Eat your Veggies! Simple Cooking Methods
Vegetables add colour, taste, texture and bulk to our daily diet. There are dozens of different vegetables that can be prepared in literally hundreds of ways. So what's best?
There is no best. The thing to do is to eat your vegetables, lots of them, every day in a wide variety of ways and stop worrying about the preparation methods. Variety is the key...
Raw
Many vegetables taste fabulous just the way they are straight out of the garden. Lettuce, tomato, celery, cabbage, onion, radish, carrot are obvious choices here. But they are just as likely to find themselves next to chopped up broccoli, cauliflower, peas, beans and zucchini on a starter platter with dips. Wash 'em, chop 'em and eat 'em. Oh, yeah, you could also make a salad!
Steamed
Steaming heats the vegetable and softens its texture. It's gentler than boiling and allows the vegetable to maintain its colour if not overdone. Use a stainless steel steamer that will fit into most good size sauce pans. Make sure you use a pan with a tight fitting lid. There should be enough water to just touch the bottom of the steamer. Water should be simmering the whole time the vegetables are being cooked.
Boiling
Boiling vegetables is really going out of fashion, but it's a legitimate preparation method! The big concern is loss of nutrients. All cooking methods result in the loss of some goodness from the vegetables. If boiling, try to find a way to use the water the vegetables have been boiled in (i.e. to make 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 will be your guide with microwaving as there are plenty of variables involved. However, a few guidelines will help...The more food you put into the oven, the longer it will take to cook. Underestimate your cooking time rather than overestimate. Undercooked food can be cooked some more. Over-cooked food is ruined. Food straight from the fridge will 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 cooking process and should be taken into account to prevent over-cooking.
Stir Fry
Very rapid method of quick frying vegetables, meat (optional) and sauces in one pan to make a meal. Primarily associated with Asian cooking. The key to doing this well is preparation. All items to be cooked should be chopped to a size that will allow them to cook quickly in the wok. It is also important that the wok is heated to a high, consistent temperature throughout. Vegetables maintain their colour and crispness with this sort of cooking (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 oven to roast. Size of the pieces will determine the cooking time but expect at least 40 minutes. Outside is chewy, inside is moist and fluffy. Dress with sour cream and chives. Yum!
Barbeque
Does anything scream summer like the word barbeque? Love a barbeque. This is primarily open flame cooking, so could apply to a campfire as well. Cooking outside just changes everything 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 really hard to mess this up!
Judy Williams (http://www.no-dig-vegetablegarden.com) splits her time between being a media executive and an earth mother goddess. No Dig Vegetable Gardens represents a clean, green way to grow your own food. The site covers all aspects of growing, cooking and preserving your harvest.
Eat your Veggies! Simple Cooking Methods - By Bill Robinson - Homepage
Tips in Finding Easy and Quick Summer Recipes
But how do you come up with the suitable recipes for the summer? There are many avenues that you may start looking into. The idea here is to find the kinds if stuff that is easy to prepare and will taste good as well. So how do you begin your search? Here are some ideas to help you get started.
1. While doing your groceries, find out the products that contain promo materials. Usually, the ones that you can include on your summer recipes will also contain ideas that they will give you for free if you will avail their products. You will also find some of the recipes at the back of the food labels. You can ask around at the groceries for such promos. You can also gather such information from TV ads. Just bear in mind the products which you ought to get because of the free recipes that it contains that will suit the sunny weather.
2. Ask your friends to give you recommendations in this regard. You must not be shy in asking people what they prepare when the weather is hot. You will be amazed at the precious finds that you will be able to discover by asking around. And because you will be asking people that you know, you can have them explain to you the steps on how to create the recipes. This way, it will be easier for you to come up with their recommendations. And there will be lesser rooms for errors once you start on this venture.
3. You can also invest on good recipe books. Or you can also check out bargain book shops for good finds. You must browse through the books while you are still at the store. This way, you will be able to gauge what you can do depending on your capabilities as a cook and how much time you have on your hands. If you don't want to buy your own, you can go at your local library and copy the recipes on books that will fit such purpose.
4. You must also take advantage of the Internet and browse through the available recipes that you can use for this purpose. You have to bear in mind that this will give you vast results. Do not get too excited. If there are user ratings on the recipes provided, you must take time to read those. It will give you clear idea if it's worth taking the chance of creating the recipe. You must learn from other people's experiences so that you won't have to go through the mistakes that they have done when they tried the provided recipe.
Once you have a good list of easy and quick summer recipes, you must proceed in learning all those even if it is still not summertime. This way, you will be able to serve what your family deserves when it is already time to have these done.
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