Make your own vegetable medley at a fraction of the cost of frozen vegetable mixes!

Save Money and Eat Healthy
Buying pre-packaged frozen vegetable medleys is convenient, but it often comes with a higher price tag and less control over quality. Creating your own vegetable medley with fresh ingredients is not only cost-effective but it's also a great way to ensure your veggies are fresh and perfectly portioned.
Plus, by freezing your own mix, you’ll have a stash of healthy, ready-to-use vegetables for soups, stir-fries, or side dishes.
In this guide, we'll show you how to make a balanced vegetable medley featuring cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots.
You'll learn how to select the right amount of each ingredient, prepare them for freezing, and portion them for easy use.
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Why Make Your Own Vegetable Medley?
- Save Money: Fresh vegetables are often cheaper per pound than pre-frozen mixes, especially when you buy them in-season or on sale.
- Quality control: You get to carefully choose the freshest ingredients.
- Customization: You control the ratio and quality of ingredients in your medley. Plus, you can cut the veggies the size you want.
- Reduce Waste: Use up leftover produce before it spoils.
Ingredients for a Balanced Vegetable Medley
To create a medley with roughly equal parts of cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots:
Cauliflower: You’ll need about 2 lbs of whole cauliflower. After removing the core and leaves, you'll get about 1.5 lbs of florets.
Broccoli: Buy 2 about lbs of broccoli crowns. After discarding the thick stems leaves you with approximately 1.5 lbs of florets. But save the trimmings for vegetable stock!
Carrots: Buy 1.5 lbs of whole carrots. Once you've peeled and sliced them, you'll have approximately the same amount of as the prepared florets.
Don't worry: this isn't rocket science. This doesn't have to be exact!
Step-by-Step Instructions
1. Prepare the Vegetables
Cauliflower: Remove the leaves, stem, and core. Cut into small, bite-sized florets.
Broccoli: Trim the thick stems, leaving only the crowns. Cut into florets similar in size to the cauliflower.
Carrots: Peel and slice into rounds about ¼ inch thick for even cooking.
We like to put our prepared veggies in bowls.
2. Steam the Vegetables
Steaming preserves the color, texture, and nutrients of your vegetables before freezing.
We like to use the microwave and a DIY steamer for this purpose (shown below).
You can also steam on the stove top or quickly boil the vegetables, but keep in mind that boiling leaches out more of the nutrients than steaming.
Add about one half inch of water to our microwave-safe container and heat that for 2 minutes in the microwave. Then add the cauliflower and microwave for six additional minutes.
Work in batches: steam each vegetable type separately according to the chart below, then immediately transfer to an ice bath to stop cooking.
Cauliflower | 6 minutes |
Broccoli | 2 minutes |
Carrots | 4 minutes |
The goal is to get the vegetables to the crisp side of crisp-tender so that the vegetables stand up to freezing and reheating. This will take some experimentation based on your microwave's power.
While the vegetables cook, prepare an ice bath.
Simply dunk the colander briefly in the ice bath to stop the cooking, then drain well and pat dry with paper toweling.
3. Portion and Freeze
The best way to freeze the vegetable mix is to spread the veggies out in a single layer on a baking sheet and freeze until firm (about 2 hours) to prevent clumping.
But let's face it: most of us don't have that kind of freezer space. We've portioned out the veggies into bags and frozen immediately after drying without any loss of quality. Just don't try to break them apart as they thaw.
Combine equal parts of cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots into freezer-safe bags or containers. Just eyeball this: it doesn't have to be exact.
Use whatever portions make sense for your family. Technically, one cup of this mix is a serving of vegetables. But I figure that getting a child to eat half of that is a win.
We freeze in one cup portions to share between the two of us, packaging first in small freezer bags and then bagging all portions in a gallon-size freezer bag. We get 9-10 servings.
We eat up all our portions within a month, but you can store up to 6 months. (Date your bags if you'll be storing them more than a month or so)
Tips for success
Batch Prep: This is a great meal-prep activity to do over the weekend. Spend an hour prepping and freezing a large batch so you have them at your fingertips.
Storage: Be sure to use the grip-and-seal style rather than the bags with slider closers: these don't hold up well in the freezer. If storing longer than 6 weeks, I recommend vacuum sealing the veggies.
Customization: You can add other vegetables like bell peppers, onions, or zucchini, but I recommend preparing these additional vegetables fresh: they don't freeze well. Add your vegetable medley when the other veggies are almost done, simply to heat through.
By making your own vegetable medley, you’ll enjoy fresh, vibrant vegetables year-round while saving money and reducing waste. Try it once, and you'll never go back to store-bought frozen mixes again!
Sample recipe using the prepped medley
Ingredients:
1 cup | Vegetable Medley, thawed |
½ Tbsp | Olive Oil or Butter |
¼ teaspoon (or to taste) | Salt |
⅛ teaspoon (or to taste) | Black pepper |
Directions:
- Heat a large skillet over medium heat.
