Ardo

Ardo is a Belgian company from West Flanders that grows, picks and quick-freezes vegetables, herbs and fruit for kitchens across Europe, with its own UK business handling supply here. The idea is simple: vegetables frozen within hours of picking keep their colour, bite and flavour, and they arrive without the trimming, podding and washing that fresh produce asks for.

Every Ardo pack we carry sits in frozen vegetables, within the frozen vegetables and coconut section of our frozen department. The range covers medium garden peas, cut green beans, sweetcorn kernels and cut okra, plus spinach in two forms, chopped and whole leaf, both frozen in small portions so you take out only what a dish needs.

Frozen okra, known as bhindi in Hindi and Urdu and vendakkai in Tamil, saves the slow job of washing, drying and topping every pod. Cook it from frozen in a hot pan with onion, turmeric and amchoor for a dry bhindi masala, or simmer it in a Sri Lankan vendakkai curry with coconut milk. The spinach portions go straight into saag, palak paneer or a dal palak, and a few go into a Tamil keerai masiyal. Peas belong in matar pulao, aloo matar and keema matar; green beans make a Kerala beans thoran with grated coconut; sweetcorn suits a quick corn chaat with lime and chilli.

Keep the bags at -18°C, close them again after use and cook the vegetables thoroughly before eating. For shelf stable alternatives in the cupboard, see tinned sweetcorn, peas and mushrooms and tinned saag and spinach.