So, I have several bags of your basic frozen veggies (peas, corn, green beans, and broccoli).
I don’t know what I was thinking when I bought them. I don’t actually like basic reheated-from-frozen peas, corn, green beans or broccoli.
However, I bet there are ways that I can prepare them that would get me excited about them. What I can put on them or other uses for them that would be yummy?
I’m open to pretty much anything. Frankly, I’d love good ideas since these kinds of frozen veggies are cheap and I have tons of spices and oils and such-like from an earlier life when I didn’t have to be so cost-conscious.
Simmer the broccoli in broth with potatoes, puree the whole thing in the blender, and you have potato-broccoli soup. It freezes well too. You can add, cream, cheese, bacon, etc, before serving, but don’t add those things if you plan to freeze the soup.
You can use either green beans or corn as the vegetable layer in a shepard’s pie (veg layer, browned meat layer, mashed potato layer, bake).
Peas love tarragon. Also mint, but I wouldn’t put the two together. Just put some dried leaf in the peas and nuke until warm. I always add butter, salt and pepper after the heating.
Corn we like best with copious amounts of butter, salt and pepper. Simple, but not terribly “healthy”.
Green beans are great cooked for a long time, so long that they almost burn. I do them up with some garlic and onions in a little olive oil (or, if I’m feeling really naughty, bacon grease) and some mushrooms. On the stove in a skillet over medium low heat. Just keep cooking them until they get brown and carmelized. When done, add salt and freshly ground black pepper. It takes a good 30-45 minutes, but you can put it on while you’re cooking other stuff and just give it a stir periodically.
OR, if you’re pressed for time, steamed or nuked green beans with a sprinkle of lemon pepper and, if you’ve got it, some fresh lemon juice is fabulous, too. Butter optional.
Broccoli is awesome in a 350 oven after being tossed with olive oil and parmesan cheese. Again, black pepper when it’s done.
OR Broccoli steamed and nuked with a splash of balsamic vinegar and olive oil, with salt and/or parm cheese and black pepper. I’ve been known to toss my cooked broccoli in a little balsamic based Italian salad dressing, too, just 'cause it’s super quick and easy and the seasonings are already mixed in.
Dill improves the flavor of many vegetables. Also, most vegetables are tastier when they’re steamed, rather than boiled. Corn on the cob is one exception.
I’d suggest putting the vegetables in soups and stews. Even if you open a can of soup, try putting a quarter cup or so of some frozen veggie in it. If you make casseroles at all, you could add some of those vegetables in there.
You can roast the broccoli. Toss in chicken or beef broth, or even vegetable broth, and stick it in the oven. Or you can toss it in oil or Italian salad dressing and roast it. Sorry, I don’t have the times, I just stick it in there with some meat and take it out when I think it’s done.
Well, I use frozen corn in chowders [fish cream soups typically with potato, onion, celery and corn, chicken stock mixed with cream and can be anything from cod, shrimp, clam, oyster or lobster. Chicken and turkey make good chowder also if you are not into fish.] A basic chowder is a good winter hearty meal soup base, if you are broke you make it out of lots of potatoes and onions with a couple slices of bacon fried up to crumble in, chicken stock and milk you can feed 4 people fairly cheaply.
I pretty much always use frozen peas in tuna noodle casserole - about the only way other than tuna salad I like canned tuna. Come to think of it, I also use frozen peas in tuna salad. I will also make a spring vegetable soup that is chicken broth, frozen frenched green beans, frozen peas, julienne carrot [I buy the shredded carrots in the veggie section if I am being lazy] and leaves of fresh herbs like parsley and julienned basil.
About the only thing other than plain, I use green beans in 3 bean salad. Mine also has garbonzos and kidney beans, yellow wax and green beans so it is technically 4 bean salad. This house also hates bell peppers so we omit those too. :smack:
You know, head over to foodgawker.com and in search stick in whatever ingredient you want and get bunches of ideas on what to cook. I have used them for a year now, and found some killer good recipes to change out the stuff we had been eating.
Unthawed or only slightly thawed green peas eaten with a spoon are yummy.
Seriously, the “pea-sicle” is great. Sweet, not mushy, needs at most a little sprinkle of salt and you’re getting cool green summer flavor: next best thing to fresh raw peas. Why even bother cooking them?
Fresh peas are best. I well remember shelling peas with my grandmother–as many raw peas as you could eat, provided enough went into the cooking pot. And raw peas are delicious!
That being said, how to make them (frozen or fresh) more interesting? A little butter or margarine, some salt and pepper–that’s all you need.
I always found frozen green peas superior to fresh (of course, I bought them in a grocery store where they’ve been sitting a days or two). I’ve made a pasta salad - cook tiny shell macaroni till done as you like it and at the last minute add frozen peas. No need to cook, just stir in the pot, and drain in a colander (I rinse under cold water to stop the cooking first.) When drained, mix with Italian dressing and shredded gruyere or swiss cheese, salt and pepper if it needs it. If you can find alphabet macaroni, use that and call it “Ps and Qs”!
Cooked frozen vegetables always come out flabby, no matter how carefully I test and time them, so they’re better as an ingredient than on their own. Except peas, and corn, which are good with butter salt and pepper on the side of mashed potatoes and meatloaf.
I put frozen corn in most things Mexican (quesadillas, casserole-type things, last night we had a Mexican sort of ground beef thing over polenta and I threw some frozen corn in, etc.) Frozen peas the same but in other things, like soups and stews and casseroles and mac and cheese.
The only way I like those frozen succatash bags is in a pot pie. 1 of the Moosewood Cookbooks has an incredible vegetarian pot pie. I can post it here later if people want it. It is very tasty and is a good way to use those veggies.
Green beans with bacon, onions, vinegar and sugar is good. That’s the only way I can get my husband to eat them. (Put the steamed green beans in the skillet after you’ve fried up the bacon pieces and onion, add vinegar, and a little sugar) - kinda wilted green beans I guess.
Take a look at eatyourbooks.com for recipe searches by ingredient. They scan and index cookbooks by main ingredients, but don’t include the full recipe. (If it’s online somewhere they give a link.) Most often you’ll have to fake it from the list of ingredients.
