Prepping veggies page

[JamieRose]

I buy different types of veggies depending on my budget, what's in season, cost, etc. Sometimes I buy organic, sometimes not, and sometimes frozen. My question is this: How do you prep your veggies before you cook and eat them? Do you treat organic vegetables differently than non-organic, and do you treat those differently than frozen?

[iniQuity]

Nope. I'm very basic at my cooking level though so I just chop what needs to be chopped, peel what needs to be peeled and I leave alone what's already set, spinach for instance I just wash. Umm, I should probably wash all of them now that I think about it, but meh.

[JamieRose]

By wash, do you mean just rinse, or something more intensive?


I just rinse all of mine, but I'm not sure if I should be doing something more or just not bothering.

[stryker902]

i like to steam them, bought a steamer. sometimes stir fry them, and now and again baked

[iniQuity]

I meant just rinse, my mom always rinses her so monkey see monkey do. I don't think you need to worry about the cleanliness of them much further. Like I said, the only thing I worry about rinsing is spinach but that's because sometimes there's visible dirt on it, if there isn't I don't bother with that either.


How do you like your veggies? I mostly stir fry/sautee mine. Sometimes for a more "steamed" feel I just do a slow sautee using coconut milk, when I fry I use coconut oil or bacon grease. I don't like doing veggies in bacon grease though, don't exactly love the taste.

[anniegebel]

I like roasted veggies, some of them steamed over chicken broth, raw for others. I recently found that leftover brussel spouts are really good with fried eggs and bacon!


But as for treating frozen, organic, fresh, non-organic differently...I've always cooked (in some fashion) anything I buy frozen, but that's really the only difference.

[JamieRose]

I almost always sautee mine. I rinse frozen veggies in cold water for a few minutes first, though. I rinse all of them but it's such a pain in the arse. I'm not a big fan of them in bacon grease either, I prefer coconut oil.


Anniegebel, do you rinse or clean the veggies you cook, or do you not bother since you're cooking them anyways?

[iniQuity]

At the restaurant I work at I've noticed the cooks will boil some heads of broccoli then put them in an ice bath. Usually just for the day but I wonder how well that would work for more than one day... anybody ever tried pre-cooking vegetables to store them cold for later use?

[adamsaysyo]

a few of you said you don't like your bacon grease and veggies - but when trying to cook with bacon grease for the first time yesterday, i cooked thin asparagus with olive oil, butter & bacon grease with some garlic and chopped up cashews... it was ..wow! Pretty darn good!

[anniegebel]

I've never rinsed anything frozen. The fresh stuff I usually look at. I tend to be looking more for the grit (that I don't want to eat, or too much shine. If I see one of those...it gets at least wiped down if not rinsed.


@iniQuity...are the heads of broccoli only partially cooked, then? How do they reheat? I've heard of ice baths to stop the cooking process and retain bright colors, but not as storage...I'm curious!