Eat Your Veggies!
It is National Nutrition Month, and the 2011 theme is “Eat Right with Color.” This is a rule that Chef Bill Wavrin speaks of often, and he shares some tips below to make it easier for you to include vegetables in more meals.
I want to keep encouraging you to use fresh vegetables, fruits and herbs as much as possible in your at-home cooking. As we all know, you should be ready to use cut fresh vegetables as soon as possible in order to benefit from the wonderful nutrients each delivers but with our busy lives and hectic schedules it’s often hard to find the time to do all that prep work for every meal. Here are a few “do aheads” that will maximize your time in the kitchen so you can still cook healthy meals for your and your family.
On a day when you’re less busy spend some time in the kitchen doing prep work that will get you ready for quick meal making in the days to come. Let’s call it chopping day, which will do two things for you — enables one to stock up on cut vegetables, herbs and fruit, and also helps practice knife skills, so each time you’ll become a bit handier with that kitchen knife.
- I always have a Mirepoix – a French term which is a combination of 1 onion, 1 carrot and 1 rib of celery – all chopped and at the ready for soups and sauces and as the beginnings of a vegetable medley. Place the chopped veggies in a sealed container or baggy and refrigerate up to 1 week.
- You can do the same with zucchini, bell peppers, eggplant, scallions, string beans, cilantro, fresh chiles and cucumbers. These will stay good for 3 days.
- I recommend NOT cutting tomatoes ahead of time.
- Potatoes can be chopped and placed in a sealed container filled with water to cover the potatoes, refrigerated until needed for up to 1 week.
- Chop fresh garlic in a food processor with a bit of olive oil. Remove to a sealed container and refrigerate until needed for up to 1 week.
- Chop fresh herbs and place in a sealed container and refrigerate until needed for up to 3 days.
- Oranges, lemons can be cut 1-2 days in advance. Always refrigerate.
- Apple & pears can be cut ahead of time, but will oxidize if you don’t squeeze some lemon over them. The citric acid stops these guys from darkening and they’re good for 1-2 days.
- Melon, rind removed and cut as needed, into bite-size pieces can be placed in a sealed container and refrigerated 1-3 days.
- I love watermelon with a drop of balsamic vinegar. So for a pretty and delicious snack I stack geometric square or triangle pieces and drizzle it on top…don’t eat your fingers!
Keep cooking healthy!
Chef Bill Wavrin
Ready to color your plate? Why not this energy boosting Spa-tini recipe while you’re at it?
