Cooking Greens To Keep Vitamins

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 98, 22 September 1948, Page 3

Cooking Greens To Keep Vitamins

Wash the greens thoroughly • but qiiickly. Cut cabbages into quarters to make washing easier; the looser type „of greens can be opened with the fingers and worked about in the water. Don’t soak green vegetables as this draws out some of the valuable vitamin C and mineral salts. Cut out the stump of cabbage, remove coarse stalks from other greens. Then shred the greens coarsely with a sharp knife. Remember the sooner they go from the garden or shop into the pot, the more flavour and health value greens give you. So don’t buy or prepare them sooner than you need. Put only enough water in the saucepan to prevent burning. Add a little salt and bring water to the boil. When it is boiling fast put in the greens and shut down the lid tightly. This is most important. Boil for only 10-15 minutes shaking the pan occasionally to prevent sticking. Drain and serve the greens at once. Keeping hot or re-heating destroys the vitamins. Remember—Over-cooking in too much water and cooking with the lid off make vegetables soggy and yellow, emits an unpleasant “cabbagey” smell and wastes vitamins. Shredding large-leaved green vegetables enables them to cook faster, so saves flavour and health values. For brussels sprouts remove any old stump or leaves, make a crisscross cut in the stump end of the sprout. Wash thoroughly. Cook small sprouts whole. Large sprouts may be cut in halves. Broccoli should be shredded; cauliflower broken into sprigs. Spinach needs no water other than, that which clings to it after washing, otherwise cook as other greens, being especially careful to shake the 1 pan occasionally to prevent sticking. Save any liquid for soups or sauces.