June 8th, 2009

Green beans, broccoli, spinach… Cooking green vegetables!

Never steam your green vegetables! They’ll taste better, cook faster, retain their attractive color and keep their healthful properties.

Very few chefs teach the theory of cooking. They might explain a recipe but they don’t get to the bottom of things: they don’t tell why a thing is done a certain way. To be a good cook, to do a recipe well, you have to understand what you are doing.



The basic principle in cooking green vegetables is to use a large amount of water, and to add – this is essential – 1 oz. of salt per quart of water, which in physical terms means you are making the water more dense than normal; the water density will be greater than the density of the vegetables. Because when you drop vegetables into the hot salted water, a barrier will be created around the vegetables, which will prevent their vitamins and minerals from leaching out.

Why don’t green vegetables stand up to steaming?

To start with, steam cooking opens up the pores of the product. Vitamins and minerals immediately begin to escape and the goodness of these vegetables that you planned to enjoy no longer contain the nutrients that you expected.

Also, for a vegetable to be green, it must contain chlorophyll, and when chlorophyll is cooked, carbon dioxide-filled steam is created. When you steam anything, the steamer basket must be kept covered to prevent the steam from escaping. Therefore the carbon dioxide is trapped inside and turns the chlorophyll dark. Green vegetables become gray and drab. The saltwater principle creates a barrier against carbon dioxide so that the vegetables stay attractive and bright green.

Cooking Example: Green beans

• It is important to begin with a large quantity of salted water and to bring it to a boil before adding the vegetables so that their pore openings will be quickly blocked.






• Cook for about 4-6 minutes until tender: neither soft nor crunchy.






• Drain; drop into ice water for a few seconds to stop the cooking and set the color; drain again.






• Drizzle with a few drops of olive oil, light oil with vegetable overtones that pairs deliciously with green vegetables. Some sea salt added at the table – I like my green beans in salads, with shrimp, with fresh black grouper, tuna, wahoo, snapper or a nice piece of med rare beef!






• Be careful! If you prefer to sauté your green beans in a skillet, do not cover the pan to keep the beans warm while you are waiting to serve them. After all the trouble you’ve taken to cook your vegetables perfectly, you’ll end up with little blackened beans giving you the evil eye! Remember: chlorophyll, carbon dioxide are not friends.

-Tadd Frye

Filed under: Culinary, Culinary Tips, Wellness |