Frozen Vegetables

From The Kitchn: which vegetables are good to eat frozen? Because I'm so poor at the moment, I eat mostly frozen haricots verts from Trader Joe's to add some green to my plate. For this I take flack from my ayurvedic mother, who tells me that these things have all of their prana, or life force, taken out of them. I always say better some green than none at all, especially when I prepare them with health in mind (in ghee, with indian herbs). But, I mean, DUH. Of course fresh is better.

So, it was funny when I found myself sounding a bit like my mother talking on this subject with Emma a few days ago. She had just gone to an Indian cooking class, and the Indian woman who ran the class called for two bags of frozen spinach in her recipe for Palak Paneer. "Not so ayurvedic," I said, a bit flippant, "especially coming from an Indian." Maybe they're all yogis in my mind. Anyway, Emma shot back at me, "It doesn't matter! The whole point is to make it easier for people to make the dish." I immediately conceded, of course, because I already agreed with her. Much easier to call in this dish to Hurry Curry than seeing what exactly goes into it (which you then see isn't so much that a mortal human can't make it). The food should be as accessible as possible, of course! I guess my only point was that, somewhere along the line of exploring this sort of cooking, you've got to consider the question of how nutritive your ingredients are. It's the other side of the same coin (heads is what what you eat, tails is how you eat it).


credit: Faith Durand@ The Kitchn

Anyway, I mentioned to Emma that some fruits and veges hold their nutrients better than others, but could only mention a few. So, this article gives a bit of advice in that arena. And look, frozen spinach is right there!