Know Your Vegetables
Cooking Skills: Vegetables 1
Chapter 1 · Know Your Vegetables
Shopping list for this chapter
The basics
Vegetables are the cheapest way to make a meal healthier and more interesting, and most are cooked badly because nobody explained the first step. This chapter is about choosing, storing, washing and preparing, and what frozen and tinned vegetables are good for. The rest of the course is about cooking methods.
How many portions?
The NHS 5 A Day advice is at least five 80 g portions of fruit and vegetables a day. A portion is the same weight for fresh, frozen or tinned (tinned in water, with no added salt or sugar, is the best choice). Potatoes don't count towards your five (they count as starchy food), and beans and pulses count only once however many you eat. A larger helping of salad or leafy greens is easy to eat; roughly a dessert bowl of salad leaves or about three heaped tablespoons of cooked vegetables is a portion.
Buying
- Firm and heavy for their size is the rule for most: carrots, courgettes, peppers, onions, squash.
- Bright colour, no slime or mould: leaves should be crisp, not limp, and cut ends should look fresh.
- Buy in season when you can; it is usually cheaper and tastes better.
- Ugly vegetables are fine. Odd shapes taste the same. Use the freezer for any you cannot finish.
Storing
- Don't wash before storing (except salad leaves you will use at once): damp vegetables rot. Wash just before cooking.
- Leaves keep best wrapped loosely in a clean cloth or paper towel in a bag, in the salad drawer.
- Potatoes go in a cool, dark, dry place, not the fridge. The Food Standards Agency advises this because fridge-stored potatoes make more acrylamide when fried or roasted.
- Check regularly and remove any that are turning, as rot spreads.
Washing and preparing
Wash vegetables under cold running water, scrubbing roots with a brush. For grit in leaves (spinach, leeks), swish them in a bowl of cold water and lift them out, leaving the grit behind. There is no need for special washes. Then trim, peel if needed, and cut into even pieces.
Peel or not? The skin of carrots, courgettes, cucumbers, potatoes, parsnips, aubergines and many other vegetables is edible and holds fibre and nutrients, so a good scrub often replaces peeling. Peel when the skin is tough or waxy (butternut squash, swede, celeriac, older parsnips), bitter, or damaged.
Frozen and tinned
| Kind | Good for | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Frozen (peas, sweetcorn, spinach, broccoli, green beans) | Cooking from frozen; soups, stews, stir-fries; cheap, and often frozen soon after picking | Don't thaw and refreeze; cook to steaming hot; check the pack for how to cook |
| Tinned (tomatoes, sweetcorn, chickpeas, beans) | Sauces, soups, stews; a store-cupboard standby | Pick those in water or juice with no added salt or sugar; drain and rinse beans |
| Fresh | Everything, in season, when you want crunch, colour or flavour | Spoils faster; buy what you will use |
Frozen peas, spinach and sweetcorn are often better than the tired fresh ones in the shop, and tinned tomatoes are better than pale winter tomatoes for sauces.
Try it
Raw vegetable platter with two dips
Raw vegetables show you what each one tastes like before any cooking. The platter alone is well over two portions of your five a day (an 80 g portion is roughly a dessert bowl of salad, or about three heaped tablespoons of chopped vegetables).
Ingredients (2 portions)
- 1 carrot
- ½ cucumber
- 1 pepper (any colour)
- 4 radishes
- 100 g sugar snap peas or broccoli florets
- 100 g hummus
- 100 g plain yoghurt
- 1 tbsp chopped mint or chives
- 1 pinch salt and pepper
- Wash the vegetables under cold running water, scrubbing the carrot and radishes with a brush if they have soil on them.
- Cut the carrot into sticks, the cucumber into thick coins or sticks, and the pepper into strips. Halve the radishes. Leave the sugar snap peas whole or break the broccoli into small florets.
- Stir the herbs, salt and pepper into the yoghurt for the second dip. Serve it with the hummus.
- Taste each vegetable on its own first, then with a dip. Write down what you notice.
Quick-pickled cucumber
A quick pickle needs no canning. Thin slices sit in a warm brine and are ready in an hour, crisp and sharp.
Ingredients (4 portions)
- 1 cucumber
- 100 ml white wine or cider vinegar
- 50 ml water
- 1 tbsp sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp dill, mustard seeds or peppercorns (optional)
- Wash the cucumber and slice it into thin coins, about 3 mm.
- Warm the vinegar, water, sugar and salt in a small pan, stirring, until the sugar and salt dissolve. Don't boil it for long.
- Put the cucumber and any flavourings into a clean jar or bowl, and pour over the warm brine. Let it cool, then chill for at least 1 hour.
- Keep it in the fridge and eat within about 1 week. It is a quick pickle, not a preserved one.
Shaved vegetable salad
A vegetable peeler turns firm vegetables into ribbons that soften in the dressing. It is a cut and a cooking-free method in one.
