Buy Seasonal Produce and Freeze It For Cheap Healthy Meals All Year

Consuming fresh and nutritious produce year round is key to healthy eating; however, maintaining an ideal diet of fruits and vegetables may prove challenging when those foods are out of season.

Eating seasonal ingredients has many advantages, from lower prices and greater availability of fresh flavors to providing you with a sense of connection with your local environment. Plus, seasonal food usually has higher vitamin and mineral contents than those that travel long distances for consumption.

What to Look For

Many fruits and vegetables reach their optimal flavors, nutrition and value during their seasons of harvest, not to mention freezing well too! By offering seasonal meals at reduced costs for schools, hotels and caterers – as well as helping reduce food waste while encouraging healthier eating practices among students and guests – delicious dishes can be offered more economically while encouraging healthy habits in students and guests.

At times it can be daunting to choose what fruits and veg to buy when, which makes deciding when and what is the right time difficult. One good starting point is looking out for local produce: January and February are ideal months for discovering fresh veg grown locally in gardens, allotments or shops as well as root veg like parsnips and swedes ready for harvesting; fresh-sown salad leaves and herbs also thrive now!

Preparation

Seasonal eating can be an excellent way to increase nutrient intake, save money and support local farmers while simultaneously enjoying new fruits and vegetables in your diet.

Fresh food loses nutrients over time, so consuming in-season produce as soon as it becomes available is ideal. Unfortunately, not everyone can access their own garden or visit a farmer’s market regularly so frozen foods offer an ideal and convenient solution.

Frozen food items are typically selected and quickly frozen after harvesting to retain all their nutrition when you reheat them, making them significantly cheaper than their fresh counterparts and easier to find in stores.

Storage

Seasonal foods offer delicious and nutritionally-packed dishes, often at lower costs than their year-round counterparts. Eating seasonally also benefits the environment by decreasing food miles and plastic packaging needs.

January is an ideal month for enjoying nutritious leafy greens and carrots at their freshest, as well as fruit such as strawberries and citrus fruits. Plus hearty veggies like parsnips, swedes and leeks.

March’s seasonal produce offers up some vibrant flavors like radishes, spring onions and spinach as well as mangoes and strawberries. Try them in smoothies or add them to salads alongside other tried-and-tested fruit and veggie combinations for an exciting feast of taste!

July is an abundance of corn, tomatoes and zucchini as well as delicious sweet berries and melons that provide the perfect ingredients for making refreshing summer fruit salads or grilling them up as delicious side dishes at BBQs and cookouts. Plus they make tasty additions to soups and casseroles too!

Cooking

Seasonal produce is often fresher, tastier and cheaper than produce shipped long distance. Supporting local farmers also helps support environmental initiatives while decreasing ecological impact.

Gardens and allotments should be overflowing with salad leaves and vegetables this month, while spinach, kiwi, mango and strawberries should be at their prime for green smoothie ingredients like green smoothies. In March you should also see your first bulbs of the year ready to harvest, offering leeks and parsnips as tasty treats!

If you have a green thumb, consider growing your own vegetables and fruits in your garden or window sill. Or head out to your local farmers market or grocery store and purchase seasonal ingredients. Most foods can be frozen successfully; some types, like eggs in shells and canned goods don’t freeze as efficiently; the more ripe your produce is when frozen, the longer its quality will hold in storage.