Boiled vegetables are one of the simplest side dishes. Each hostess prepares them differently. One is soaked in cold water, the other boils in a large amount of water, the third adds soda during cooking. It is important to know how to cook vegetables in order to preserve all the valuable properties and give your favorite dishes an extraordinary taste.
Useful Tips for Cooking Vegetables
Here are some simple rules:
- Cook them in a small amount of water. Ideally, they should be covered about 1 cm. The most proper preparation is steaming. The less water, the more nutrients are saved.
- The larger the vegetables, the less nutrients they lose during the cooking process. It is best to cook them whole and not cut into pieces.
- They need to be laid only in boiling water.
- Vegetable freezing is not necessary before defrosting. She is thrown into frozen water.
- An ideal cookware for cooking is an enameled pan. There should be no defects on it. It is better to close the lid when cooking.
- All vegetables except beets, green beans and green peas should be boiled in slightly salty water (10 g of salt per 1 liter of water). Due to this, potassium salts, which are indispensable for the body, are preserved. Beetroot will lose taste due to salt water, and peas will cook for a very long time.
- They must be laid in order: first, those vegetables that are boiled for the longest.
- Products cooked with peel are best cleaned hot.
- It is not recommended to leave boiled vegetables in water for a long time, as they will become too watery and lose their taste.
- Zucchini, tomatoes, pumpkin and other vegetables that secrete juice should be steamed properly so that they retain their nutritional value and taste.
How to cook vegetables of different colors?
Onions, cauliflower, potatoes, kohlrabi and other white products are dipped in boiling water and cooked over high heat. It is better not to close the lid. After a quarter of an hour, it is better to drain the water a little, then tightly close the lid and boil over low heat. So vegetables do not boil and do not give beneficial properties to water.
Green vegetables (green beans, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, spinach, peas) should be cooked briefly and preferably steamed. If cooked in water, run them in boiling water. So ascorbic acid, which is rich in green vegetables, is less destroyed.
Orange and yellow vegetables contain a lot of carotene. If you digest them, then it will go into the water. In this case, the vegetables themselves will turn pale. Beets are also boiled, only a little lemon juice or acid or vinegar is added to the water. So the beets will remain bright in color. Some add a little sugar to the water (half a teaspoon per liter of water). It will also help preserve the color of vegetables.
How much to cook?
Cooking time for vegetables is as follows:
- Carrots are boiled for 20-25 minutes, if whole. Pieces will be ready faster, after 10-15 minutes. How to cook carrots for salad? The ideal cooking time is 20 minutes. Readiness can be checked by piercing the product with a fork. If pierced easily, then carrots are ready.
- Beets are cooked for 40-45 minutes. It is not necessary to clean the root crop before cooking. The smaller the size of the fetus, the faster it will boil.
- Broccoli is cooked for 5-7 minutes if it is fresh. The frozen product takes a little longer to cook - 12-15 minutes.
- The potato will be ready in 20-25 minutes after you have thrown it into the water.
- Corn is best cooked without peeling leaves. You can also put a few leaves on the bottom of the pan. So it will be more fragrant. Young corn is cooked for 10-15 minutes, and the old ears need to be boiled for about 1.5-2 hours.
- Fresh white cabbage is boiled for 10-20 minutes. Before cooking, it must first be cut into small pieces.
- Tomatoes on borsch are cooked for a quarter of an hour, on mashed potatoes - 45 minutes, for tomato juice - 10 minutes.
Cooking in a slow cooker
How to cook vegetables in a slow cooker? You can cook them in the bowl itself, in a saucepan or steamed. To do this, you need a steaming bowl. Vegetables are laid out on it, several glasses of water are poured down. The steam cooker mode is set, time, the lid closes and soon everything will be ready.
How many steamed vegetables? It takes about 45 minutes for beets, 15 minutes for carrots, and 20 minutes for potatoes. Vegetables prepared in this way will contain the maximum amount of useful properties. Just make sure that the water from the bowl does not boil and, if necessary, top it up.
How to cook frozen vegetables?
They are frozen by shock freezing. Such vegetables contain as many vitamins as in fresh ones. Before cooking, they must be divided so that they are not prepared with a single block of ice. So vegetables are cooked unevenly or undercooked. You can add herbs or your favorite seasonings to the water.
Sliced carrots, any kind of cabbage, zucchini cook for about 5-7 minutes. String beans, corn will be ready in 3-5 minutes, and spinach - 1-2 minutes.
You can also boil a frozen product in the microwave. To do this, put them in a heat-resistant container designed for a microwave, close the lid, but leave a small hole for the steam to exit and set at full power for 4-5 minutes. If after this time the vegetables are still not ready, turn on the microwave for another couple of minutes.
If you know how to cook vegetables, you can keep all the vitamins and beneficial properties to the maximum.