To feel guilty for buying frozen vegetables instead of fresh

[Butterfly98]

Just that! I have a very busy life between full time work, kids, their activities and 101 other things it seems to fit in every week! Did the weekly shop this evening, I buy healthy food for breakfast, packed lunches and evening meals with plenty of fruit & veg. One thing that takes up more time every evening is peeling and chopping veg, I also overbuy when rushing so some of it ends up in the bin. A few people have suggested for me to swap to frozen veg as this would save time and money and less waste too! They say there's more nutrients in frozen but I'm not convinced! Also what about flavour? Interested to hear what you buy!

I use frozen onions, frozen peas, frozen mixed veg, frozen peppers, frozen sweet potato, and frozen squash. The squash and sweet potatoes are for soup, just tip in a pan with vegetable stock and whatever other ingredients I'm using. The peppers are mainly for stir-fries and chilli, I use fresh for other things. The onions get used for everything as do the peas and the mixed veg.

It's just as nutritious, no taste difference (although frozen peas are way nicer and much more green than tinned peas), and life is far too short to be standing there chopping and peeling when you can buy it ready prepared.

There's nothing wrong with frozen veg. In fact I believe that it actually has more nutrients because it's frozen fresh rather than deteriorating in transit and on the shop and in your house.

I buy lots of frozen veg and love it for the convenience and lack of waste. Onions are a bit watery but fine for cooking with and other than that I have been happy with all the veg I've tried.

We use frozen chopped onions, sometimes frozen butternut squash, it all makes things quicker when cooking dinner or putting ingredients in the slow cooker. Also we use lazy garlic and ginger.

We love food and cooking and these are great time savers. Freezer also always has peas/sweetcorn/mixed veg/frozen mushrooms etc. And frozen berries for smoothies and pancakes at the weekend.

And it definitely cuts down on food waste because none of it goes bad.

We use a lot of frozen and really there’s next to no difference taste wise in dishes.. I will say some things textures change a bit but it’s more like frozen fruit being softer if defrosted. Nothing that’s ever been inedible.

It’s done to stop waste with us as I can just lift out a small portion for me and ds if it’s something dp won’t eat or for a baby sized lunch so I can keep the same bag for ages vs using a third of something that’ll go off in a few days.

Frozen vegetables can be much richer in nutrients than fresh. For instance peas are frozen very quickly after being picked, and their nutrients are sealed in. And given the faff of podding peas they are a no brainer.
On the other hand Broccoli always seems a bit soggy to me when cooked from frozen, and doesn't take much effort to prepare.
Carrots I tend to use fresh, but again don't take that long to prepare.
But I do sometimes have some frozen carrots, onions etc. as they sometimes speed everything up.
However I have also been known to chop my own onions and then freeze the excess. You can freeze a lot of your overbought vegetables, either as they are, partially prepared, or with jacket potatoes after cooking.

I like frozen soffritto mix, frozen chopped onions, peas and sweetcorn.
Frozen peppers are ok but sometimes I get fresh ones so I can put in bigger chunks.
Not nice ime are carrots, brocolli, and green beans (though DS can't tell the green bean difference)

Oh and frozen ginger is good as I only use it rarely (and it looks tricky to cut!)

Good grief yes you are being wholly unreasonable.

Frozen veggies are brilliant. Certainly better nutrition wise than canned and sometimes better than fresh, and about eleventy billion times easier.

They're better than fresh nutrition wise because vegetables start to deteriorate as soon as they are harvested but that deterioration is inhibited by freezing them.

The nutrients can't leak out or undergo any reactions to make them less potent if they're frozen in place.

The limiting food waste is just an added bonus tbh, in terms of being green and saving money.

I use frozen peas, sweetcorn and green beans, much easier than fresh and just as good. I do find frozen carrots, broccoli and cauliflower aren't up to scratch though, the taste and texture is wrong.

