Ingredients
Any soft-ish green vegetable: asparagus, broccoli, snow peas, edamame, spinach, chopped bell peppers, zucchini or string beans.
This recipe works pretty much for any soft vegetable, except hard root vegetables like carrots and potatoes (try baking those instead), tomatoes, eggplants, mushrooms, smelly lilacs like onions and garlic and big things like pumpkins.
It’s best not to mix different veggies as they all have slightly different cooking times.
Method
Pour 2 fingers deep layer of water into a small pot with a tight-fitting lid.
Prep the veggies, clean, remove the stems, seeds and hard bits when needed.
Place the vegetable into the pot, tightly cover with lid and place on high heat.
Bring to a rapid boil and cook for 1-3 minutes for the vegetable to soften.
Quickly strain with a colander and rinse with icy water. Even more compelling, plunge the vegetable into iced water for 30 seconds. Both of these tricks stop cooking and preserve the colour and crispiness.
Make it a meal
- Salad place atop some green salad, add some tomatoes and smear with olive oil and vinegar.
- Garlicky toss with raw minced garlic and a lot of good olive oil. Parmesan optional.
- Asian toss with scallions, sesame oil and soya sauce, place atop cooked rice. Eat with your favourite soy sauce.
- Eggy make scrambled eggs and add the veggies just before done.
Notes
- I like my veggies to have a bite. For softer vegetables, add a bit more water and cook 1-2 minutes longer. Figure out your own favourite vegetable doneness.
- You can freeze or refrigerate the vegetable for future use but it will loose some of its luster. I prefer to cook it just before serving.