About frozen mixed veg?

[Sparrowlegs248]

I have bought some for the first time, mainly because ds 17 months old likes peas and I thought he might like this too.

I'm 37 wks pregnant and cba to cook properly, so we've just had the frozen mixed veg with our chicken and potatoes. It feels a bit crap! Like it's not proper veg.

It was OK. Better then no veg I suppose.

Pretty sure my mother would be horrified though. Do others count it as proper veg?

Nothing wrong with frozen veg, I think the problem is just it being mixed and cut too small.

Frozen french beans are absolutely fine IMO - I blanch and freeze chopped to size then just drop them in boiling water from frozen for 2 minutes, not quite as good as fresh but a hell of a lot better than no beans at all. Ditto broad beans, sweet corn on or off the cob, all good.

I love frozen sweetcorn in a spicey bean chilli at this time of year, infinitely nicer than tinned (but word of warning if you grow your own, blue sweetcorn is distinctly peculiar and offputting in colour after being frozen).

Here's my rule/s with frozen veg.
Sweetcorn - every week, at least twice - no complaints
Peas (but I use petit pois) as above
Cauliflower - only in curries
Spinach - only in curries
Frozen carrots, brocolli, etc, never.
Frozen green beans and the like are truly vile.
My biggest tip is, make your chicken curry go from 4 portions to five - a) add an extra onion, b) add 5 cubes/portions of frozen spinach (£1 a bag in Iceland).

I don't see the point of frozen carrots either given they're available all year round and you can literally just wash them and eat them as they come if you're short of time.

Frozen brocolli and peas are good. Tinned carrots are the best. Not massively keen on fresh cooked veg to be honest.

I like frozen spinach in those lumps, peas and sweetcorn. Everything else can fuck off. Horrid, even if nutritionally fine. I'd rather have anything cheap and fresh that's around.

It's not great taste wise IMO, but the Birds Eye steamfresh bags are much better. I used to use them all the time, the only reason I stopped is we moved abroad and there is next to no convenience food here.

I agree that they are horrid. They were always nasty and soggy when my mother cooked them and I've never bought them myself

Sorry to clarify - those bags of "mixed veg" are no good, but the steamfresh bags are great.

Agree carrots do not freeze well. I do use lots of other frozen veggies.

I got very excited last week when I discovered asda have started doing a frozen soffrito mix. Will be giving it a go tomorrow in spag bolt.

The broccoli and cauliflower in them stays crisp. They are expensive per serving but worth it in convenience and taste.

Frozen mixed veg is brilliant for making Russian salad

Frozen cauli is also really good for using in cauliflower cheese. I just let it defrost and get as much moisture out as possible then cover with cheese sauce and bake.

Frozen carrots are utterly revolting.

We always have frozen peas and sweetcorn in (except when we don't,and that's bad). As an accompaniment, or in pasta dishes (peas in bacon pasta, sweetcorn in tuna pasta, never the other way round).

Carrots are horribly wrong, the texture is nasty and those tiny dice are like school dinners. It's my only complaint about our nearest Indian restaurant, the veg curry that comes with the biriyani is made of frozen mixed veg, peas sweetcorn, tiny diced carrot and chopped green beans.

Since reading a recent thread on here I've bought some frozen diced onions. They are brilliant, and saves me wasting onions.

Never have problems with frozen sliced carrots, I use them in risotto with cream, rice, quorn chicken and other vegs. The baby carrots on the other hand were taking too long to cook.
The frozen broccoli often get added with the pasta for mac and cheese.
I don't generally like the mixes (except for the Mediterranean chargrilled vegs from Sainsbos), but some of them can go well in stir fries or to make veg soup.

Hate those awful mixed veg packs of peas,carrots,sweetcorn & the tiniest bit of what's meant to be a green bean.Always have,DM used to stick them in absolutely everything casserole-y.But I admit that I did succumb as I was worn down by a wannabe veggie in the household who was eating appallingly so was used to bump up bits n bobs like tomato sauces.
Didn't go to plan,so we now use the half left over bag for first aid purposes!
We do however have frozen peas,broccoli,cauli,spinach & sprouts,sometimes cabbage,all gratefully eaten.

Its not as nice as fresh but it isnt poison, it does the job. Cant see the problem!

Let's take Sweetcorn as an example though. Honestly, how many People in the uk use anything but frozen sweetcorn? I have a tin in my larder from 2013.

I've just made a really nice veg soup using only frozen veg. Fried an Onion and chopped celery, then boiled some chicken bones I had left over, added water and bag if frozen mixed veg at the end (cauliflower, carrots, broccoli).

Result: frozen veg is great in soups and a good thing to have for emergencies.

I never have frozen sweetcorn, always tins in this house, we only use it in salad...
Frozen Peas are an an absolute must.

I like frozen veg like peas, onion etc but I HATE frozen mixed veg! We used to have it when I was younger and I hated every bite, but give me a roast dinner or some frozen peas or tinned sweetcorn or something and I gobbled it up. I think it's the carrots, I hate sloppy carrots, they need to have a bite of bite left to them but with frozen mixed veg the are mush and tasteless by the time the rest are cooked

I buy it and keep it to blend and give it to my weaning twins when there is nothing left

Steam bag broccoli is mushy and watery. Don't mind frozen peas or corn on the cob. Nothing tastes as good as fresh on its own but most ok in a sauce/curry etc imo.

I only really use mixed veg in a cottage pie, it's fine 'in' something imo but not so great as a side.

Frozen veg is brilliant, nutritionally and taste-wise, but the mixed bags often have a disparate medley of vegetables that cook at different speeds. I would say get single bags and lob your servings of each into the saucepan at different times.

I think it's also quite likely that the optimal procedure for freezing veg in the first place may be different for peas, sweetcorn, green beans etc, and that when they freeze them together at the same time, the compromise means nothing tastes as good as it could have.