[ SECRET POST #2787 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2787 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 022 secrets from Secret Submission Post #398.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Re: Diet questions

[(Anonymous)]

How do you cook them? Do not, not, ever, ever, EVER steam your vegetables. Not only does it taste like ass, but steaming robs vegetables of most of their nutrition so you're now eating something that both tastes like ass and isn't much good for you.

Stir-fry them/sautee them. Put some sunflower oil in a pan, heat it until it's just starting to smoke, then add salt, and a few spices or seasonings of your choosing (cumin, coriander, small quantities of red chili pepper, powdered onion and garlic...everything tastes better with garlic.)

Let the spices crackle and brown in the oil, then toss in the vegetables and cook until done. Different vegetables have different rates of cooking, but usually if you cut stuff like carrots fairly thin and stuff like tomatoes or peppers fairly thick, it should be fine to just toss them on high heat until they're coated in oil, then cover them, turn it to low heat, and let them cook for a few minutes -- taste periodically to see when they're done.

If it still doesn't taste good or you can't get the spice combination right, no worries, there's a cheat code: just pour a bit of pasta sauce into the pan along with the vegetables while you're stir-frying them and let them cook in that.

Also, if you can find an iIdian store near you, go buy something called Chat Masala. A little of that makes basically EVERYTHING taste better.


If I have time later, I'll post some more specific recipes here.


Spinach. It is unbelievably healthy, but if you cook it improperly, it is utterly useless. To make spinach that tastes REALLY DELICIOUS and is actually healthy, first, try to buy baby spinach if you can (it tastes better and it's more tender). Put some oil in a pan, heat it, add a little finely chopped garlic and heat it on medium heat until the garlic starts browning. Then put the RAW spinach into the pan a large handful at a time (because spinach shrinks way down when it wilts) and stir it JUST until it gets all wilted. Stop cooking it immediately the moment all the leaves have wilted. It's done. Do not cook it any further.

Re: Diet questions

[(Anonymous)]

Disagree--a good steaming keeps texture, taste and nutrition better than boiling and without the fat that stirfrying would add. All you have to do is watch your cooking and make sure you don't overdo the steaming. Less risk that letting anything burn, too.

Re: Diet questions

[(Anonymous)]

+1 steaming retains far more nutrition than boiling the life out of veggies does.

Re: Diet questions

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt

Uh, nope. Steaming veggies "keeps taste" in the same way embalming a corpse "keeps appearance." Sure, it tastes a little bit like it did when it was raw...minus all the parts that makes it actually taste good when it's raw.

But yeah, IA, boiling is....really terrible. Yes. Never boil vegetables if you can help it. I didn't even think to mention that. Speaking of which, if you boil potatoes, always boil them with the skins on, only take the skins off after boiling. That way they keep more nutrition.

And don't stir-fry in a fuckload of oil. Do people really stir-fry in enough oil to "add fat"? Perhaps other people understand the term "stir-fry" differently than I. I just mean in enough oil to let the veggies cook properly -- a tablespoon, maybe less.

Re: Diet questions

[(Anonymous)]

nayrt - No. Steaming isn't the most flavorful way to cook vegetables, but they don't have to taste terrible unless you're doing it wrong.


Do people really stir-fry in enough oil to "add fat"?

Bit of a silly question. Stir-frying in ANY amount of oil adds fat. Hopefully not much, but using a little bit of oil is still adding fat to the dish.

Re: Diet questions

[(Anonymous)]

Steaming may not be the best option for everything, but it doesn't rob vegetables of nutrition. It also doesn't have to taste like ass unless you overcook it or underseason it.

Re: Diet questions

[(Anonymous)]

Baby spinach tastes better? Are you serious? Baby spinach doesn't taste like anything.

A full-grown spinach leaf has good robust spinach flavor that will stand up nicely to being wilted with olive oil and garlic. Dill, mint, or oregano--or any combination of the above that you like--goes nicely with this. Squeeze lemon juice over the spinach--the vitamin C in the citrus helps make the non-heme iron in the spinach more available to the body. Eat it with a hunk of feta cheese and some good bread.

Re: Diet questions

[(Anonymous)]

nayrt - Agreed. Baby spinach is great for eating raw in salads. For sauteeing, feel free to use regular spinach. No point in paying premium, and it will be fine.

Re: Diet questions

[(Anonymous)]

Of course, in my area there's the small problem of actually finding regular spinach. Some places don't seem to have it.