The frozen vegetables that I always choose fresh

I am looking forward to the pea season all year round: the season – only a few weeks in April – is heartbreakingly short. So when I appear on the Farmers Market, I grab it right away. Although I usually don’t buy fresh peas when they are outside the season, my desire for vegetables have defeated a January. I bought a package of fresh peas in the grocery store, hoping to make a simple one lettuce. I shot and blanch the vegetables just to find it ridiculously small and the typical sweetness of the spring serps I love was missing. Disappointed, but still looking forward to my salad, I made the recipe again the next evening – unless this time I reached for frozen peas and was rewarded with delicious bones of the sweetness. I was pleasantly surprised: until this moment I had turned my nose up with frozen peas up. The ingredient has become a staple since then, and I never leave the grocery store without it.

It is a widespread misunderstanding that fresh vegetables are superior to the frozen. This is for certain products The Fall-Blaffer Salad and Raw tomatoes are two obvious examples, many frozen vegetables bought in the store are as tasty and tasty (if not even more). They are also incredibly comfortable, and if you have frozen vegetables in stock, you can do without vegetables if your fridge is naked. It all depends on choosing the right frozen vegetables for the job, what it requires to understand how you are frozen.

A little frozen vegetable science

Once selected, many vegetables – including peas, cornAnd carrots – convert your sugar into strengths, which leads to a loss of custody. There is a significant difference in the sweetness between a freshly picked pea and one that has been outside for a day. The latter is also a little harder.

Most manufacturers of frozen foods follow a precise formula: once picked in top ripe, the vegetables are blanched and immediately flashed, which includes the sugar and prevents the vegetables from becoming strengthened. Blanching reduces the number of microorganisms on the surface of vegetables and keeps freezing their growth. (However, if the vegetables are thawed, any surviving bacteria can multiply again, which can quickly lead to spoiling.) The vegetables are then packed and sent to grocery stores.

It is not only freezing that counts – it is also the quality of the freezer. In contrast to freezing cupboards in the home processes, industrial freezers are powerful enough to beg in a few minutes. The difference in the quality of quickly frozen and slowly frozen vegetables is considerable and comes back to ice crystallization: fruit and vegetables mainly consist of water, which is enclosed in individual cells. As they freeze, the water forms ice crystals. Speed ​​is important: the slower it is freezing, the greater the ice crystals. Larger ice crystals can break cell walls, which causes the products to become mushy when thawing. Fasting, on the other hand, creates smaller ice crystals, with the damage to the cell wall minimized and the moisture prevents the vegetables when cooking.

The best vegetables for buying frozen

Here are some of my favorite vegetables that buy frozen purchase – they all keep their taste and texture beautiful and save a lot of preparation time.

Peas

Fresh peas are only at its peak in spring and do not hold up long after the harvest. They are also tedious to mussels.

Frozen pea, on the other hand, are picked in top ripe and are shot, which makes it a delicious and comfortable option. And if you don’t use a whole bag, you can later store them for later and know that you are there when you need you. I will be happy to reach for frozen peas when preparing SaladPresent pastaand quickly Stir.

corn

Nothing goes beyond sweet, juicy, juicy, Fresh corn in the ballif you Eating on the cob food or Cut the seeds out of the core To prepare a salad or another dish, but in the low season, if Fresh Corn is too short, the frozen version still delivers. And sometimes you may not want to shake six ears or bypass all of this silk. While techniques like The reverse bowl method Make damage, it is not a shame to choose the convenience. Frozen corn is a reliable, sweet and comfortable option that is always ready. My preferred ways to use it are in Soups and chowderPresent SaladAnd Creamy corn casserole.

Spinat, broccoli and green beans

I don’t always buy this vegetables frozen, but they work well with an emergency – and save myself from tanning, wild vegetables that lurk on the back of my fridge. Frozen spinach is great in Creamy dipsPresent CurryAnd lasagne. Similarly, I grab frozen broccoli and after Green beans When I do StirPresent Soupor evenly Blatt-Pan dinner.

How to cook and use with frozen vegetables

How do you cook with you when you have your frozen peas, corn and carrots at hand? You could be tried Turn your frozen vegetablesSince this is the usual movement for frozen ingredients such as meat and stock. But resist the urge: when vegetables are frozen, ice crystals praise their cell walls. As soon as the vegetables are thawed, the liquid is released at once and collects the vegetables around the vegetables and leads to mushiness and diluted taste.

Instead, cook the vegetables directly from frozen. While it depends on the recipe, it is usually a good idea to cook the vegetables over strong heat: adding the vegetables into a hot pan helps to tear down excess iron ice cream and ensures that the vegetables have less time to sit in their own water. Then throw the vegetables in your favorites CerealPresent SoupPresent fried ricePresent Risottoand evenly Hummus– and serve if you know that frozen vegetables can often be as good as fresh, if not better.