Hi again y’all,
Sorry for flooding the community, but I’m currently been trying to find new recipes to work with, and came across one that called for fresh green beans. I have a bag of frozen ones, and am curious as to whether or not I can use the frozen ones I have as a substitute.
In general I was curious that if I were to substitute fresh produce with frozen, if there would be anything I’d need to keep in mind. Would the cooking time differ? Would I need to thaw the frozen produce prior? Is some produce unable to be substituted with frozen equivalents?
Thanks for help in advance.
So, in general you can swap 1:1 frozen vegetables for fresh with no problems at all. Fruit gets a little bit more hinky since a lot of them get packaged with syrup to help prevent crystallization (which completely shreds the fruit.). If you’re using the fruit in something- like a jam, or compote where it’s going to get cooked anyway, just be aware that it might need less sugar. you can use it whole you might notice them being a bit more juicy than normal, and a bit… uh… frozen-strawberry-esque? They’re perfectly fine, but they’re going to be a bit… weird. (waffles come to mind. we do frozen strawberries and blueberries, as well as black and raspberries.)
In fact, frozen stuff usually retains more of the nutrients and has more to start with than fresh produce. The reason for this is that the facility they freeze them at are generally next to or very near the farms they’re grown at. So they’re picked when ripe rather than green, and then freezing actually is the best at preserving nutrients.
Vegetables are generally blanched, to deactivate enzymes, though, so they’re already partially cooked. Generally speaking, frozen vegetables need to be cooked from frozen, or thawed in the fridge. Peas are notorious in my family. (Step-grandma thawed peas in the sink for a thanksgiving dinner to… unpleasant consequences.) (If there’s any special considerations, they’ll be listed on the packaging.)
Some vegetables are in fact “meant” to be frozen. like heirloom-varieties of carrots. carrots do this thing as a last-gasp of trying to survive, where the convert their starches into sugars; which increases their ability to survive freezing. (fun fact, this is why humans are so keyed to sweet things- sweetness means it’s in season.)
Before you get any funny ideas about carrots from the grocery store… modern commercial carrots don’t do this; its been bred out as a consequence of breeding for other things (mass production value.) but even so, winter crops generally tolerate freezing very well because… well… they’re winter crops and that’s what they’re good for.
Broccoli and cauliflower are both traditionally winter crops, by the way. as are garlic, leeks, kale, a few varieties of squash parsnips, turnips and beets (which like carrots become sweeter with the cold.)