Not steam in bag, not fresh-cauliflower-that-I-could-freeze, not with sauce - just bags of frozen cauliflower! Suddenly I can’t find it anywhere, and it was a pantry staple for us. Publix seems like overnight they went mostly steam-in-bag, which I don’t want, and the few things that are regular frozen don’t include cauliflower. Thought it was just them,
But I’ve checked three Publixes, Trader Joe’s, even Target. No plain regular frozen cauliflower! Is it just in South Carolina? Is it everywhere? Is this a crisis??
It’s not just you. The main grocery stores here in Ohio now carry about 95% either steam-in-bag or flavored (for a certain value of flavor) frozen vegetables. I’ve been buying more fresh, which is more expensive and means more trips to the store.
I guess the market has decided, but I’m not thrilled about it.
[ETA: Like **Frank **said while I was filibustering some other thread.]
I’ve seen more and more examples of the traditional frozen veg in a box / bulk bag becoming harder to find as more and more shelf space is devoted to microwave in a bag, with sauce, or other crap to increase the margin for them at the expense of the food value for us.
Here in Alabama, we had this problem for MONTHS. No bags of just plain frozen cauliflower, not even at Walmart, where I usually buy it. I asked a couple of store managers about it, and they claimed that it was due to the Blue Bell ice cream recall. Now, considering the fact that the Blue Bell company doesn’t make frozen veggies, and also considering the fact that I don’t ever put ice cream sauce on my stir-fried cauliflower, I never believed that. Maybe it was a distributor issue - I dunno. But around mid July - mid August, the bags of frozen cauliflower started appearing again. Have you tried Walmart? This is the Great Value brand I’m speaking of.
I actually got a little bit grocery-shamed by the (otherwise very nice and helpful) manager at Publix, who filled out a complaint for me a month or so ago about it. “Well, people really are going to the steam in bag frozen vegetables because of convenience and health…”
… bitch you just suggest my roasted cauliflower ain’t healthy?
THANK you, Clothilde, for validating my suspicions. But ew, going to Wal-Mart. A fate to be avoided except when we absolutely have to return hideous baby clothes.
How do you roast frozen cauliflower? Do you have to defrost it first?? Mind blown over here. I’ve never tried to do anything with frozen veggies other than microwave them.
Nah, you just throw that bad boy in a pan, preheat to 400, and let it go. Takes longer than fresh, probably isn’t quite as good, but it’s an easy weeknight meatless meal - I roast it until it’s almost done looking (getting brown around the edges, cooked when you stab it with a fork) and mix up some Greek yogurt and pick a seasoning (curry powder, a Greek seasoning, whatever), maybe add some frozen peas or quartered cherry tomatoes, stir all that in on the pan in the oven, cook it for another few minutes and serve over rice.
Okay, so it’d be healthier without the Greek yogurt but is tasty. And you could, of course, do something with lemon juice or whatever.
You’re quite welcome. I know how you feel about Walmart, and basically agree with you, but a cauliflower fan’s gotta do what a cauliflower fan’s gotta do.
