Fresh, frozen, canned?? How do you prefer your fruits and vegetables to be before preparation and consumption?

[kdonnel]

A spinoff from the grocery thread...


What is your preference for vegetables and fruit?

Personally my order would almost always be:
Fresh
Canned
Frozen

There are a lot of vegetables that when previously frozen I would opt to not eat. For example green beans are great fresh or canned but nasty frozen. Asparagus is only good fresh, never frozen or canned.

 

[firefly_ris]

The only canned thing I buy regularly is beans and tuna fish. I rinse canned beans fairly excessively, probably doesn't actually remove any sodium content but helps me feel slightly better, haha. I am attempting to get away from those too and try to plan ahead with preparing dry beans but the cans are definitely a convenience item. Canned tuna has a ton of sodium, but not eating that super frequently like I am with vegetables and beans. Canned Del Monte green beans for example contain 380mg of sodium... meanwhile frozen or fresh green beans have zero. I have no issues with frozen green beans... I typically either roast them in the oven or steam them. Different strokes for different folks.

 

[HeatherC]

Fresh or frozen. Most times we at them either raw in like salads or roasted with seasonings in the air fryer or oven.

I cannot do canned. They taste slimy to me. I used to never like frozen either, but find that roasting them at high heat like 425 gets them crispy which I love. Plus, they are MUCH cheaper than fresh and actually have more nutrients since they are flash frozen when harvested.

 

[tony67]

Typically - Fresh first, then frozen, then canned.

As the PP skip a lot of canned things because of Sodium.

I also look at the country of origin as well as the oils they use - lots of things that used to be in olive oil are not any longer as Olive Oil got crazy expensive after a bad season a year or so ago.

Cost also weighs in on things.

 

[_19disnA]

Answer to me depends on what exactly it is. I don't like canned products in general since they always seem excessively salty and overcooked which makes them mushy. Canned green beans are an example of something that is generally awful and don't buy. Fresh vs frozen depends on the item and time of year. Frozen corn, for example, is good the year round, while fresh corn on the cob is mostly a seasonal item. Things like broccoli I never buy frozen since you seem to get a bag of the stems which are mostly the parts I discard. Fresh broccoli is way better. Our grocery store sells fresh green beans in 1 lb bags I bring home and freeze for subsequent use.

Fruits are almost always better fresh. Apples/oranges/lemons/etc. are types of things I never buy frozen and not even sure if they sell them that way unless for something like a pie filling.

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

In general probably fresh, frozen, canned, but it really depends on what it is and what I'm making.

If I'm making spaghetti sauce I'm using canned tomatoes. (I don't think they even have them frozen?). If I'm making a vegetable dish (whether a side or main) it's almost always fresh. If I'm making chili or a stew it will likely have a combo of fresh, frozen, and canned ... usually fresh peppers from our garden, fresh onions, frozen corn, canned beans and tomatoes and green chilies. Lasagna usually uses canned tomatoes and frozen spinach. Fruit is almost always fresh, though very occasionally there will be canned mandarins or canned crushed pineapple, usually for a specific recipe.

 

[Moliphino]

Fresh, frozen, canned in order of how they're best. Frozen, fresh, canned in order of how much I buy. Fresh go bad too quickly, so I only buy when I have actual plans to use them. We just got a chest freezer a few months ago, so have stocked up on frozen veggies on sales. I pretty much only buy canned tomatoes and chickpeas for soup.

 

[georgina]

Only canned vegetables we have regularly are black or kidney beans. Tomato sauce for chili. Rare occasions I am making a salsa I might have a can of whole kernel corn. I don't mind frozen green beans, peas, or a stir fry blend. We eat a lot of fresh vegetables - lettuces, tomatoes, broccoli, peppers, avocados, squash, carrots, onions, potatoes. I visit my local farmer's market every Saturday.

Fruit - mix of fresh and frozen, depending on season. Frozen blueberries and strawberries are good for smoothies.

 

[Meriweather]

Fresh, frozen (taste closer to fresh than canned) .....I would not have them if they were canned, other than corn and pineapple

 

[Kitty 34]

fresh or frozen

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

It depends on the produce itself, recipes also come into play

Some of our recipes call for fresh spinach, others frozen. One of the recipes I make takes fresh spinach but cooked and mixed in with scrambled eggs and then I freeze those for later in tortillas.

