Cooking vegetables may seem the most straightforward operation in the kitchen, even for those who are not very practical in the kitchen, and instead, they risk making disasters. The risk is to cook the vegetables too much or too little, not to make the right combinations, especially to lose part or all of their nutritional power. Let’s see how to best cook these diet foods thanks to tips and tricks and maybe make them attractive to our children.
The Most Practical Tricks For Cooking Vegetables
The first trick to cooking vegetables is to understand their cooking times. Many vegetables are preferably eaten raw so as not to lose their taste and keep their vitamin and protein intake unaltered. Furthermore, the heat of cooking, even that of boiled vegetables, causes the loss of a critical component such as chlorophyll, essential for its magnesium content. So the trick is to respect the cooking times almost to the letter by throwing them in abundant, boiling and already salted water. In principle, the times are these:
- 4-5 minutes: spinach, chard leaves;
- 6-7 minutes: broccoli, sliced ​​cabbage;
- 10 minutes: Brussels sprouts, asparagus, chard ribs, turnips;
- 15 minutes: cauliflower, fennel, pumpkin cut into pieces, courgettes, green beans, small potatoes;
- 30-40 minutes: medium potatoes, artichokes, carrots, onions, celeriac;
- 50-60 minutes: thistles, beets.
Once these minutes have passed, the vegetables should be drained and immediately poured into a bowl full of ice water to block the cooking process and keep the chlorophyll at maximum and the nutritional power.
Boiled Or Fried, Here Are The Tricks For Vegetables
But there are other easy tricks for cooking vegetables and having a particular result. First of all, vegetables should not be sliced ​​and cut well before their cooking because they could lose all or part of their nutrients due to contact with air and light.
If the vegetables are cooked in a pan, before cooking them, they must be dried well because they are already naturally rich in water and therefore risk being boiled even if that is not our intention.
In addition, vegetables already have their natural flavor, so they should not be covered with an excess of salt or oil during cooking.
And again, if the vegetables are served to fry, you must prepare a batter that does not come off, possibly based on sparkling water or strictly cold beer together with the flour, and you must use oil of good if not excellent quality as extra virgin olive oil. Olives.
Blanching Before Cooking
Another exciting trick for cooking vegetables is to cook them in boiling water before putting them in the pan. A short passage for the tomatoes and peppers, from 20 to 30 seconds, will allow you to easily peel the peel that can be indigestible, while with bitter-flavored vegetables such as endive and chicory, endive boiling them in advance reduces the intense flavor. But even the baked potatoes must be cooked for a few minutes: they will lose some of the starch and, therefore, be more crunchy.
Finally, when grilling vegetables, the trick is not to slice them thicker than 3-5 millimeters and lightly salt the grill before placing the vegetables, releasing some water and avoiding burning. We conclude by recommending the reading of a site dedicated exclusively to how to cook vegetables: Vegetable appetizers, first courses with vegetables, second courses with vegetables.
ALSO READ: HOW TO EAT A HEALTHY AND CHEAP DIET!