- Add olive oil or butter and seasonings.
- Add the vegetable medley and cook for 3-4 minutes until the veggies are heated through and reach the tenderness you prefer.
- Check seasoning and add optional toppings before serving.
You can also do this in the microwave, using a microwave-safe bowl:
- Melt the butter (or heat olive oil) for 30 seconds.
- Add the vegetables and seasonings, lid the bowl, and toss well to combine.
- Loosen the lid and microwave for 1-2 minutes, until the veggies are done to your liking.
- Check seasoning and add optional toppings before serving.
Other uses for your vegetable medley
These veggies make a great side prepared as described above, but they can also be used for:
- Casseroles: (if you're baking for 30 minutes or more, you can add the frozen veggies directly.
- Stir-Fry: add the veggies right at the end (make sure to dry again carefully before adding), and stir-fry until heated through.
- Soups: mixed veggies are a great way to bulk up your favorite soup. Add near the end of the cooking time, heat through, and adjust the soup's seasoning if needed.
Other easy side dishes
- Easy Microwave Cauliflower
- Green Beans with Bacon and Onions
- Easy Microwave Asparagus
- Arugula-Shaved-Fennel Salad
- Easy Microwave Broccoli – Served 3 Ways
That's it! I hope you love having this easy veggie side at your fingertips!
Stay safe and stay well.
—Michelle
Vegetable Medley Prep Recipe
An easy meal prep that saves you money and puts you in charge of quality. Keep pre-portioned servings in your freezer for an easy vegetable side any time!
Ingredients
For the vegetable medley meal prep
- 1.5 lb cauliflower florets
- 1.5 lb broccoli florets
- 1.5 lb carrots, sliced to ~⅙"
For serving
- 1 cup vegetable medley meal prep
- 1 tablespoon olive oil or butter
- ¼ teaspoon salt (or to taste)
- ⅛ teaspoon pepper (or to taste)
Optional additions for serving
- Sprinkling of your favorite seasoning mix (optional; see Recipe Note #1)
- Sprinkling of lemon zest
- Sprinkling of grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
Steaming the vegetables
Steam the vegetables until just crisp-tender (See Recipe Note #2). Vegetables should be crispier than you'd normally prefer because they'll be frozen, thawed, and then cooked the rest of the way. We like to use a DIY microwave steamer and cook in batches (see post above). Note that cooking times vary according to microwave wattage (see Recipe Note #3).
- Add ½" water to the bottom and pre-heat for 2 minutes.
- Add the cauliflower and microwave 5-6 minutes (cooking time will vary according to microwave wattage).
- While the vegetables steam, prepare an ice water bath.
- Carefully remove steamer insert with cauliflower and dunk in ice water bath, then dry well with paper toweling and lay out on a baking sheet to cool.
- Repeat with the other vegetables, but with the following approximate cooking times:
- 2-3 minutes for broccoli
- 3-4 minutes for carrots
Portioning and freezing
- Mix the dried and cooled vegetables in a bowl.
- Scoop 1-cup portions into small freezer bags (see Recipe Note #4). Try to get roughly equal amounts of each vegetable into the portions (it's a good idea to leave the bags open so that you can easily swap out a few vegetables, if needed).
- Seal all bags, squeezing out as much air as possible.
- Place bagged vegetable portions into a large freezer bag, seal, and place in freezer for up to six months.
Thawing and finishing
- Remove vegetable portions from freezer one day before you plan to use them (see Recipe Notes #5 and 6).
- Heat oil (or melt butter) over medium heat. When the fat is hot, add the vegetables, salt, pepper, and seasoning mix (if using).
Notes
- Our favorite seasoning mix for this vegetable medley is Justice by Penzey's Spices: it's a fine-ground mix of shallots, garlic, onion, green peppercorns, chives, and green onion.
- You can also steam on the stove top (or even boil, but steaming is preferred for best retaining the nutrients in the veggies)
- Because of variations in cooking times, it's best to test ½ and ¾ of the way through the recommended cook time when first preparing this vegetable medley.
- Or make 2-cup portions, if that makes more sense for your family (you'll get 4-5 portions this way).
- You can also thaw by adding the vegetable bag to a large bowl (e.g., gallon-sized) of hot water for 30 minutes.
- If you plan to add the veggies to a casserole, you can add them directly from the freezer before baking. If the vegetables are clumped together, pull pieces apart (or chop) as necessary. Make sure that the casserole reaches an internal temperature of 165 ºF.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 9 Serving Size: 1 cupAmount Per Serving: Calories: 108Total Fat: 4gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 6mgSodium: 240mgCarbohydrates: 16gFiber: 7gSugar: 6gProtein: 4g
Nutrition data provided here is only an estimate: if you are tracking this information for medical purposes, please consult a trusted external source. Thanks!
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