Cold-Season Vegetables That Taste Better After Frost

Going outside for a run feels like an exercise in sadism. It’s not every day that gardeners find the motivation to crawl outside, never mind putting a heaping of vegetables on their plate. 

Interestingly enough, there are some cold-hardy vegetables that actually taste better after a frost. 

Unlike most humans, some vegetables don’t mind the cold. Below is an assortment of cold-hardy vegetables that are able to tolerate frost. 

Frost is a chaos agent – a pure force of nature that can be sudden, volatile, and unpleasant. When it hits, it can wipe out entire plots of land and unmake months of work. This is where greenhouses and frost covers come into play. Frost covers keep conditions warm and steady, protecting against winter conditions such as heavy rain, high winds, and even golf-ball-sized hail. 

 

Why Frost Improves Flavor

Ironically, heat makes vegetables bitter, while cold makes them sweeter. You can perhaps emulate the effect of a freeze with a household freezer, but it won’t carry the same experience as those naturally left in subzero conditions, as long as it isn’t a hard freeze. 

In general, members of the cabbage family such as kale and Brussels sprouts, taste sweeter after exposure to frost, as do root vegetables. Certain vegetables tend to taste better after a freeze due to their altered chemistry: frost triggers a natural process where they convert starches into sugars to act as an “anti-freeze,” protecting their cells from freezing.

 

1. Carrots

Gardeners need not lament leaving vegetables in the ground. Carrots, embodied in those quintessential orange bites of color, are sweetest after the first frost. This is especially true for varieties like the 'Danvers' or 'Nantes' carrots. Bring out their flavor even further by roasting them and drizzling with honey. 

2. Parsnips 

The clunky, unfavored cousin of carrots, parsnips have a puzzling taste that can be described as earthy. But once roasted and seasoned properly, they should have a mild, carrot-like sweetness that makes them a good substitute for carrots. Along with other root vegetables, they are traditionally eaten during the festive season, having survived the midwinter onslaught. 

3. Cabbage

Cabbage is one of those vegetables that are dreadfully plain, but more tolerable than the sorry looking rutabaga. Cabbage remains a comforting crop, wounding up as the forgotten hero in the refreshingly crisp coleslaw. In the mountains, where remnants of old folk melodies are still sung, cabbage is king, keeping well after the harvest – not necessarily delicious, yet always a staple in the winter diet. Spray with an organic insecticide early on to eliminate cabbage moths. 

4. Spinach   

Spinach is another leafy green that becomes sweeter after frost. Before the frost, spinach tastes bitterly acrid and sometimes even downright inedible, but once exposed to cold temperatures, the flavor softens significantly. The frost enhances its natural sugars and transforms the taste into something milder, making it a good addition to soups and salads. 

 

5.  Leeks

Leeks, closely related to onions, do well in raised garden beds. Compared to the roster of root vegetables and leafy greens, many of which carry the stigma of famine vegetables of last resort, leeks are a welcome addition. Midwinter frost will sweeten its taste, so leave it in the ground until then. The cold weather reduces the sharpness of the leek’s flavor, leaving behind a delicate, onion-like sweetness.   

6. Turnips 

Turnips aren’t anything resembling dessert, and even after a few frosts, most are dubious as to their taste. Yet, there is something endearing about the rotund vegetable, ranging from mauve-red to ivory colored. If you enjoy potatoes, but find them too starchy, one option is to substitute them for turnips. Turnips easily fill in for potatoes – you’ll hardly notice the difference. 

7. Swiss Chard  

Swiss chard is a beautiful green, ribbed with a jumble of colors, from iridescent orange to magenta. Its taste is less exciting, similar to the reviled spinach, but milder – like licking the forest floor, chock full of chocolate-brown dirt. Swiss chard is intended to be eaten with other bites of more savory substances, like pork, and, on the plus side, can be substituted for any recipe that calls for cooked greens. 

8. Celeriac 

Celeriac is rather monstrous looking, though its taste is more subdued, especially after midwinter hits. The French are fond of celeri remoulade, a side salad tossed with a tangy mayonnaise sauce that includes celeriac; it can also be grated into fritters much in the manner of potato fritters.

9. Beets 

Tom Robbins tells readers, “A tale that begins with a beet must end with the devil.” He goes into more poetically aggressive detail, but this snippet, already high note, doesn’t really paint beets in a favorable light – a vegetable associated with harsh winters and melancholy. However, beets do have a few selling points, particularly their nutritional benefits. Roasted beets after frost are tender, sweet, and an unexpected addition to salads, or they can be pureed into soups for a deep, savory flavor.

10. Broccoli and Cauliflower 

Of all the vegetables on the list, broccoli and cauliflower ostensibly rank lowest on the sweetest denominator, with a choppy texture that negates any sweetness. Whether purely psychological or not, some gardeners do attest that broccoli and cauliflower do become more edible after a frost. For this reason, fall harvests are recommended over spring ones.