Why do you feel guilty?
Frozen veg does usually have more nutrients in it as its prepared & frozen within hours of being picked.
Fresh veg can be a day, two or three or more old when you buy it.
You would need to dig up your carrots & onions & pick your salad greens & tomatoes daily from your allotment or garden for it to have the most nutrients.
As long as you're eating plenty of veg & fruit it doesn't really matter whether they're fresh or frozen.

Its actually healthier as Pp said due to it being higher in nutrients. Eat well for less on bbc used to encourage frozen veg, we never buy fresh anymore and it doesn't get wasted if I decided to cook something else that night. We buy fresh veg for xmas day, haha it sounds odd but saves alot of money too

Yep I'm the same. I work full time, two kids and try my best to feed them fresh and nutritious food BUT I'm sick of the amount of food waste and having a selection of vegetables in the freezer helps massively. I also buy the frozen chopped fruit sometimes for smoothies. One thing I've also started doing is buying a big bag of spinach fresh but then throwing this straight in the freezer and then using what I need from there as find it wilts very quickly in the fridge.

I use frozen leeks, onions, butternut squash, sweet potato, peppers. I mainly use them in things, rather than as boiled veg.

I would use frozen peas and sweetcorn but they disagree with me so I don't eat them.

I think frozen mushrooms are meant to be okay as well, I need to try them.

milkysmum I never thought of doing that with bags of fresh spinach.
We go through loads as apart from salads, I use it in pasta, curries, risottos etc but sometimes there is always a bit leftover in the bags.
Brilliant suggestion!

I regularly use frozen veg. I've never felt the slightest bit guilty about it because I have absolutely no reason to feel guilty.

Frozen mash potato is so quick and easy and tasty.

It’s healthier. Yabu.

Thanks all! It's good to hear that frozen veg is quite popular! I was just googling it and yes there are often more nutrients preserved in frozen compared to fresh. @milkysmum that's a great idea about the spinach, I must try that! I've bought cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, brussels and sweet corn so we'll see what the verdict is this week or if anyone will even notice the difference! I will still buy fresh potatoes, onions, garlic and mushrooms as I don't think any of them would freeze well, possibly a bit watery?! I feel more relaxed already thinking I've got a bit of spare time now in the evenings!!

I like frozen spinach, peas, onion, garlic, ginger and sofrito. Frozen spinach is really handy as it can be mixed into curries etc on cooked as is. Morrison’s do frozen ginger and garlic in blocks which are really useful. I have recently discovered that you can roast cauliflower straight from the freezer - good as an accompaniment when you’re low carbing and can’t be bothered doing cauliflower rice.

You can get garlic in a tube. You just squeeze a bit in, and then keep in the fridge.

Seriously? I buy frozen veg most of the time! They're actually more nutritional than fresh.

Agree with others about the higher nutrient content from freshly picked and frozen veg, as opposed to something that has been picked, transported and stored in a shop for days! Don't feel guilty at all.

Veggies that freeze well I find are peas, sweetcorn, fresh ginger, edamame beans, spinach, whole fresh chilli and depending how you use them, cauli & broccoli.

Veggies that I find come out watery and/or soggy are carrots, mushrooms, onions and brussel sprouts.

It is trial an error though and depends a great deal on whether the veg is being integrated into a pie, stew etc or a side dish on their own.

Just to say that same applies to tinned veg as frozen veg - they are canned/frozen at their peak nutrition so can be more nutritious than “fresh” veg that’s deteriorated through travel/on the shelf/in your fridge time.

Always use frozen veg in this house. My DH is a chef and says yes they are more nutritious than fresh as they are frozen so soon after picking that they don't have time to deteriorate and loose any of their goodness.

Frozen diced onion is one of the world's greatest inventions

Canned food loses more vitamin c than frozen though as It is heated during processing. There is still a proportion left however.

The moment the vegetable is harvested it starts to perish and lose its nutrient value. When they freeze the veg it's done within hours of picking. Food that is 'fresh' in store is stuff that has been picked days sometimes months ago and then stored in fridge conditions with low levels of oxygen to slow down the rotting. Freezing will stop this process altogether meaning it's generally better for you.