quote:

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

Yours may be. But I have seen many stores that don't even have a produce department. The most they have are a couple bags of bagged salads. Maybe a few potatoes or onions. Not the mountains of tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, and such that a middle-class suburban grocery store has.

That's why they are called "food deserts".

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Miller:

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?

I found the big peas to be kind of “woody” in texture, so I prefer the small ones.

quote:

Originally posted by AdagioM:
I found the big peas to be kind of “woody” in texture, so I prefer the small ones.

I agree that the small ones are better, but I'm OK with the larger kind too.

Peas are one of the veggies that do really well frozen.

Doesn't Trader Joe's still have both large peas and petit peas?

Other than baby limas and blackeyed peas, I don't often buy frozen vegetables to cook and serve them as is, but I do sometimes use them in other dishes. Homegrown vegetables that are frozen can be really good, particularly corn and beans.

When it comes to commercial frozen vegetables, I use frozen corn and petite peas in chicken and yellow rice. (And a can of tomatoes. When tomatoes are going to be cooked, canned is just fine. I've had frozen fresh tomatoes, because that's what the people I grew up around did when they have more homegrown tomatoes than than they can eat. This has never happened to me. Frozen tomatoes are really only good when cooked in something like soup or chili.)

I use frozen broccoli or brocolli/cauliflower/carrot mix in casseroles where the vegetables are going to be cooked to mush anyway.

Otherwise? I think commercial frozen vegetables tend to taste a little watery and I'd rather spend a few extra minutes chopping, but it's a marginal thing and I'm happy to eat them if somebody else is cooking.

I eat frozen vegetables pretty much every day.

Reasons:
1) I don’t really cook anymore
2) It’s really easy to have a variety of frozen vegetables on hand , and just heat up single servings at a time.

Either I have no class, or I have acquired a taste for most of them. They all seem pretty good to me…

Those are not mutually exclusive, Doug.

quote:

Originally posted by jon-nyc:
Those are not mutually exclusive, Doug.

My guess is that you had to type this very fast, to beat about eight other people who wanted to post the same thing…

I rarely eat a "plain" vegetable, that is, hot with butter and salt, as a side dish. So I have little use for frozen vegetables.

I eat most of my vegetables raw or cooked in some elaborate way (sauteed in garlic and onion or something). Like, tonight I made hummus and scooped it into my mouth with fresh bell peppers. One of my go-tos.

While fresh broccoli tastes better, we used to lose a lot to overage, and to bugs, so we keep frozen on hand at all times, along w frozen spinach, corn, and brussel sprouts.
I've frozen tomatoes - needed to be blanched. first.
Other than beans and tomatoes, I really dislike canned veg.
Frozen raw carrots and potatoes are horrible. The texture is wrong and cant be remedied.
I try to always have a fresh cabbage on hand - lasts for ever and easy to prep.

I bought a bag of frozen Brussels sprouts in Moscow once. I ended up tossing about a fourth of them out because they were unripe, had hard, inedible bits, or were otherwise bad.