First, the good news about frozen vegetables: Not only are they a convenient and affordable way to get something green on your plate year-round, but they also pack just as many nutrients as fresh veggies.
When vegetables are harvested at peak ripeness and then frozen, the process locks in the flavor as well as all those good-for-you vitamins and minerals. In fact, nutritionists even laud frozen vegetables for sometimes having more vitamins and minerals than their fresh counterparts, which can lose those nutrients over time as they sit on your counter or in your fridge waiting to be called in for a recipe.
But if we had one gripe about frozen vegetables, it’s that they can sometimes end up a little soggy or mushy after cooking, which is a disappointment if you love veggies for their crisp crunch. However, dinner doesn’t have to go down that way.
Here are two methods for turning your frozen vegetables into crispy ones.
Roast Frozen Vegetables in Your Oven
This may seem counterintuitive but you don’t actually want to let your veggies thaw before tossing them on a baking sheet to roast. The key to crispy vegetables with crunchy caramelized bits is to roast them at high heat, and do so straight from the freezer, according to vegetarian recipe creator Joy Shull from Build Your Bite. To help them crisp up, toss the veggies in oil and then season them with salt, pepper, garlic powder, ginger, smoked paprika — whatever sounds good to you. Shull recommends roasting your veggies for 30 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit on a parchment-paper-lined baking sheet and tossing every 10 minutes or so to help them cook evenly.
One more trick: Try roasting vegetables of a similar size and density, such as broccoli and cauliflower florets or peas and carrot kernels. This helps promote even heat distribution, which is a win for crispy, caramelized veggies.
Air Fry Your Frozen Veggies
Another way to transform your frozen vegetables to a crispy, crunchy side dish? Employ your air fryer, which circulates hot air to crisp up ingredients.
To make things easy, online meal planning service Cook Smarts has a chart that breaks down cooking times and temperatures for different vegetables (everything from broccoli to shish*to peppers) to get them beautifully crisped and browned.
The general rule, according to Cook Smarts, is that any fresh vegetable you can cook in the air fryer, you can also cook from frozen. But you need to add a few minutes to the cooking time to account for the time they’ll take to thaw. Check in on your air fryer basket frequently to make sure your veggies aren’t burning and also make sure you space them out in a single layer.
Some other hacks: Be sure to preheat your air fryer and also take out your veggies half way through to toss them with oil and seasonings before returning them to the basket.
This story originally appeared on Simplemost. Check out Simplemost for additional stories.
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