As the cost of living crisis deepens and food prices continue to rise, UK shoppers are switching from fresh to frozen food to keep their spending down. According to data from research firm Kantar, sales of frozen food are outstripping fresh in UK supermarkets. The cheaper price isn't the only good thing about frozen food – it's often as nutritious as fresh, helps prevent food waste, and means you can always have ingredients on hand. To help you choose what to buy, we've ranked the best frozen foods of all time, with tips on how to use them.

Fresh cherries have a short season and spoil quickly, so enterprising growers came up with the idea of freezing their surplus fruits. What's more, they're already pitted for you, and they're still high in vitamins A and C. You can use frozen cherries in desserts or cakes instead of fresh. Try our cherry and almond tart, with a sweet pastry and rich almond frangipane – it's perfect served just warm with a dollop of whipped cream.

Get the recipe for cherry and almond tart here

These immature soybeans were first cultivated in China centuries ago, but it wasn't until the 20th century that they began to appear in the UK and Europe. They're now readily available frozen, either in the pod or podded. High in protein, they're a great addition to noodle bowls, stir-fries and salads. Have a go at this miso-crusted salmon with rice and vegetables.

Get the recipe for miso-crusted salmon with rice and vegetables here

A very British accompaniment to a Sunday roast, these crispy batter puddings were commercially made frozen for Butlins holiday camps in 1974. In 1995, the brand Aunt Bessie's began supplying them to supermarkets as a bake-from-frozen time-saver, to resounding success.

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Frozen roast potatoes first appeared commercially in the UK in 1999, made by the brand Aunt Bessie's. They can be cooked from frozen in around 25 minutes, with a perfectly crisp exterior and a fluffy interior. Try adding some chopped rosemary, smoked paprika or garlic powder to jazz them up. They're especially useful for smaller households, and to save time.

In 1905, 11-year-old Frank Epperson left a cup with powdered soda, water and a stirring stick on his porch in San Francisco. Cold overnight temperatures caused it to freeze, and his 'Epsicle' was born. He launched it in California in 1923, after his kids persuaded him to call it a 'popsicle'. Ice lollies are now a sweet treat enjoyed on sunny days in countries around the world.

Highly nutritious, broccoli is one of the best-selling frozen vegetables around. Convenient and quick to prepare, it can be served as a side, added to soups, quiches and salads, used in a stir-fry, or roasted, like in our Chinese-style broccoli recipe. Try it – it's packed with sweet and savoury flavours.

Get the recipe for Chinese-style roasted broccoli here

You can buy frozen onions pre-chopped or sliced, making them perfect for sensitive eyes or time-poor cooks. But the best ones of all are frozen pearl or pickling onions, which are fiddly to peel when fresh. Use them in our beef stifado recipe: a tasty, slow-cooked Greek stew with tomatoes, spices, red wine and pearl onions.

Get the recipe for beef stifado here

Frozen mixed vegetables have been a freezer staple since the 1950s. An easy way to get your five-a-day, they're handy for adding to stir-fries and soups, or serving up as a simple side. Try them in our vegetable pulao recipe, a spiced rice dish with chillies, cardamom, ginger and garlic. It's an easy dish that's full of flavour, and it's ready in under an hour.

Get the recipe for vegetable pulao here

Raspberries are frozen within a few hours of picking, so they retain all their nutritional content. Fresh raspberries don't have a long fridge life, so it's worth having a bag in the freezer, especially when they're out of season. Use them from frozen in our delectably gooey chocolate and raspberry cheesecake brownie recipe.

Get the recipe for chocolate and raspberry cheesecake brownies here

Top-quality frozen scallops are a great buy, as they're often hard to track down fresh. Remember to defrost them in the fridge before using them, and pat them dry before cooking. Adding a sprinkling of salt to your scallops once thawed will draw out any excess moisture. For a tasty starter, try our recipe for scallops wrapped in Parma Ham, drizzled with a balsamic glaze.

Get the recipe for scallops with Parma Ham here

Fresh squash takes time to chop up, especially if your knives aren't very sharp – so frozen, pre-prepared squash is one of the most useful vegetables to have in the freezer. You can use it in soups, roast it, add it to salads, make it into a purée, or even use it in a tasty twist on classic macaroni cheese.

Get the recipe for butternut squash mac 'n' cheese here

Whether it's patisserie, bread or pizza dough, this section of the freezer aisle has grown rapidly over the past 20 years, with ever more innovative and exciting products available to buy. The waft of a freshly baked loaf (especially one that has taken zero effort to make) is always a winner. Try using frozen bread dough to make our moreish bacon and Cheddar loaves. You'll need 500g (18oz) of raw dough.

