If you believe the Daily Mail, the consensus is that frozen food is better than fresh food – and that includes frozen vegetables and fruit.
Using frozen ingredients in recipes isn’t always popular though, and I do often wonder how many of us actually use them.
Coming from a family who always ate from fresh, I found the transition to using frozen food a bit difficult. It had always been drummed into my head that fresh was the way to go, no matter what. We grow a lot of our own in summer, so it’s always the winter months where we are lacking in much of the fresh stuff.
Apparently a couple of studies have found that frozen fruit and veg could actually be healthier with the higher levels of vitamins preserved in them, especially the antioxidant leafy veg
The antioxidants fared best, which included Vitamin C, polyphenols, anthocyanins, lutein and beta-carotene.
Personally, I’m not 100% convinced they’re better for us, but I can understand how they would be just as good for us if they were picked and frozen quickly. I’ve seen the evidence, but I can’t get my head around how they could possibly be an improvement.
There’s always the benefit of not being in transit for days before they get to us, which can’t be bad though, and the frozen version will keep the freshness they seem to have.
I don’t like frozen fruit and veg when it’s thawed from the packet. That’s just me, so I rarely use them for just serving up the veg on its own, but I do use them for cooking in other food. The slightly limp results I seem to get on defrosting tends to put them off my list for just adding veg to the plate as a side dish to a main course.
I did find great ways to use fruit I froze myself, with the frozen dessert maker that Von Shef sent to me, but that’s not what I’m talking about. Strangely, the fruit I froze in my freezer did not have the wetter consistency that the shop bought kind seems to have.
I do buy a lot of frozen veg though. I love it for last-minute soups, for onions and for garlic and ginger. I’ve been using more and more frozen carrots too, as they just last so long. As much as I love fresh carrots, there are times when they’re wasted in the veg drawer and end up in the bin, which I find very wasteful. Unless I’m buying those for specific meal planning, I keep reserves in the freezer for days we fancy carrots or I’m putting a casserole on and fancy throwing some in without having to visit the local shop.
At the end of the day, unlike a lot of home cooks, I’m very pro the use of frozen veg in recipes. I’ll use fresh where I can, but frozen is not off my radar.
What about you?
I prefer fresh , though I use frozen peas and sweetcorn for convience .
My passion for sweetcorn is Green Giant or baby sweetcorn I have to say though I will use frozen in stir fries. I used to love the cobs, but always worry about getting the bits stuck in my crown nowadays.
We eat fresh and frozen fruit and vegetables – probably in equal measure. Frozen vegetables are perfect for mid-week meals, removing the preparation time without the nutritional benefits. I use frozen fruit in my smoothies (but never frozen banana, can’t bring myself to do that) – berries and melon work brilliantly. Frozen is normally cheaper, too, which helps the budget.
If I had time and money I would eat fresh fruit and veges from the farm shop all the time. But I don’t, so I mix it up, and am happy I’m getting my five a day as a combination.
I hadn’t used frozen bananas until recently with the frozen dessert maker, or I suspect I’d never have given them a try, but I did freeze them myself. Yep, same, if money were no object, it’d mostly be fresh all the time.
Frozen berries have been a recent revelation for me. I love making smoothies with them, so refreshing – haven’t worked out how to use them in anything else without reducing them to mush.
Smoothies are great. I use for soups fairly often when I’m in a hurry too, especially if my mother is hungry and I’ve nothing else quick for her. She’s not keen on tinned soup, but she can’t tell frozen veg from fresh when it’s made.
I’m really bad at eating veg so frozen is great for me. The amount of veg that I’ve had to “recycle” via the food rubbish bin is really bad. I like the steam fresh veg that you just take from the freezer and chuck it in the microwave is a godsend for me. I think this is because I live alone, it can be quite difficult to cook for yourself especially if you have depression.
I have found that since I got my soup maker that I’m eating more veg and also healthier in general. I’m not sure if I’,
m alowed to mention names so I’ll just say that I shop at a big shop that starts with aT. They quite often have 2 for 3 offers on their veg and I like the ones that are labelled as veg for soup base. I tend to buy those and then shove them straight in the freezer, then take them out the day before to defrost.
Sue
Yes, it’s fine to say. Soups and smoothies are about the only way I can get fruit and veg into one of my boys, so I’m happy for that to be frozen or fresh, as any fruit or veg is better than none.
I just wish we could freeze potatoes. Almost anything else seems to work out ok, but the ones I’ve tried it with ended up going black when I defrosted them.
I like those steam veg too, though for six of us, I find them too expensive to use day to day, so rarely buy those.
Well done to you for getting more good food into you. I remember how badly I used to eat in the days I lived alone, though that was a long time ago now.