Posted by What comes to your mind when I say the words frozen food?
Well, often, I get to hear people drawing conclusions on frozen food. They pass a general statement without any background, declaring frozen food as unhealthy food, unsafe food, and definitely low in nutrition.
Well, my point is not to establish frozen food as the best source of nutrition but consider it an alternative when it comes to the preservation or eating preserved food.
Eating fresh organic fruits and vegetables is the best way to acquire nutrition and stay healthy.
However, this statement might not be accurate for every situation. While studying post-harvest technologies and ways to preserve fresh food in my graduate studies, I realized freezing fresh food is better than just fresh in specific scenarios in the case of perishables. Freezing actually leads to locking nutrients right at the point of origin. And it is a mechanical technique with no chemicals involved.
While traveling from field to storehouse to shopping aisles to your kitchen, fresh fruits and vegetables get affected in terms of its quality and nutrition. The process of deterioration starts the moment we pluck or harvest.
There are different freezing techniques for fresh fruits, vegetables, proteins, or even semi-cooked food. I use the method of freezing to preserve fresh herbs in olive oil.
People learned to preserve food by different techniques, pickling, drying, freezing, etc. in the good old days. With advanced technologies in preservation like canning, irradiation, the addition of preservatives, modified atmosphere, blast chilling, etc. Food can be preserved longer.
However, I would instead cook up a meal with frozen veggies rather than open a can of say…….anything.
Now, what will you find in my freezer?
- A pack of frozen veggies
- A pack of frozen berries
- Fresh herbs like rosemary, chives, thyme, etc. in frozen olive oil
- Leftover cheese
- Homemade chicken nuggets
Hope I have broken the myth. I can support the above suppositions with statistics from authenticated research papers from high index journals. But, let me leave that for another day.
Frozen food is not bad, but a good alternative. And to be honest, I avoid frozen protein just for the taste. Whenever I cook sauces, I use frozen and eat fresh fruits as such… even bananas.
Here is a recipe the uses frozen berries. I hope you enjoy it.
Cake with Frozen Berries
Preparation time: 20 min
Serves: 4-5
Cooking time: 50 min
Ingredients
Butter 100 gms
Canola oil 100 ml
Flour 180 gms
Eggs 2
Baking powder 1 and I /2 Tsp
Vanilla essence 1 tsp
Lemon juice 40 me and zest of a lemon
Sugar 140 gms
Frozen mixed berries 100gms
Fresh blueberries 50 gms
Coconut cream (optional) 400 ml
Strawberries (optional) 200 gms
Method
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius. Lightly grease and line an 18 CM round baking pan.
- Place butter, oil, and sugar in a bowl. Whisk them together at a medium speed. Crack open the egg and continue to whisk.
- Shift the flour and baking powder. Add it slowly to the egg mixture.
- Add vanilla, lemon juice, and zest. Mix till well combined
- Fold in the berries and pour into the prepared pan. Bake for 45 minutes.
Coconut cream drizzle (optional)
Let the coconut cream stand in the refrigerator for a night. Whip it with a little sugar and coconut milk (as per the desired consistency). Pour it over the cake, arrange the berries with a few edible flowers.
instead of fresh blueberries, you can add an extra 50 gms frozen berries.
Magic Ingredient 