Get the recipe for bacon and Cheddar loaves here

Which household with children doesn't have a bag of breaded chicken in the freezer? The chicken nugget was invented by Robert C. Baker, a food science professor at Cornell University in the 1950s. Try a change from tomato ketchup by serving them with a zingy blue cheese dip.

Get the recipe for blue cheese dip here

Most prawns that are sold frozen are farmed – but look out for wild-caught shellfish from South America, which are fat and juicy. A classic addition to anyone's freezer, frozen prawns have so many uses. You can try them in salads, fish cakes, curries, noodle bowls, stir-fries, and in our recipe for spicy prawn and tomato stew: a hot, garlicky dish from Palestine.

Get the recipe for spicy prawn and tomato stew here

A soft-serve dessert similar to ice cream, frozen yogurt was first developed in the 1970s by entrepreneur H.P. Hood. After noticing that consumers wanted a healthier alternative to ice cream, a company called TCBY opened a frozen yogurt shop, which subsequently developed into a large chain. Frozen yogurt is now one of the top sellers in the frozen dessert category.

Having observed the Inuit people preserving their fish on ice in Canada, Clarence Birdseye was inspired to create a fast-freezing method to preserve food. The first machine he designed, in 1924, was created to freeze haddock fillets. It wasn't until after the Second World War, when freezers were more affordable, that domestic consumption of frozen food took off.

You can buy frozen sweetcorn as kernels or whole cobs, and it tastes as good as fresh. To cook it straight from the freezer, either sauté or stir-fry it – never boil it. It works a treat in our creamy, warming sweetcorn and seafood chowder recipe.

Get the recipe for sweetcorn and seafood chowder here

Fresh spinach can be gritty and needs careful washing – plus, you'll need a huge amount of it to make a decent soup. On the other hand, the flavour of frozen spinach is more intense than fresh, and you can easily portion it out with no waste. Give our excellent (and speedy) spinach orecchiette recipe a go; adding a little cream, some Parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil to pasta makes it into the perfect midweek meal.

Get the recipe for spinach orecchiette here

Italian immigrants brought ice cream to the UK and US, though it has been around for centuries. Once a luxury, it became a freezer staple in the 1950s when domestic refrigeration became more affordable. Ben & Jerry's is one of the biggest brands in both countries, yet despite their huge range of flavours, ice creams with chocolate, vanilla and strawberry in them remain favourites.

Get the recipe for ice cream meringue cake here

It's widely believed that the ready meal was created by American salesman Gerry Thomas, whose company Swanson was left with a massive amount of turkey after Thanksgiving. Taking inspiration from the way meals were served on airlines, the first 'TV dinner' was turkey, gravy, sweet potato, cornbread stuffing and peas – and 10 million of them were sold. Other competitors followed suit, into a market where innovation never ceases to this day. 

The frozen pizza market in the UK is worth around £570 million ($708 million), and rising. Cheese and pepperoni are still the bestsellers, with global consumer trends showing a preference for thick crusts. There's also a growing trend for sourdough bases, and for plant-based and vegan pizzas.

Take a look at the incredible history of pizza

The quality of meat used in beef burgers has improved dramatically in recent years. To accompany your burger, try our recipe for burger sauce, inspired by the sauce found in a McDonald's Big Mac – it's so easy!

Get the recipe for Big Max burger sauce here

We have, once again, Clarence Birdseye to thank for this invention, which came to market in 1955. Fish fingers are the best-selling frozen fish product in the UK. Loved by children and adults alike, they're an easy and tasty way to incorporate fish into your diet. Our recipe for fish finger tacos ups the ante with avocado cream and a watermelon and chilli salsa.

Get the recipe for fish finger tacos here

Where would we be without a bag of these in the freezer? Whether you prefer French fries, chunky chips, oven chips or crinkle-cut, buying them frozen takes all the hassle out of making your own. Recent innovations follow the cheffy trend of triple-cooked chips, which are chunky, light and fluffy on the inside, and crisp on the outside. McCain Foods, a Canadian company founded in 1957, is the world's biggest supplier of frozen chips and potato products.

In the 1920s, Clarence Birdseye discovered that quickly blanching and flash-freezing fresh peas preserved their flavour and vivid green colour. To this day, peas are frozen within a few hours of harvest, so they're invariably fresher than any you'd find elsewhere in the shops. Try them in our creamy, sweet and salty pea, Parma Ham and feta quiche.

Get the recipe for pea, Parma Ham and feta quiche here