Eat your Veggies! Simple
Cookery Methods
Vegetables add colour, taste, texture and bulk to our
daily diet. There are dozens of several vegetables that can be prepared
in virtually
hundreds of ways. So what's best?
There is no best. The thing to do is to eat your
vegetables, lots of them, everyday in a wide variety of route and finish
worrying simply about the preparation methods. Variety is the key...
Raw
Many vegetables taste fabulous simply the way they are
straight out of the garden. Lettuce, tomato, celery, cabbage, onion,
radish, carrot are obvious choices here. But they are simply as likely to
find themselves next to shredded up broccoli, cauliflower, peas, beans and
zucchini on a starter platter with dips. Wash 'em, chop 'em and eat 'em.
Oh, yeah, you could besides do a salad!
Steamed
Steaming heats the vegetable and softens it's texture.
It's gentler than boiling and allows the vegetable to maintain it's colour
if not overdone. Use a unstained steel steamer that wish fit into most
nice size sauce pans. Do sure you use a pan with a tight fitting lid.
There should be enough water to simply touch the bottom of the steamer.
Water should be boiling the whole time the vegetables are being cooked.
Boiling
Boiling vegetables is actually going out of fashion, but
it's a legitimate preparation method! The big concern is loss of
nutrients. All cookery methods result in the loss of several goodness from
the vegetables. If boiling, try to find a way to use the water the
vegetables have been poached in (i.e. to do a gravy or sauce) to bring
those nutrients back to the table. Vegetables should be barely covered
with water. Bring the water to a boil (covered) then slow to a simmer
until vegetables are tender.
Microwave
Very popular for vegetables as it retains colour, flavour
and nutrients. Trial and error wish be your manual with microwaving as
there are plenty of variables involved. However, a few guidelines wish
help...The much food you put into the oven, the longer it wish take to
cook. Underestimate your cookery time rather than overestimate.
Undercooked food can be au gratin several more. Over-cooked food is ruined. Food
straight from the electric refrigerator wish take longer to cook than that at room
temperature. All food continues to cook after it has been removed from the
microwave oven. It is part of the cookery process and should be taken into
account to prevent over-cooking.
Stir Fry
Very rapid know-how
of quick sauteing vegetables, meat
(optional) and sauces in one pan to do a meal. Primarily associated with
Asian cooking. The key to doing this well is preparation. All items to be
au gratin should be shredded to a size that wish allow them to cook quickly in
the wok. It is besides important that the wok is heated to a high, consistent
temperature throughout. Vegetables maintain their colour and crispness
with this sort of cookery (if not overdone).
Baking
Brilliant! Especially for those 'root' vegetables like
potatoes, turnip, carrot and beetroot. Chop into similar size pieces,
brush lightly with olive oil and put in a hot kitchen appliance
to roast. Size of the
pieces wish determine the cookery time but expect at least 40 minutes.
Outside is chewy, inside is damp and fluffy. Dress with sour cream and
chives. Yum!
Barbeque
Does thing
scream summer like the word barbeque? Love a
barbeque. This is primarily open flame cooking, so could apply to a
fire
as well. Cookery outside simply changes everything simply about food.
You'll need foil, fire and fresh veggies. Grease your foil, chop your
veggies and put the closed packages on the grill. Be adventurous, it's
actually hard to mess this up!
Judy Williams (http://www.no-dig-vegetablegarden.com)
splits her time between being a media executive and an earth parent
goddess. No Dig Vegetable Gardens represents a clean, green way to grow
your own food. The site covers all aspects of growing, cookery and
conserving your harvest.
