lily70•7d ago

Can we talk about frozen veggies being cheaper than fresh in January?

I was in the checkout line at Aldi last week and realized my bag of frozen broccoli was 88 cents while the fresh head was $1.50. For the same amount of servings basically. I used to think fresh was always the better deal but after three weeks of testing I save about 5 bucks per trip by going frozen. The trick is to roast them straight from frozen with oil and salt, they get crispy just fine. Has anyone else found frozen stuff that works better than fresh for certain meals?

3 comments

3 Comments

uma_taylor477d ago

Oh man, "the frozen head was 88 cents" - girl that hit me right in the pocketbook because I had almost the exact same moment two weeks ago at Aldi. I was grabbing frozen peas and carrots for a stew and they rang up for like 89 cents a bag and I just stood there comparing it to the fresh veg I had in my cart that was easily three times that. It really opened my eyes because I used to think frozen was just for lazy people or something but now I'm buying frozen spinach, broccoli, even those mixed bags of bell peppers and onions for stir fry. The texture thing you mentioned about roasting straight from frozen - that's the real secret nobody talks about. I tried it with cauliflower once and it came out way crispier than the fresh stuff I always manage to let go soggy. I switched over about a month ago and my grocery bill dropped by a solid chunk, feels like I'm cheating the system somehow.

ray_campbell467d ago

Honestly, you hit it right on the head about the roasting trick. I've been telling everyone I know about that, it's like the frozen stuff gets this almost restaurant-level crisp because the ice helps steam it first or something. And you're totally right about the bell pepper mix for stir fry, I grab that almost every week now. It saves me from buying those big fresh peppers that always go bad in the drawer before I can use them up. Ngl, switching to frozen for most of my veg has been the biggest money saver this year, feels like I'm gaming the grocery system in a good way.

adamr145d ago

Gonna have to be the one who disagrees a bit here. The texture thing you guys are praising with frozen broccoli, I find it gets that weird mushy-then-burnt thing if you're not perfect about the timing. Fresh broccoli I can just toss in the oven and forget about for 20 minutes, comes out perfectly every time. Also been burned by too many frozen bags where the veggies are just cut up stems and weird woody bits, especially in those mixed bags. Maybe it's a regional thing with different suppliers but I've gone back to fresh for most things except peas and corn, those are the only ones that really hold up.