How to cook Vegetables.

You might think this is a useless topic. Oh I disagree. As someone who can’t eat meat, let me assure you, people do not know how to cook vegetables. Or, they only know one or two tasteless ways. Not eating meat has many plights.

First, no one invites you for dinner., Here’s what happens: We’re visiting with friends when the husband says, “We’ll have to have you  over for dinner, soon.” 

Wife smiles but kicks her husband under the table. She grits her teeth, “Yes, we’ll check our calendar” and her eyes say “What in the world would I feed this woman?”

And if they do invite us, I get a plate of soggy veggies that look and taste like they went through the dishwasher; while everyone else has a sumptuous dinner.”  Then rather than be rude I slide the mushy peas and carrots down my throat.

I have found before attending social or business dinners, it’s just easier if I eat before going to dinner. Whether I pre-order a vegetarian meal or try my luck with whatever’s for dinner, no one at the table is able to ignore someone who doesn’t dig into the meat.

Man A says scornfully, “Don’t you eat meat?”  meaning what kinda nut job are you?

Man B says hopefully. “Aren’t you going to eat that?”  Meaning I hope she gives it to me.

Turns out men are perfectly willing to eat off a stranger’s plate if the meat looks tasty enough.

Woman A says, feeling guiltily “I should eat less meat”, counting  the calories of her filet in her head.
Woman B  starts a discussion of why don’t I eat meat. Stopping otherwise interesting table talk into guilt, or cruelty to animals or “What do you eat?” and other tension creating subjects.

So, whether you  want to eat more vegetables or want to  know what to cook when one of those odd-ball vegetarians darkens your  dinner table, here’s a resource of how to cook vegetables

Think TENT

Taste –

 They are veggies but it helps if they have a good taste

Ease – Chopping and peeling  raw, fresh vegetables can be time consuming. Frozen veggies are a good choice, but please, not those canned things.

Nutrition

 - After all, isn’t this why we eat those green and orange things?

Time

 – In general, cooking time is less than for meat but prep time can take a while.

Notice there is no C –Calories.  Yes, veggies have calories but they offer redeeming value of fiber and health benefits.  Unless you’re on a really strict diet (perish the word). I don’t count these calories. You can if you want.  And some cooking techniques will add calories. (Which is why I am not including fried methods)

In order of my preference the cooking choices are:

Boil

Microwave

Steam

Blanch

Saute

Roast

Grill.

Boil.

Put the Corn, Carrots, broccoli, beans, peas, whatever into boiling water. This will cook them, and if you cook them very long they’ll get soggy.  Usually the only seasoning is salt. Plus   most of the nutrition will leach out into the water which gets poured down the drain. Yuck.

Microwave and Steaming give similar results.

To microwave, put veggies into a microwave safe bowl with  just a bit of water. Add Salt, butter, whatever you like and cover.
To Steam you need a steamer which sits inside the pot, just over the water, And cover with lid. Season as desired.

Or they have those fancy “steamed vegetables in a bag” in the frozen food department. But for a fraction of the cost you can get the same results with your own fresh or frozen vegetables.

              Whether steaming or microwaving, you control the time to avoid soggy veggies, unless you like soggy veggies, although I can’t imagine why you would.  This is easy and you keep the nutrition intact

Blanch.  This is just a fancy way to say boil for a quick minute or two. Generally you’ll use this if you want to soften the vegetable a bit before adding to a salad, pasta, or roasting.  And if you want to peel a tomato, blanch it first and the skin peels right off.  This doesn’t really cook the vegetable.

Saute. Heat a wide pan, add olive oil, butter, canola oil, whatever you like. Sounds like they’ll taste better already, don’t they? You can cook one type of vegetable this way. Like summer squash cut into coins, sliced carrots, garlic, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, peppers,  broccoli, spinach, etc..  You control how well you want the food cooked.   I like to combine several vegetables when I sauté. For example, garlic, onions, zucchini, peppers, mushrooms and tomatoes. Put  the ones that take the longest to cook in first, then add the others as you go along. Season with salt, pepper and other spices like thyme, basil, oregano, tarragon, dill.  At this point you can sprinkle with cheese, or grate some parmesan over the dish. Add some cooked pasta or rice, stir around and you have a wonderful side dish.

