Help me Veeky Forums. I love vegetables, but I'm an ignorant savage when it comes to cooking them. I've been living alone for the first time and for the past two months I've eaten basically nothing but pasta, meat, and rice and I'm sick of it.
Like I'll see a leek and think >wow that looks good I wish I knew how to cook something that uses it
Cabbage! Oh cabbage is fantastic. When I used to live in the college dorms and eat at the dining halls I'd fill my plate with cabbage and broccoli and whatever the fuck mixed vegetable they had that day. But if I buy a head of cabbage it's like >wtf do I do with this?
And then I don't know how the hell long they all last for. Are these potatoes bad? They don't smell, but they feel kind of soft. Can I just leave all of them in the plastic bags that I used to carry them from the grocery store? Are there ones that shouldn't be placed in the plastic bags? WTF ones do you refrigerate?
woody veg like broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage can be steamed until tender. chop into bite size pieces, discarding the hard inedible cores or stem ends.
succulent veg like eggplant and zuchinni and peas can be gently pan fried until soft. use butter and salt to flavor at first.
make a green salad with thin sliced ored onion, tomatoes and red lettuce. it will keep for 2-3 days in the fridge if tightly covered
Jose Ortiz
Google how to bake potatoes. Super easy. Super filling.
Carson Martin
potatoes smell worse than a corpse when they go bad, you'll know.
veg that don't go in the fridge: potatoes, onions, squash, yams, tomatoes, bananas, melons
everything else should go in the fridge.
Zachary Wood
there are lots of veggies... most are good raw, some need to be cooked to not be tough, some NEED to be cooked because of things like oxalic acid, or incredibly bitter flavour.
Most will benefit from a quick sear, steam, boil, or fry. It's not incredibly important to not cook them to death, but it does help.
The "woody" bits of veggies (e.g. broccoli stems) do well mashed up in soups and stews, or just steeped for flavour.
Cabbage is incredibly versatile. It's good raw, it's good seared, fried, boiled, steamed, stewed, souped, etc. and it will retain its shape and usually a bit of toothiness seemingly forever. It's a great way to add a touch of bitterness to something that's otherwise leaning too far toward salty, sour, or sweet.
Charles Wood
that's not gonna help op, he's got a mental block when it comes to conceiving how things are cooked.
what you need to do op is watch some good cooking videos like alton brown youtu.be/NSeol9RNyhU
Bentley Jenkins
I like alton brown, but he is a true fucken asshole.
Nathan Reyes
These, also google "(Insert Vegetable Here) Soup". A lot of vegetables you can boil or bake then throw them into a blender or immersion blender in your pot to puree into soups or blend in some cooked rice to make a creamy-textured bisque.
You can also take the woody veggies and dice them and add to broth bases and make a stew out of them.
Kevin Johnson
my fav broccoli soup. pls ignore all the female cooking blog bullshit and focus on the recipe, it's really solid.
>>wow that looks good I wish I knew how to cook something that uses it
So why not google "leek recipes"?
Personally I think the opposite approach works better for beginning cooks. Don't start with an ingredient. Start with a RECIPE you like. Surely you can remember some veggie dishes you like. Google the recipe for them (or use a cookbook). Buy the ingredients the recipe calls for, then go from there.
Oh, and don't forget to mail your parents a box of cat shit as punishment for failing to teach you the basics of how to store what kinds of food. Did they also forget to teach you how to brush your teeth?
>Personally I think the opposite approach works better for beginning cooks. Don't start with an ingredient. Start with a RECIPE you like.
I guess today is both. I decided I wanted to make borscht because I've never had it and while I was as the store I got an acorn squash because that's another one like leeks: always wanted to eat one, never have, no idea what to do.
I'm gonna cut it up and put it in the oven I guess.
Ayden Foster
Vegetables are icky and for poor people only We were designed to be carnists, as you can see from the Holy Bible written by Jeebus t. Carnists
Colton Ward
if you're doing borscht from scratch, roast the beets first - makes all the difference. Beef broth is what I've always been taught, but it's better with chunks of beef in there (worth getting a bit of a tougher bit of beef on the bone and starting from that).
For the squash - it's multipurpose. Great in curries and such, great roasted with a bit of garlic and/or brown sugar. It has its own flavour, but plays nicely with others for the most part.
Christian Gomez
most good chefs are bruh
Dominic Cooper
Using a beef-free recipe because I've been eating beef and pasta all this week.
Squash got oil salt and pepper. I don't have any sugar.
Isaac Stewart
Restaurant (high pressure, high speed) work, and critical acclaim do that to a man.
Things need to get done your way, at your speed. To differ is to fail.
To this day, I find it difficult to let others in my kitchen. It's hard to politely tell people to get out of my way when I'm rushing around cooking for twenty people on a five burner stove... you walk in, you're on prep duty on the other side of the kitchen, and you follow instructions.
David Ortiz
I hear ya man
David Jenkins
if you're doing veg, up the salt and umami- more tomato, more onion, a bit of garlic, and maybe even some soya (or vegeta/msg)
Jason Garcia
also quite a bit of the assholishness disappears when working with people you know to be competent
Elijah Sullivan
Depends on the chef... some take the "French approach" way too seriously.
I'm all about tough love at work, but at the end of the day, it's love. Even when firing the incompetent or emotionally unstable, I let them know that it's simply a business decision, and ultimately better for their mental health. I offer recommendations and reference letters based on their strengths.
I try not to be manipulative, despite it being what I've been taught. I try not to micromanage,despite this strong urge to walk over and see how my shining star is faring today (I probably will go order something, and if something's off I'll head back and offer a hand).
I hate when I have to be a dick to people, but it comes so easily.
Camden Clark
I wish I thought of the garlic beforehand. I have a bunch of it because of all these god damn pasta dishes.
Gavin Bell
How did it turn out?
Squash is one of those things that I brown the balls off of.
Bentley Morris
I didn't carve out enough of the stringy bits and I feel like the balls need to be browner.
It's also basically a potato so I'm not feeling all that healthy. Next time I'll pick something green and leafy.
Sebastian Hill
three things learned in one meal - while I don't take pleasure in knowing it wasn't great, I'm happy you're learning :)
Dylan Ramirez
that said though, squash and potatoes aren't unhealthy. They are carb-heavy, but it isn't empty carbs.
Tyler Butler
Yo all these people that said beets were beautiful weren't lying. They're so red I feel like a communist already. Gonna make a salad with these greens, but apparently the beets take a whole fucking hour to boil before I can do anything else.
Ryder Ross
also they turn everything fucking red, wear gloves when peeling them unless you want to be caught red handed, and yes that is where the saying comes from
