t use canned vegetables; they give me flashbacks to grade school hot lunch!

Oh, I also use frozen mixed vegetables in a really easy chicken pie that has a biscuit crust.

Nutritionally, I think the frozen vegetables are closer to fresh than canned vegetables are. And the texture is better.

Ha! Nina, we were posting at the same time. It’s the canned green beans that remind me of school lunch!

I use frozen corn and spinach in soups. I freeze beans and corn out of cans when I only use half. I have some frozen potatoes that work in some things - but none of those things really do well by themselves. The potatoes maybe. The frozen veggies used in stirfry just aren’t the same (I don’t mind the peas, but mr. Jodi hates peas, for some reason). We use a ton of canned tomatoes. When we had a big garden I froze the tomatoes and applesauce instead of canning them - it was easier.

Oh yeah, canned tomatoes. I buy them by the case from Costco. Forgot about those.

AdagioM

I am trying to learn about frozen vegetables; never bought them very often. Certainly peas are the best, and a good deal because you can't find fresh ones in the market very often.

I bought from Trader Joe's a frozen bag of stir-fry vegetables, and there was just something off about them; they tasted almost pre-cooked somehow. Maybe others are better.

These days, if the washing and chopping of fresh vegetables is what you want to eliminate, you can buy (for an upcharge, of course) fresh vegetables pre-chopped in many combinations.

Grew up on canned. And then overcooked. Gross. Maybe that is why I still hate veggies!

I grow what I like and flashfreeze what I need to. And tomatoes/peppers/herbs make gallons of frozen sauce for the winter.

And why do we need frozen or canned when our produce depts are full of fresh?

quote:

Originally posted by Nina:
... the taste of canned green beans really takes me back to being a kid.

The taste of canned corn takes me back to the cafeteria of my elementary school. But home was frozen corn.

quote:

Originally posted by LL:
And why do we need frozen or canned when our produce depts are full of fresh?

Because so much of it rots before anyone can eat it - 50% by some estimates. It seems like such a waste. Not all of it comes from private kitchens but I've read where most of it does. Some comes from grocery stores and restaurants and some is left in the field when the market changes.

quote:

Originally posted by Nina:
Oh yeah, canned tomatoes. I buy them by the case from Costco. Forgot about those.

AdagioM

Made me look up why there are no frozen tomatoes. Turns out that when you freeze a tomato it changes both the taste and the texture and not for the better. Apparently it's not a problem with sauces, but canned tomatoes work so well in sauces that no one has put much thought in to developing a tomato you can freeze.

As for frozen peas; we used to get big old frozen dark green peas that I thought were delicious and had some heft to them. Now it seems everyone offers only "petit" or some such. I wonder if the market changed or if the smaller peas are less expensive to produce?