As winter drags on, it can become increasingly challenging to envision the bright colors and flavors of spring and summer. But many of the warmer season’s delicacies are hiding where you may least expect them — in the frozen food aisle of your grocery store.
“Frozen foods can be a lifesaver,” said Maya Feller, a dietitian nutritionist in Brooklyn. Although packages of cold, hard blocks of produce may not look as enticing as colorful fresh fruit and vegetable displays, there are plenty of reasons to love frozen options.
Here are the three things nutrition experts love most about frozen foods, and how you can get the most out of them.
They can contain more nutrients.
Frozen options are often just as delicious — and, in some cases, more nutritious — than their fresh alternatives, Ms. Feller said.
In one study published in 2015, researchers measured the levels of four vitamins in eight types of frozen and fresh fruits and vegetables: strawberries, spinach, broccoli, corn, carrots, peas, green beans and blueberries. They found that while fresh and frozen versions generally had similar levels of vitamins, there were notable exceptions. Frozen corn, green beans and blueberries, for example, had significantly higher levels of vitamin C than their fresh counterparts. And the vitamin E levels in frozen green beans, peas, blueberries and spinach were higher than in the fresh versions. The vitamin B2 levels were also higher in frozen broccoli versus fresh.
Frozen fruits and vegetables are rich in nutrients because they are picked and then quickly frozen when they are ripe — when their vitamin and mineral levels are typically highest, said Marie Barone, a dietitian at UC Davis Health. On the other hand, with fresh options, “the longer produce sits around on store shelves or in our homes, the more nutrients it loses,” she said.
Put another way, the fresh produce you see at the grocery store has often lost some nutrients before you’ve even purchased it, let alone eaten it, said Sander Kersten, a molecular nutrition researcher at Cornell University.
These nutritional differences are often greatest during farming off-seasons, Ms. Barone said. If you buy a fresh peach in February, when it is not locally in season, it will probably have been picked at a faraway farm and then transported many miles — across several days — to your grocery store, losing nutrients along the way. In one study from 2003, researchers calculated that conventionally grown produce travels, on average, nearly 1,500 miles before reaching consumers.
They can be cheaper.
Frozen foods are often cheaper than their fresh counterparts, too. According to the Department of Agriculture, the average prices of fruits and vegetables like blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, broccoli, brussels sprouts, corn, green beans, kale and spinach are lower when purchased frozen instead of fresh.
That can translate to a lot of savings, said Taylor Wallace, a food scientist and adjunct clinical associate professor at George Washington University. There may be exceptions, especially during the summer months, when fresh produce can sometimes be cheaper, Ms. Barone added.
Still, it’s important to think beyond the initial purchase costs. Frozen foods can also save you money because they last several months, Dr. Wallace said. To maximize the shelf life of his frozen foods, he takes them out of their original packaging and stores them in resealable plastic freezer bags with as much air pushed out as possible. “Sometimes I double up if I think they’re going to be in there a long time,” he said.
They’re convenient.
Frozen foods can also save time and effort, Ms. Feller said. Broccoli, for instance, is typically partly cooked before it’s frozen, so you need to only briefly heat it before serving.
Frozen vegetables and fruits, like peeled mango, are often already peeled and chopped, so they can be thawed and eaten immediately. And “frozen spinach takes the work out of picking through the bunch and multiple rinses and blanching,” Ms. Barone said.
The biggest drawback to buying frozen is that the food’s texture often changes once it reaches room temperature. Certain fruits, such as strawberries, end up softer than usual when thawed, Dr. Wallace said. He recommended using them in smoothies or cooking or baking with them instead.
If you want frozen vegetables to crisp up when they’re cooked, such as when roasting brussels sprouts, Dr. Wallace recommended thawing them first under lukewarm water and then draining them and patting them dry with paper towels to remove excess moisture before cooking.
“I try to get as much water off of them before I toss them in oil and then put them in the air fryer,” he said.
But for many frozen vegetables, you can cook them without thawing first. Just throw them onto a sheet pan, add seasonings and roast them in the oven, Ms. Feller said.
“I use frozen broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts and beans for stir-fry all the time,” Dr. Wallace added. “They taste great.”
