The Genius Frozen Vegetable Trick That Fans Say 'Just Changed My Life'

Frozen vegetables are a huge convenience—they’re easy to store, last a long time and are often cheaper than fresh. But when it comes to flavor and texture, they can sometimes fall a little short. The main reason frozen veggies don’t taste the same as fresh is because of the freezing process, which can sometimes affect their flavor and texture.

Freezing causes the water inside the vegetables to expand, and when thawed, this can lead to a mushy or soggy texture—especially for veggies with higher water content, like spinach or peas. This can make them less appealing compared to the crispness of fresh produce.

To improve frozen veggies, you can sauté them with garlic, herbs and a little olive oil for added flavor. You can also try roasting them in the oven to bring out their natural sweetness and crisp them up. Also, adding a splash of vinegar or citrus juice to bump up the flavor can help.

Speaking of frozen vegetable upgrades, we just saw a genius frozen veggie tip, but it has more to do with storage than flavor. If you've ever had a bag of frozen veggies spill all over the inside of your freezer, food writer, recipe developer and content creator Meghan Splawn (@meghan_splawn) has a genius solution. We wish we'd known about this sooner!

Related: The Genius Frozen Vegetable Trick We Wish We’d Known About Sooner

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A Smarter Way to Open (and Close) Your Bag of Frozen Veggies

In the video, Splawn is opening a bag of frozen corn. Instead of ripping it open like a bag of chips or cutting straight across the top of the bag with scissors, she cuts a V-shape in the bag.

As she demonstrates, the V-shaped cut creates two funnel-like pour spouts on either side of the bag, which makes it easier to get the veggies where they need to go, which is a hot skillet in this case.

Once she's done pouring the veggies into the skillet, she shows the other great feature of this trick. The two slim strips on either side of the V-shaped cut can be tied together to close the bag. Splawn ties them together in a simple knot (twice), then turns the bag upside down to prove that the corn is going to stay put. Genius!

Could you use a chip clip or a rubber band to close the bag or pour the contents into a Ziploc bag? Sure you could, but all of those solutions would require that you have those things and/or be able to find them in your kitchen (or maybe that's just us). This hack only requires you to find a pair of scissors—and we luckily know just where those are in our kitchen.

This simple hack keeps your freezer neater, prevents messes and makes grabbing a handful of veggies fast and frustration-free. Sometimes, the smallest kitchen tricks make the biggest difference and this one will help you keep your veggies fresh so that when you do try some cooking tricks (like cooking them in garlic butter) you have good veggies to work with.

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