Roast. Usually you will roast hard vegetables like winter squash, sweet potatoes, white potatoes , pumpkin,, carrots, turnips, These are often called root vegetables, even though all vegetables had roots at one time. You can also roast broccoli, onion, kale, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, asparagus. These come out crisp and carmelized.. Some people say this brings out the sweetness, but don’t get you hopes up. They’ll taste good but won’t taste like a chocolate chip cookie.

               To Roast, slice in uniform sizes, place into casserole dish. Pour olive oil, add salt, pepper, maybe some garlic or other spices if you like. Stir all around and put into an oven. Heat can run from 350 – 425.  The hotter the oven, the quicker they’ll cook and the quicker they’ll burn too. I can’t tell you how long they’ll take, depends on the oven and the veggies and your preference. Can take from 10 minutes to 40 minutes. Sorry, One of these days I’ll come up with specific recipes for specific vegetables.

Grilling.  Here you can join the world of normal people in the summer time.  Approach as you would roasting . Slather with olive oil and seasonings and put on the grill.  I use a metal grill basket. This prevents the vegetables from touching the grates where the meat was cooked, and keeps the vegetables from falling into the coals too.  You can eat the veggies simply grilled, or cool and add to salad, or toss h into freshly cooked pasta with olive oil and then grate parmesan cheese over.

Now, That is what I’d like to eat if you invite me over for dinner. I’m free next Tuesday.

Non Cow Burger

Giving up meat means missing some of your favorites, like cow burgers. (What? they’re not made of ham.)  So, I was asked to suggest a recipe for a veggie burger, Lots of places serve them, Lots of stores sell them. Soy, tofu, runny beans, really? No wonder people don’t want to go vegetarian.

However I remember my first bite of a veggie burger.  You always remember your first. . . No, really,  The first bite of anything is always the best. Think of a dish you had somewhere, it was GREAT..  But the next time you tried it, it was good or great but not GREAT!. At one time you loved your new shoes when you first wore them, but after time, you found other shoes you like better, for a while.

Greek lamb chops.  When my son and daughter, Toby and Casie, and I went to My Big Fat Greek Restaurant in Tempe AZ a few years ago,  they ordered a tray-o-meat.  (I think I had a salad).  They enjoyed the carnivore spectacular, but when they tasted the lamb chops their eyes rolled back into their heads. They both went quiet (unusual in our family) and sucked on the meat, Sucked on the bones, liked their fingers.  I think they managed to suck the marrow out of the bones.  They took home  a doggie bag of the bare bones.

Anyway, we’ve had them there again. They were still good,  but they weren’t roll-your-eyes into your head amazing. The grandkids have had similar lamb chop epiphanies, but I was telling you  about my first  Veggie Burger.  The Mall of America had recently opened. Toby, his wife Robin and I stopped for lunch. The menu listed a Veggie Burger. (They were new, Mall of America was New, Al Gore hadn’t even invented the Internet yet.)

Trusting  that there really was no  cow meat in the burger, or pig meat or ham or chicken, I took my first bite.  Toby and Robin stared in amazement as they had not seen such a sight as me eating a “hamburger” . Had I stood on a ledge of a  skyscraper there could not have been more fear in their eyes. I do get violently ill when I unknowingly consume an ounce of meat. And we had a 12 hour drive back to Michigan.

But miracle of miracles, it tasted like a cow burger to me. It had been a long time since I really tasted cow meat.  I enjoyed it thoroughly and didn’t get sick on the ride home.  But, no other veggie burger ever tasted so good again.

Here’s my first  attempt at a veggie burger. Casie tasted the finished product tonight.  In another blog I’ll tell you about her aversion to cooked vegetables.  Without telling her what it was, she took a bite. (Good to know adult children can still trust Mom. . . sometimes)  She said it was okay, tasted like meatloaf, not her favorite,  But hey it tasted kinda meaty. If you try it, you’ll be able to eat burgers along with your meat-eating friends.

I am giving it 8 stars, I’ll try some other combinations and let you know how many stars I give them.

Here’s Round #1 of of the veggie burger quest.

Step one, the base

1 cup cooked lentils mashed with a fork or potato masher.

To prepare, rinse ½ cup dry lentils, pick out funky looking lentils. Cover with 2” water, Boil about 20 minutes and drain. .   Otherwise, you can mash up a cup of drained garbanzo beans, black beans, or any other kind of cooked  legume beans. (Not green beans, silly )  I like the lentils because their taste is mild and I’ve had a bag of them sitting in the cabinet for about 8 months.