Ingredients (2 portions)
- 1 medium courgette
- 1 medium carrot
- ½ fennel bulb (optional)
- 1 handful rocket or salad leaves
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp grated hard cheese (optional)
- 1 pinch salt and pepper
- Wash the courgette and carrot. Trim the ends. Trim and halve the fennel if you are using it.
- With a peeler, shave the courgette and carrot into long ribbons, turning them as you go. Slice the fennel as thin as you can.
- Toss the ribbons with the leaves, oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Top with cheese. Eat within about 10 minutes, while crisp.
Raw or roasted? A comparison plate
Taking the same three vegetables raw and roasted on one plate teaches more than any description. Set the oven to 200°C (180°C fan).
Ingredients (2 portions)
- 2 carrots
- 150 g broccoli florets
- 1 red pepper
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 pinch salt and pepper
- Wash and cut the vegetables into even pieces, carrots into batons, broccoli into florets and the pepper into strips. Keep half of each raw.
- Toss the other half in the oil, salt and pepper, and spread them in a single layer on a tray. Roast for 20 to 25 minutes, turning once, until tender with golden edges.
- Serve raw and roasted together. Taste a raw and a roasted piece of each, one vegetable at a time.
- Note the differences in sweetness, bitterness and texture.
Experiments
Fridge or worktop: tomatoes
Does cold change the flavour?
- Buy 4 ripe tomatoes of the same kind. Keep 2 in the fridge and 2 on the worktop for 2 days.
- Bring the fridge ones to room temperature, then taste a slice of each, with a pinch of salt.
Look for: Cold dulls the flavour and softens the texture; many people find the worktop tomatoes sweeter and fuller. Note if you agree.
Peeled or unpeeled carrot
Is the skin worth keeping?
- Scrub 2 carrots. Peel one and leave the other unpeeled.
- Roast or taste them side by side, raw and cooked.
Look for: A scrubbed carrot has a little more earthy flavour and a bit more chew. Peeled is smoother and sweeter. Decide which you prefer.
Washing leaves
What does swishing remove?
- Put a handful of unwashed spinach or leeks in a bowl of cold water and swish.
- Look at the water, then lift out the leaves and look at the bottom of the bowl.
Look for: Soil and grit sink to the bottom. This is what you are eating if you don't wash leaves.
Fresh or frozen peas
Which is better?
- Cook a handful of fresh peas and a handful of frozen peas for the same time in simmering water (about 3 minutes).
- Compare colour, sweetness and texture.
Look for: Frozen peas are often sweeter and brighter than fresh peas that have sat in the shop for days. Fresh, in season and just picked, may win.
Tasting notes
| What I tried | Method or amount | What I saw | What I thought | Will I do it again? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raw vegetable platter | ||||
| Quick-pickled cucumber | ||||
| Shaved vegetable salad | ||||
| Raw vs roasted | ||||
| Fridge vs worktop tomatoes | ||||
| Peeled vs unpeeled carrot | ||||
| Washing leaves | ||||
| Fresh vs frozen peas |
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Limp vegetables | Old, or stored without moisture | Revive carrots and celery in cold water; cook the rest in soup |
| Gritty leaves | Not washed enough | Swish in a bowl of cold water and lift out; repeat |
| Mouldy or slimy vegetables | Stored damp | Bin them; keep dry and check regularly |
| Bitter taste | Old, or the skin | Peel; try a pinch of salt or a little sweetness |
| Vegetables rotting fast | Stored with ethylene-producing fruit or too warm | Keep apart from apples and bananas; use the fridge or a cool cupboard |
Hygiene: wash vegetables that you will eat raw, and wash your hands, boards and knives after handling raw meat, fish or eggs. Packs of salad leaves labelled ready to eat do not need washing again unless the pack says to; follow the pack. For any other leaves and vegetables, wash them under cold running water. Washing removes soil and some germs but is not a guarantee, which is why vegetables that are risky raw (see the sprouts note) are cooked.
Sprouts: bean sprouts, alfalfa and other raw sprouted seeds grow in warm, damp conditions where germs thrive, and washing doesn't reliably remove them. Food-safety advice in several countries is that pregnant women, young children, older people and anyone with a weakened immune system should eat sprouts only when they have been cooked until steaming hot all the way through. This is general advice and I haven't checked the current UK Food Standards Agency wording, so look at their website if it applies to you.
Leftovers: cool cooked vegetables quickly (within 1 to 2 hours), keep them covered in the fridge, and eat within 2 days. Reheat until steaming hot all the way through, and only once.
- I know that five 80 g portions a day is the aim, and what counts.
- I know where each kind of vegetable is best stored.
- I wash vegetables properly and know when not to wash.
- I can decide when to peel and when to scrub.
- I know when frozen and tinned are the better choice.