Vegetable dishes – how to prepare them properly

What’s attractive in vegetable dishes is most of all: their flavour, smell, look and the serving method. When we remember the rule of eating five servings of vegetables and fruit a day, we’ll be giving our bodies what’s best, according to the principles written out below:

• If we buy fresh vegetables, choose the ones that are nicely grown - still firm and ripe. If we buy frozen vegetables, they have to be fully frozen, dry and not stuck together.

• Wash the vegetables and peel them thinly, since it’s under the peel that most nutrients are concentrated.

• When vegetables are peeled, rinse them immediately in clean water, do not soak them. Soaking destroys valuable nutrients (B and C group vitamins are dissolved in water) as well as minerals.

• Leafy vegetables should be washed carefully, the leaves should be separated, the water changed. Drain them and don’t squish them or break the leaves.

• Vegetables, that have been cleaned or cut, should be cooked immediately, placed in a dish of boiling, salty water, or in a steaming dish. It’s a mistake to pour cold water over vegetables to cook them.

Vegetables which contain carotene should be cooked with a little bit of oil, e.g. olive oil. Root vegetables and legumes should be covered when cooking. Vegetables of the cabbage family can be initially cooked in an open pan, but after a few minutes they should be covered.

• Limit cooking times to a minimum. Cook vegetables for a short time at a high temperature, until they get tender.

• It’s best to leave skins or peels on when cooking vegetables for salads and cool them before they’re peeled. 

• Raw vegetable salads should be prepared at the last moment, just prior to serving them

• Every portion of the cut vegetables should be combined with sauce or oil, since covering the vegetables with a thin film, protects them from oxidation.

• Vegetable dishes should be combined with seasoning and herbs, just prior to serving them. If the seasoning ingredients are fresh, they should be cut up or crushed at the very last moment before combining them with the salad vegetables.