Long beans Long beans can be eaten raw or cooked. Sliced long beans can be added raw to salads similar to French haricots verts. Long beans can be steamed or sautéed as a side dish. They can be added to soups and stews. Long beans have a chewy, crunchy texture–more so than snap beans–and a
There is curly endive and then there is frisée. They are the same, but they are not. The difference? Frisée—pronounced free-ZAY—is a petite, pale curly endive produced by blanching. It has an opened, flattened shape. Its leaves are frizzy and finely cut, yellow-white to yellow-apple green in color. Frisée has a bittersweet taste and it’s
Interested in a little deep thinking with that carrot? There is a broad and deep debate going on around the carrot (and all vegetables) on your table. This debate has spilled on to the front pages of newspapers around the country. In the good old days, just a year or two ago, you could go
The first official day of summer came the middle of last week, June 21. That means we are now enjoying the last of the cool-weather vegetables from spring and beginning to get a taste of some of this year’s warm-weather vegetables. Now is an in between time of the year when we can enjoy two
A great beet salad for summer: shred raw beets and toss with a vinaigrette and lots of chopped parsley. Flavor. The sweet flavor of a beet’s root is affected by the speed of the plant’s growth. Beets that are allowed to mature more slowly in cooler soil and weather will be sweeter than those that
Cooked cabbage can be crisp with a mild and sweet flavor. Cabbage also can be served raw in salads and slaws and on sandwiches and burgers. Cabbage comes to harvest during the cool and cold fall and winter months. There are three kinds of round-headed cabbage: white, red, and Savoy. The leaves of the white
The key to cooking cabbage is to cook it quickly. If you can cook cabbage in 5 minutes or less, you will reduce and even avoid that cabbagey smell that can foul a kitchen. Cabbage contains several sulfur-containing compounds which break down when cooked to release hydrogen sulfide, a gas which has an odor akin
Sauerkraut is pickled white cabbage. How to Make Sauerkraut in a Stone Crock Finely sliced cabbage is placed in a stone crock, a hardwood keg, or barrel and layered with salt. As the layers are built up, they are pounded down with a wooden mallet. Then the layers are covered with a clean cloth, a
Salsify roots with bechamel sauce and cooked ham Some say salsify has the subtle, sweet flavor of an oyster. Some say salsify has the flavor of asparagus or artichokes. Salsify is sometimes called “oyster plant”. Salsify can be cooked in many of the same ways as carrots, parsnips, and potatoes. It can be steamed, baked
The peak season for freshly harvested horseradish is early spring and late fall. Horseradish is a long, knobby root—it’s an herb, not a vegetable–that has no aroma until you scratch, cut, or grate it. The pungent odor and the hot taste of horseradish are due to a volatile oil—similar to mustard oil—that is released when