Grate or mince one small carrot and grate, or mince one small onion. You can also mince and sauté peppers, garlic, summer squash, and/or celery if your goal is consume more veggies.   Saute in olive oil or butter and cook down until soft  about 5-8 minutes. Empty pan, The reason to sauté them first: they will be less obvious in the burger, not crunchy and add moisture  if they are cooked first.

Reheat the pan, put 2-3 teaspoons olive oil (extra virgin, of course, this is so you’ll remember your first) add 4 ounces of sliced mushrooms.  Cook until the oil is absorbed and mushrooms are soft. Dump onto cutting board and chop into small bits. I like the mushrooms because of all vegetables they most resemble the taste of meat.

Once the sauteed vegetables, lentils/beans, and mushrooms are cooled, combine in a bowl. This is your base mixture.

Step two, the binder.

Now you need to add something so  you don’t just have a bowl of mush.

Add 1 cup of fresh bread crumbs. Take a heel of bread, put it into a blender or food processor* and pulse until you get crumbs.  Wonder why I don’t use the dry bread crumbs?  They’re too dry. Yes, you want the bread to soak up liquids but the dried crumbs are too dry, Trust me, If Casie can blindly try my veggie burger,you can trust me about the fresh bread crumbs.

Sunflower seeds.  I also ground up about 2 Tbls

Mix crumbs and seeds into base

Step 3. Flavor 

Unlike with a raw ground beef, you can taste as you go along.

Use whatever spices you like, I used thyme, basil, cumin, onion powder, garlic powder. ½ to 1 teaspoon of each.  Other options: steak seasonings, Essence, Whatever you like to put into cow burgers.

Sauce, This will help moisten. I used 2 Tbls of A1, since it’s what people put on perfectly good steak. You can use Worcheshire sauce, BBQ sauce,  your favorite meat marinade, whatever you like.   Add the sauce bit by bit.  It’s easy to put in but a bugger to take out. 

Now, taste the mixture.  Add salt and pepper, I thought it needed a lot of salt. You can add whatever flavors you like, cayenne, curry, hot peppers, five spice, Add what you like, You won’t hurt my feelings. When you get to the hmmmm, not bad stage,  beat an egg and stir into mixture.  This will help keep the burger from falling apart when you cook it   But, not yet

The consistency should be like cookie dough.  You should be able to squeeze a handful into a ball that doesn’t collapse. If they are too mushy you can amend with dry or fresh bread crumbs.

Form 3-4 patties.  Put a piece of wax paper onto a plate (Am I getting too controlling?) place the patties on the wax paper and put into refrigerator for at least an hour.

Time to Cook!

Place fry pan over heat, or use a grill, Add 2 Tbls olive or canola oil, Heat it up a bit.  If you get the pan hot before putting in burgers, this will help prevent sticking.  This tip also applies to cow burgers, meat, fish, anything, even grilled cheese sandwiches.

Put the patties into the pan. You don’t need to cook them, just heat them through and get the insides nice and warm,  When one side gets a good char,flip it over.  Cook on side 2.  I highly recommend making these  cheese burgers. You need a bit of fat for more flavor.  You can use cow cheese, plastic cheese or veggie cheese. See, I’m not always a control freak. Adding a bit of salt as you cook never hurt anything, I suggest you do so here.

Speaking of salt.  Do not salt the beans when you cook them, they’ll get tough. Do not salt mushroom while cooking, They will get soggy.

Showtime.

Serve the veggie patties like you would cow patties, It’ll help trick your mind. Toast the bun, add pickles, mustard, lettuce, That’s what I like, you put on what you like.

Carnivore Note

Chances are the carnivores at your table will want cow burgers. Like after all this work they still want something different!   I cook my veggie burgers before contaminating the pan with meat.  But if you can tolerate meat grease, cook them together in the same pan, or after the cow burgers are done, You’ll get some of the yummy  flavor.

If you just have to have a cow burger, but want to eat less meat.  Mix the veggie burger mixture with some of the ground beef, chicken, ham. Then fry as normal.

That’s it. Let me know what you think.

*I’ll explain more about food processors in my next blog when I tell you about veggie burgers with oatmeal.