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!

Lazy garlic is your friend. Get some!!

I stopped buying frozen vegetables because they are all in plastic bags.

Nothing wrong with frozen vegetables however if you want to cook fresh but feel too tired to chop vegetables sometimes, you can’t go wrong with getting one of those manual pull chopping food choppers. off Amazon they are only £10-£15 and they are absolutely amazing. I got the one called Brieftons. Turns 10 minutes of chopping a couple of onions, peppers, mushrooms etc into a fun 30 second job.

I second buying the little jars of preminced garlic.

Frozen onions do need a bit longer to brown and develop a good flavour. I bulk cook them until nice and brown and then freeze in small cubes ready to add to other dishes, saves time on weeknights and makes dump and go dishes really easy.

Frozen onions have changed my life OP. You have no idea what you’re missing!

I hate food prep, so I buy frozen onions, carrots, peas, mixed veg and lazy garlic.

Frozen spinach is great for stirring into soups, curries and pasta sauces.

I freeze chopped onion rather than throwing halves away.

Frozen peas are good.

I mostly buy frozen veg ,onions,peppers ,mushrooms and mash potatoes it's quicker and easier for us but if I'm doing a proper Sunday roast when I've got a rare weekend off I'll buy fresh

If I had a bigger freezer I would buy even more frozen veg. I look at it longingly in Tesco cursing my freezer space.

If buying frozen veg makes you feel guilty perhaps you should consider getting an allotment? Get one a fair distance from your house so it’s a bit of a trek to get there. Then you can ensure maximum inconvenience, mud and effort when eating your 5 a day!

Joking aside, frozen veg is very quick and convenient. Trial and error will teach you which types taste best. And freezing fresh spinach and coriander is an idea I will pinch right away. I use a lot of frozen spinach (be warned, the Waitrose IME is watery and unpleasant but the Tesco one is great), but the texture is very different to fresh so it’s not useful for everything.

One of my best standbys is a soup made of frozen leeks, frozen carrots and a chopped potato. It takes less than 3 minutes to put them all in a pan with some red lentils and stock or water. Boil them up and whizz with a stick blender and you have a delicious and versatile soup that you can spice up however you want. I like it with sriracha and a spoonful of homemade Greek style yoghurt.

Frozen onions, peppers, spinach, sweet potato, peas and sweetcorn here! Also have frozen chopped garlic, chilli and ginger. I don't notice any difference from fresh apart from a bit of texture (softer peppers, so wouldnt use them in a stir fry just chilli or saucy things) Frozen onions are the best invention ever! Who even has time to chop onions these days

I wouldn't personally buy frozen veges. I find they taste kind of soggy.. The only veges I WILL buy frozen are peas!

But you know OP, if it makes your life easier then do it. There are worse things in life than slightly soggy vegetables :)

I will however advocate for the Lazy Garlic range. Holy shit I wish they had those in norway! Chopping garlic is the bane of my life but you can get it ready chopped in a jar or a tube! Genius.

I'm single. If I didn't freeze most things, I'd be throwing away ridiculous amounts of food.

I use frozen broad beans, peas, spinach and sometimes sweet corn (although it lives in the freezer unloved for ages).

Broad beans are the best, as the amount of outside ‘casing’ is so big compared with the amount of beans inside each pod. It’s actually quite hard to judge how much to buy fresh.

Everything else I buy fresh. I find chopping things quite therapeutic and I steam most veg - broccoli, cauliflower, carrots etc - from fresh. Can’t see that working as well from frozen.

We don’t get much waste as I bulk up our meals with lots of vegetables to disguise reduction in meat amount from my DH.

I get a bizarre kick out of composting the peelings in our outside compost bin. It’s enclosed so no rats (hopefully) - certainly no sign. I love the way it rots down to almost nothing. We have a tiny garden but I use it on potted roses.

I buy frozen berries for smoothies, frozen peppers and mixed veg. All other vegetables I tend to buy fresh. I tried frozen onions but found them too watery and I am not a fan of frozen broccoli or cabbage as I feel it gets mushy very quickly. The main aim is trying to include vegetables in all our diets, if we have to use frozen vegetable to do that I don't see the harm.

I also chop up and freeze fresh coriander and spinach to be used in curries.

I've always preferred frozen veg, less waste for us too.

I have in frozen root veg for the slow cooker, spinach, peas, beans, soy beans, sweet corn, mixed pouches for emergencies. I don't like peppers, carrots, cauliflower or broccoli frozen as they're soggy. I've never tried onions, as they keep well. Or salad, obviously, which we use a lot.

I tend to use fresh veg for a Sunday Roast, but during the week i use frozen. Like everyone say it's more nutritious and less wasteful. I've got sliced carrots, broccoli and peas. Also got mushrooms, mixed peppers and onions for pasta sauces. I use garlic purée which is in a tube kept in the fridge.

Always use frozen veg.

The only frozen veg I buy is peas although I am keen to try the frozen chopped onion because I detest chopping onions. I have tried other frozen veg in the past and thought it was flavourless and horrid, reminded me of school dinners.

I do buy frozen berries and pineapple for smoothies.

It seems from posters that some like frozen vegetables, some don't, simple as that. I do use frozen vegetables and buy from whichever supermarket I'm in at the time. If you have a Farmfoods store nearby give it a try, they have a great range of frozen veg.

Frozen spinach is great for throwing in a risotto, lasagne or curry sauce. Defrost and then add late in cooking. I also like it stirred through a pasta sauce as an easy way to add veg.

In this house it varies as to what I'm using them for, but in general a big fan of frozen veg for the reasons everyone else has stated - no waste and fresher.

For soup in the Instant Pot, I regularly use several different bags of frozen veg, a stock pot or two and some seasoning, then switch it on and leave it to it. (Minestrone cooking in it at the moment with frozen Med sofrito and frozen Savoy cabbage)

Frozen for eating with dinners: peas, sweetcorn, cauliflower rice (but not bigger cauliflower), spinach, fine green beans, 'Mediterranean veg' for roasting

Frozen for soup: red onions, mixed peppers, butternut squash, savoy cabbage, leeks, various different sofrito mixes (the Tesco Indian inspired one with chilli, ginger and garlic is fabulous)

Fresh: carrots, peppers, onions, celery, courgettes, cauliflower, broccoli