Learn How to Do Steaming With Frozen Vegetables

Health guidelines suggest that people should consume as few as 2.5 and as many as 6.5 cups of produce daily based on your calorie requirements. There’s no stipulation that these need to be organically grown from a garden or freshly purchased from a health market.

Many people today are either budget conscious or aren’t really sure how to prepare a fresh vegetable for cooking, preferring the prepping already be done as with the frozen variety. But can these prepackaged selections be cooked using the same methods as their naturally bred counterparts?

In most cases, the packaging offers basic cooking instructions for the array of choices inside. But many people like to get creative in the kitchen and use various methods or styles in an effort to produce different flavors, which is absolutely a possibility. When roasting vegetables, it is a more extensive process, but it is worth the effort because the flavor is incredible and differs from other techniques.

Styles For Cooking Frozen Vegetables

For frozen vegetables, you should not defrost the package prior to cooking. The contents will lose their nutrients through thawing along with the overall texture and flavor, especially for those who choose to thaw them overnight.

As with most frozen items, none of these products are meant to be consumed until they have been fully cooked. You should avoid the desire to toss some into a breakfast shake or put them in a cold salad. These are nothing like frozen fruit products, unless they state they’re “ready to eat.”

Everyone has their preferred style for cooking. It’s actually subjective. There’s not necessarily any single best way that would suit everyone universally. So, let’s go over a few of those techniques that are among the most popular:

Stove top Steaming

The suggestion with this method is however you’re doing it, you’re most likely doing it incorrectly. But there are many people who are anxious to learn the process for steaming frozen veggies. In order for them to be of optimum taste and texture, this method works the best, so they say:

• The bottom of your pot should be covered by no more than three inches of water.
• Cover the water once it begins to boil with a steaming basket ensuring that it is above the water - may need to eliminate some water.
• After placing the basket, place the veggies in the basket and cover the entire pot over with a lid.
• These need to be closely monitored because they might cook quickly as the times for stove top steaming tend to vary depending on the items you’re cooking.

Some individuals attempt to use a food and vegetable steamer DIY in the microwave. Along with boiling, these methods are strongly frowned upon. In using both of these styles, the suggestion is that the nutrients are being depleted from the array of goodies found in the bag. The end result in each case is a soggy, limp, and flavorless product that’s basically not providing any health benefits for you.

These are merely suggestions. If you’ve been successfully boiling or microwaving your products with no poor results, thus far, you should continue to use the style, technique, method, that brings you the results you enjoy.

Sauteing On The Stove

This is a favorite noted to offer incredible flavor and texture with the array of products in the packaging. Sauteing is done in a skillet, making for fast cooking time which allows the veggies to keep their taste and maintain the crunchy texture, not to mention the nutrients are preserved.

• The skillet will go on a medium-high heat on the stove top with the contents poured in. 
• A tablespoon of whichever cooking oil satisfies your dietary plan needs to be added to the ingredients. 
• These will remain uncovered cooking for approximately 7 minutes or until they have been thoroughly heated with your stirring frequently throughout the process.

Grilling In The Backyard

If you enjoy a good barbecue, this will be the best method of cooking frozen vegetables for you. These are ideal for summer family get-togethers that even the kids might enjoy, and there are no dishes to be cleaned up after.

• Using a vegetable basket or perhaps some aluminum foil for wrapping the veggies, add some cooking oil of your choice over the ingredients and seal them.
• The grill should be placed on a medium heat where you will simply place them on the rack. 
• You don’t want them to char, so it’s important to continue to flip while they heat.

Roasting/Baking In The Oven

This is an easy technique, but it is one that will take a bit longer than most of the other methods.  Waiting on roasted vegetables can often take as much as a half hour. But these offer a delicious flavor unique again from the other styles.

• The oven should be preheated at 400 to 450.
• The roasting pan will be coated with cooking oil of your liking in a thin layer. This pain will go into the oven to heat up before the packaging will be emptied into it. The hot pan allows the ingredients to thaw and cook nicely.
• Use cooking oil to toss the packaging contents and then place them in a single layer to the hot pan. Halfway through cooking time - about 15 minutes, you should flip.

Final Thought

There are daily nutritional requirements, or more so recommendations, for people in order for the body to function at its optimum level. Produce is a big component in that process. It doesn’t matter if they’re organic, store-bought, frozen, steamed, as long as you’re indulging yourself. Learn here the variety of steaming methods you can incorporate for the ultimate in veggies.

It might seem challenging to get the recommended allowance, but if you think of produce as merely a side dish, it can prove challenging. You can do so much more with veggies and fruits than dessert or a tag along. These can be front and center if you get creative and investigate new recipes. Just have fun with it.