It is, perhaps, something you have either never really thought of, or you are a bona fide Vegetable Snob who wouldn’t even entertain the mere thought of anything in a can. Well, both of you can stop it right now.
Which Is Better?
That’s a tough one to answer definitively, because to really get to the nitty-gritty (and we are going to, so buckle in), we need to look at nutrition, cost and wastage, seasons, environmental impacts, and versatility. So, without much further ado, let’s learn some stuff—stop shaking your head, it’ll be fun.
Nutrition
Right from the get-go, a freshly harvested vegetable is a wondrous thing: bright, flavourful, and full of goodness. However, from the moment it is picked, the nutrition starts to decline, and it only gets worse from there. That’s not to say that in the several days between harvest and eating it has become a green or orange lump of nothing, because it hasn’t. It just means it will have lost a little along the way.
Conversely, canned vegetables are processed almost immediately, so much of the original goodness remains. True, some vitamins are lost, and salt is often added for preservation (so look for “no added salt”), but minerals and fibre content stay just as high.
Basically, this one’s a draw—unless you’re picking vegetables yourself and using them straight away.
Cost and Wastage
You can buy one carrot, or one serving of whatever that green thing is, but more often than not you’re forced to buy a whole pack. And you know full well half of it will go to waste if you forget about it. A can doesn’t have that problem. It’ll happily sit in the cupboard for a year or more and still taste like you bought it yesterday. Plus, unless you’ve picked up a “Family Christmas Value Size Can For 17 People Because Everyone Invited Themselves,” one tin is usually enough for one or two servings.
It might be cheaper to buy a single item, but overall a can will likely work out far more economical—and for many people, that’s the deal-breaker.
Seasons
Here’s the thing about stuff that grows: it prefers certain times of year to do that growing—annoying, I know. So, for example, you’ll struggle to find English strawberries in February, at least at an affordable price. Canned goods laugh at this. They can be harvested at the perfect time and stored for you to buy in the middle of winter. Cans don’t care what month it is.
Environmental Impacts
Out-of-season crops are a pain, and to grow them when they don’t want to grow naturally takes extra effort. That costs more and undoubtedly harms the environment.
Then you’ve got cold storage and cold transportation, which add further impact.
Canning does require energy, but once it’s done, that’s pretty much it. Aside from storage in a warehouse and the shipping (which is easier since cans are stackable and uniform), the footprint is smaller compared to constant refrigeration and transport of fresh goods.
Versatility
Without question, fresh wins hands down. You’ve got a piece of veg, and you can do absolutely anything with it. Cans, not so much.
That’s not to say they’re useless—far from it. With canned veg you usually don’t need to peel, and often don’t even need to chop, which means less waste (though really, you should be using peelings).
You can still roast, fry, or mash canned potatoes. You can glaze canned carrots. There’s nothing stopping you from cooking canned sweetcorn with butter and honey. The problem is most people assume canned vegetables are only good for boiling or chucking into a casserole. That myth needs busting.
As a Chef
I am obviously going to say “fresh”, aren’t I? I can’t julienne canned carrots, or roast a half aubergine from a tin and smother it in garlic butter, finished with a crunchy pumpkin seed topping. Nor can I fry potato skins or make gravy from the peelings. But I can still do plenty with canned vegetables.
So yes, the chef in me says fresh all the way. But the bloke who wanders into the kitchen and realises he’s out of fresh veg but has a couple of tins in the cupboard? Yeah, sure, why not? Why not indeed.
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