How to Boil Vegetables

In this short post, we will talk about the tips and tricks of how to correctly boil vegetables without losing their nourishing vitamins. Let’s start!

1- Make sure your veggies are fresh.

If the vegetables you are going to boil are old and started to get soft, they will not be suitable for boiling. They would become puree like and might leave an unwanted taste in the mouth.

2- Wash them with vinegar and water.

Let them soak in a bowl full of water with vinegar for 5-6 minutes. Later make sure to rinse them thoroughly and get rid of the vinegar residue.

3- Chop them evenly.

You can chop them into strips or cubes according to your tastes, but you have to make sure that they are all equal in size. This way every piece of vegetable will be boiled evenly.

4- Start boiling them immediately.

After cutting, you must start boiling them quickly, because a longer waiting time will cause your vegetables to get oxidized and lose their vitamins.

5- Water quantity is not important but the additions to it are the key.

Pour boiling water directly into the pot you are using until it covers the vegetables. Make sure to put a couple of pinches of salt and a teaspoon of lemon juice into the water to preserve the vitamins. You can also add other spices and garlic into the water to add a little taste.

6- Make sure that the water is boiling.

Keeping the water boiling at a high temperature is crucial. You can also close the pot’s lid to preserve the stream inside which will help the veggies to get ready earlier.

7- Standard boiling time is 10 minutes.

While the soft veggies like broccoli and zucchini are ready in 5 minutes, the hard veggies like carrots and potatoes take 10 minutes to be boiled. This is why you should first start to boil the hard veggies and add the soft veggies 5 minutes later.

8- Smelly vegetables are not going to be a huge problem anymore.

The veggies like cauliflower, celery and cabbage might let out a foul smell while boiling. If you keep the lid open while boiling for a couple of minutes and place some apple peels into the water, it will be solved. If you are boiling cauliflower alone, you can also add some milk into the water which removes the foul smell and makes your cauliflower snow white.

9- Don’t forget to shock you veggies.

After the boiling is done, take the vegetables into a bowl full of cold water with ice cubes. This way you will shock the veggies, which preserves their colour and vitamins.

10- Don’t throw the water you boiled the veggies inside and overboiled veggies.

You can use this veggie broth in your soups and sauces. If you think that you overboiled your vegetables and they are softer than you want them to be, don’t throw them out. You can mash them and make a puree to use in soups and sauces.

▶︎For a veggie gratin recipe you can try, click here.

Thank you for reading, happy cooking!

Let me know any other tips or questions you have in mind in the comments!