Frozen Veg - Good or bad?

njk2125

we use frozen peas, sweetcorn, green beans, peppers, parsnips, cauli and sprouts but buy fresh carrots, onions, cabbage and brocoli. I think it all depends on taste and we have found there is a big difference between different brands especially peas.

We also use frozen fruit for baking and smoothies but buy fresh for everyday eating on their own.

Honeythief

I buy fresh if it's in season, but frozen otherwise. I love being able to smell and touch fresh produce and that doesn't really work in a freezer bag

melanzana

Steamed frozen broccoli, peas, sweetcorn kernels, and cauli are great.

Carrotts always fresh.
But I have blanched and frozen them now and then and they were ok.

Those are the veg we like the best.

Anything else is fresh, depending on availability. But frozen mushrooms are a no no unless going into a dish. Too much water in there!

melanzana

Goldiegirl wrote: »

For some reason I've never tried frozen chopped onions, but it sounds like a good idea - I'll investigate that!

Frozen raw onions are great for soups, stews and casseroles. But not so good if you need texture, eg salad etc.

twiz21

I like broccoli very much but the fresh loose broccoli is currently £2.50/kg minimum in the supermarkets.
I've stocked up on Asda frozen broccoli @ £1.25/kg bag. No waste.
Yes, it can go a bit mushy - I steam nearly all my veg - but it is delicious.

With fresh broccoli I don't waste the stalks - I peel with a veg peeler and cut into julienne strips for steaming or to add to soups and stews.

I freeze or dry carrots. I don't bother to blanch before freezing. The ones I got recently were form Asda, 5kg box for £3 and delicious. They are still very nice when steamed from frozen. The texture is fine whether sliced or in strips.

Mushrooms bought frozen are horrible, watery and tasteless. Used to buy nice ones but they stopped selling them. I lightly fry fresh sliced ones before freezing.

Onions are great for freezing, chopped or sliced, cooked or raw. I now put in thick cheap Lidl freezer bags and put those bags into lock and lock type boxes to contain the odour which really can contaminate other food especially butter.

Celery is fine frozen, not blanched, cut into thick or thin slices, as are peppers, all cook up just fine for me.
I wouldn't buy frozen peppers again, the Sainsbury's ones smelt and tasted of wacky baccky. And the skins were tough.

Bought frozen veg I find varies considerably in texture and flavour.
Green beans are often squeaky. Lidl do nice ones but nothing can beat the taste of fresh ones and it's so nice to eat fresh veg in season. Runners are now my favourite.

Owain_Moneysaver

1 bag Tesco frozen value mixed veg (75p less 30p voucher)
1 onion (25p)
1 jar Tesco value curry sauce (30p)
squirt of tomato puree

that's 4 servings of veg curry in the freezer for the coming week to serve with rice or naan.

Sometimes Farmfoods or Iceland has a wider range of veg than the supermarket, eg I haven't seen frozen leeks in Tesco.

suki1964

Frozen peas only here

I know nutritionally frozen is often better then fresh but omg its horrible ( to me that is ymmv)

Pippin12

I like frozen peas and sweetcorn - oh and brussels sprouts aren't too bad too. But I hate frozen green beans and frozen broccolli - really watery and yuk!

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver

Great so long as you get a tasty brand. I use Waitrose Frozen Spinach in lumps, Frozen Peas, Frozen herbs and spices, Chips. I tend to prefer Sweetcorn in the green giant variety after having bad experience with tesco sweetcorn.
Taste is everything.

craigywv

i hit the no buy fresh button as i agree brocolli,cauliflower is awful when frozen maybe just the way i cook it, but this year i plan on buying more frozen even whoopsied and blanch then freeze it. prior to christmas i got loads of whoopsied spuds so i boilled and mashed them and scooped into sandwich bags what we would consume in 1 meal for the 3 of us, granted when they dethawed they were a bit mushy but i put them in a big bowl and hit high on microwave it dried them out a good bit so i mixed them up with butter and i cant tell the difference either could the other 2. i slice and freeze mushrooms for hm pizzas and same for turnip i cook it then freeze and same process as the spuds heat/butter, sweetcorn,peas etc are great frozen. got 3 bags of massive carrots christmas eve from mr t 5p a bag so sat yeaterday (yes i lead nan exciting life) peeling and making into cirles for stew and batons for dinners then just bagged and froze no need to blanch got over 20 good sized bags for us 3 out of them, 1 thing i can advise you about carotts is i was lazy last time doing these and didnt peel skin off them so when cooked they looked dirty even though they were spotless going into freezer so just use those ones in sc.also got 3 bags of apples massive bags again 5p christmas eve so stewed them made apple crumble for todays dinner and bagged and froze the rest will get 2 cakes and 3 crumbles out of it. Personally i find trial and error freezing fruit and veg i think its your own preference to taste/texture some things better cooked before freezing and some things not, we also grow a lot of our own f&v and usually strawberies get made into jam and frozen but raspberries/balackcurrants just get bunged in freezers hope this helps i have rambled on a bit xxx