We buy canned corn, honestly don't want to deal with corn on the cob myself

Some of our recipes we do fresh green beans that you cut off the ends yourself, others we use frozen pre-cut green beans. One recipe uses canned green beans.

If we're doing a fruit salad for when we have family over it's fresh however I have frozen berries in the freezer right now and have been using those for toppings on my oatmeal (I just defrost the quantity I want in some water).

Majority of the broccoli is frozen (we don't seem to have the issue a PP mentioned about too many stems )

Beans are canned but there are a few ninja foodi recipes I'm wanting to try that account for dried not canned beans so eventually I'll get some of those to try those recipes out.

When a manufacturer makes it we get low or reduced sodium products (ranges from stocks to canned chicken to soups to pasta sauces to potato chips). I did once try a reduced fat ranch salad dressing, they bumped up the sodium content compared to the regular one only a bit assumedly to compensate on the taste of the lower fat content but it was way too noticeable to me and honestly threw it away after trying it enough times. We've gotten very used to lower salt content I guess.

 

[cabanafrau]

Fresh and frozen as a general rule. Canned frequently applies for beans and tomatoes and generally not much else, aside from home canned items, which is a world of difference.

 

[mjkacmom]

99% fresh, I don’t think I’ve ever eaten a canned vegetable except for beans and tomatoes. I keep frozen corn in the freezer for meals like chicken tortilla soup. We went to thanksgiving dinner at H’s family’s home, they served frozen broccoli. On the way home my kids asked what was up with the weird broccoli. My mom grew up pretty poor, she LOVED fresh fruit and vegetables, our house was stocked (there were always fresh cut up vegetables and washed lettuce in the refrigerator). I used to buy canned green beans for my dog to fill her up.

 

[LoveDaisy]

Fresh, frozen, then canned are the order I normally buy my produce. However time of year is a factor and I buy more frozen in the winter. I use a lot of canned tomatoes but I can thise myself with garden tomatoes. I also use canned beans if I only need a small amount.

 

[CGB]

Mainly fresh. I no longer buy canned vegetables or beans due to sodium. The only canned food I buy is tomato puree which I use for spaghetti sauces. (The sodium count is much lower). We do buy some canned fruit occassionally. During the summer or fall, I can or freeze a lot of vegetables/fruit myself from our garden or local produce stands. I also occassionally can my own broths (from veggie/chicken scraps) or freeze pre-cooked dry beans.

 

[easyas123]

Fresh, then frozen. Never canned.

 

[tvguy]

I grew up with mostly frozen vegetables. My wife grew up with mostly canned vegetables.
We eat a mix of fresh, frozen and canned.
My wife will only eat canned peas, doesn't like fresh or frozen.
Green beans we eat frozen or canned about evenly, rarely fresh. We both prefer frozen.
Asparagus, usually fresh, sometimes frozen. Rarely canned.
Corn, almost always frozen. Fresh next most often. Canned rarely.
Brussel Sprouts, mostly frozen.
Squash, mostly frozen.

I used to eat a lot of canned fruit in fruit juice, but Doctor says I should avoid all fruit except apples, even fresh as a diabetic as the sugar content is too high.

 

[amcnj]

Overall I would say the fresh, frozen, canned option. As others have said, some items are better/ easier in the frozen or canned form. Especially for certain recipes. But overall I tend to buy vegetables fresh whenever possible, and use the other alternatives as backups.

 

[Grand Koalafornian]

It depends on the thing, but usually: fresh, frozen, canned. For broccoli, I slightly prefer frozen. I have executive functioning issues and pre-chopped, with longer to actually cook/eat them is very helpful. I don't like the texture of a lot of canned vegetables and there's usually added sodium. My wife has a family history of high blood pressure and we get plenty of sodium elsewhere, so she can't afford extra from veggies.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

Fresh is best, but not always an option. I probably do more frozen than anything. It is much easier to get frozen stuff and keep it on hand and not have to plan as much to get fresh.