Our intention with this blog is to share the food that we eat regularly. Posting our recipes online serve as a recipe box where we can easily find things we want to make again and we can share our creative selves with our family, friends, and friends we have not met yet. While this post isn’t a recipe of food from scratch, we do want to share some of our favorite frozen foods. In doing so, we want to normalize eating frozen food as well as give recommendations for allergy friendly frozen foods.
One of the stories that we soaked in from society is that there is ‘good’ food and ‘junk’ food. The terms ‘plant based’, ‘fresh’, and ‘natural’ are often used to mean ‘good’. At the same time, anything that has been ‘processed’, has sugar in it, or has been demonized in the diet de-jour is called ‘junk’ food. There is also a strong connection between foods that are labeled ‘junk’ and foods that are readily available and more accessible. Knowing this, what does it mean when we conflate a person’s value with the foods they eat?
It has been incredibly healing for us to learn that food is actually morally neutral. Although we tried for many years, it turned out we were never able to eat our way into being ‘good’. Reducing food to its nutritional ‘value’ and demonizing food that doesn’t meet the diet-culture rules of the moment strips it of all of the other ways that food can nourish us.
One of our dear friends and amazing community organizer Dan Lynn (DoBetterConsulting) talks about paying attention to what your body is wanting in this very concrete way: What textures would bring you pleasure? Do you want cold foods or hot foods? Do you want something sweet, salty, sour, savory? Having access to different foods that bring us pleasure and keeping them on hand has been so useful to us in learning how to trust and befriend our bodies. Today we will talk about 3 frozen foods that Anne likes to keep in their freezer.
First up are ‘potato puffs’ (a food definitely not commonly referred to as tater tots as this is a trademark of Ore-Ida). I especially enjoy Alexia brand potato products. These Alexia brand ‘Yukon Select Puffs’ contain “organic potatoes, organic vegetable oil (canola, sunflower, safflower), sea salt, organic cornflower, organic dehydrated potato, organic apple juice concentrate” (as of 10/2/2020). These are currently gluten-free, nut-free, soy-free, and vegan, however Alexia brand recommends checking the ingredients each time you purchase their product as the ingredient list indicates the current contents and they may change. Many brands make a ‘potato puff’ product similar to these, however if you think you will be serving these to folks with allergies we recommend checking the ingredients closely as many seasonings include wheat and dairy. Alexia brand’s particular preparation of potatoes reminds me of the frozen hash-browns my father would keep around when they were on sale. They were soft on the inside and crisp on the outside, and honestly, I love potatoes anyway they are prepared.
My recent favorite is tossing these ‘puffs’ in creole seasoning when they are fresh and hot out of the oven. Creole seasoning is available from many spice brands or there are a bunch of recipes to make it yourself on the internet. I like to make it myself because I can control the spice level and allergen exposure. I haven’t tried them tossed in our ranch powder yet, but I look forward to that adventure!
The next frozen food I love is these frozen samosas. You might notice a potato trend here, but what can I say? Potatoes are amazing. Samosas are a food that I have tried to make from scratch but mine didn’t turn out well and I didn’t enjoy the experience of frying them. When it comes to foods that are traditionally deep fried, I often feel this way. These samosas have a crisp pastry outside and a generous filling of spiced potatoes and peas. The chutney that comes with them tastes bright and herbaceous. I am a big fan of eating at Indian restaurants, and, for me, this is the next best thing. This brand of frozen samosas has the following ingredients (as of 10/2/2020): Potatoes, Wheat Flour, Water, Sunflower Oil, Green Peas, Vegetable Oil (contains one or more of the following: sesame oil, soya bean oil, palm oil), Spices, Salt, Green Chillies, Coriander Leaves CHUTNEY: Water, Mint Leaves, Sugar, Dates, Tamarind, Coriander Leaves, Green Chilies, Salt, Spices.
Feel Good Foods makes several varieties of potstickers which are all gluten free! I love the vegetable ones which are also vegan, the ingredients as of 10/2/2020 are: cabbage, water, rice flour, onions, tapioca starch, carrots, vermicelli (potato starch, mung bean starch, and water), canola oil, corn starch, scallion, sesame oil, mushrooms, salt, cane sugar, konjac flour, xantham gum, ginger, yeast extract, black pepper. The dipping sauce contains: tamari soy sauce (water, soybeans, salt, sugar), sugar, distilled vinegar, garlic puree, ginger puree, citric acid, and spice. When I cook these, I mostly follow the instructions on the box however tweak them a little bit: I like to steam the dumplings for just 10 minutes and then take the lid off for the last 2 minutes so they start to get a crust on them instead of being soft all the way through.
I like these potstickers because they have a variety of flavors and textures going on. The filling is umami and the dipping sauce has a salty sweet flavor. The wrappers, where steamed, have a delightful chewiness to them and on the bottoms they are crispy and delicious.
We want to acknowledge that the branding on this box contains food moralizing that makes us uncomfortable. Food is not good or bad, and you cannot become a good or bad person by eating certain types of food. If this doesn’t make sense to you, we’d love you to sit with the question “who profits from you believing that you need to eat certain foods in order to be good”?
