Replicating Green Giant "Steamers"

11 years ago

I eat a lot of these frozen mixed vegetable side dishes that you can microwave. Green Giant makes them and so does Birds Eye. Things like rice and veggies, beans and spaetzel, etc. It's usually a mix of vegetables with some kind of butter/oil sauce. I like them for the convenience but don't like the chemical and saltiness of them. Can I make my own versions and freeze them with having the same quality? I have frozen roasted veggies before but I'm wondering how they get the real quality in there. Would it be best to process the veggies and individually freeze them before mixing. Seems labor intensive. I just can't figure out how they get the freshness in the frozen veggies, particularly the potatoes.

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Comments (5)

digdirt2
11 years ago
Discovery channel had one of those "How It's Made" shows on a couple of months back about how vegetables are prepped for packaging in the factory. Flash freezing plays a big part. They showed peas and carrots mixture being made. It wasn't the Steamers, just mixed white plastic bags, so not sure how much would apply to the Steamers bags.

Produce was first washed then irradiated, then shelled or chopped separately. Then each veggie was steam blanched, flash frozen on giant metal sheets in huge walk in freezers of some kind. Can't recall how long they said it took to flash freeze but it wasn't long as the whole process from produce delivery to final bagging is done in one shift of work.

Once frozen the sheets dump into hoppers that combine the veggies and fill the bags by weight, seal the bags and carts return them to the freezer.

All done by machines and an automated assembly line so time - the enemy of freshness - is minimal.

Dave
lpinkmountain
Original Author
11 years ago
Well, that solves some of the mystery that it would be better to do the veggies individually and freeze rather than make a dish ahead of time and freeze that. I'm thinking I could freeze the stuff and also make some herb olive oil pastes and do them in ice cube trays, then combine stuff along with a hunk of the paste into little microwavable containers and freeze. Not really all that much trouble since I am making the pastes with my fresh herbs now anyway, and often do freeze stuff.
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gardnpondr
11 years ago
WONDERING IF you could use the vacuum sealer do dad to freeze them in and then heat in microwave to steam? Has anyone tried it? I LOVE those BUT they have some stuff in them I can't eat so I stopped eating them. I don't do gluten/wheat nor MSG and I had read the labels on them and there was something I can't eat in them and I can't remember what now. Anyway wondering about the vac. sealer.
gardnpondr
11 years ago
WONDERING IF you could use the vacuum sealer do dad to freeze them in and then heat in microwave to steam? Has anyone tried it? I LOVE those BUT they have some stuff in them I can't eat so I stopped eating them. I don't do gluten/wheat nor MSG and I had read the labels on them and there was something I can't eat in them and I can't remember what now. Anyway wondering about the vac. sealer.
Anne Wolfley
11 years ago
I don't think it's a good idea to heat food packed in plastic. It would be better to put the food in a glass or ceramic container and then heat it in there, if that's feasible for you. If that's not an option, you should check and make sure the plastic used to vacuum seal is safe to heat up.