edible, even though it may be at the expense of some apparently“ lost” nutrients. A case in point is that of bitter greens such as kale, collards, mustard greens, even carrot, radish, and turnip tops. Up until perhaps twenty or thirty years ago, it was customary to boil leafy greens and throw away the water. With the discovery of vitamins, and of the fact that these substances are drawn into the water during boiling and thus discarded along with it, this practice came under attack. Today we are encouraged to steam greens in small amounts of water until they are bright green and still crunchy, and preferably to keep the water for other uses so as to avoid losing the nutrients. Folk practices, however, are not often irrational or mistaken. It may be that boiling greens and discarding the water gets rid of certain medicinal and perhaps undesirable elements, which have a strong and bitter taste. The fact that mustard greens, turnip tops, collards, and similar vegetables, once staples of the hearty peasant cuisine, are not consumed much today, may be because the light steaming now recommended as the ideal cooking method leaves these vegetables tasting too strong and unpleasant. 4 Cooking greens also eliminates oxalic acid, which interferes with calcium absorption, and makes the calcium in these foods more assimilable. 5 I brought up this comment in a cooking class, and some students decided to test whether it was true. We found that boiling kale, uncovered, for ten minutes, made it sweet and delicious; curiously enough, the color remained a brighter green than when the kale was steamed. Steaming it left it hard, bitter, and dull— not a culinary success. Steaming most bitter greens, we found, doesn’ t make them tasty enough to be eaten regularly, whereas boiling makes them quite pleasant. Sautéeing the chopped boiled greens in some olive oil with garlic or mushrooms further enhances their flavor. Contrary to what we might expect, boiling does not leave greens totally devoid of nutrients, because they are so astonishingly high in vitamins and minerals to begin with.
NUTRIENTS IN 100 GRAMS( 3 ½ oz or 1 cup cooked, drained vegetable) †
As the foregoing table shows, a cup of cooked, drained kale or collards will fulfill our total daily requirements for vitamins A and C and give us 5, 10 percent or more of our calcium and iron for the day. Not a bad showing for a single serving of a lowly boiled vegetable! In light of all this, we might do well to go back to the old-fashioned methods of cooking leafy greens. By doing so, we may bring back one of the most nutritious staple foods of our ancestors and get, in a natural— and cheaper— form, those nutrients that many of us now ingest via pills. Steaming is a very popular way of preparing vegetables nowadays, as it adds only a little water and does not leach the nutrients. It is a substitute for blanching, which consists of boiling firm vegetables only briefly but thereby draws nutrients out into the water. The disadvantage of steamed vegetables is that is hard to add any interesting flavors to them except by means of a sauce; thus they can eventually become quite boring, in spite of their healthfulness. Sautéeing and stir-frying are done on a hot surface with a small amount of oil and will quickly seal in nutrients while softening the cellulose of vegetable foods. These techniques lend themselves well to incorporating herbs, spices, and seasonings into the food. In French cooking, sautéeing is often used as a preliminary for further cooking, as with soups and casseroles. Chinese-style stir-fried dishes are cooked quickly on high heat and served immediately. Broiling, done under high heat to sear and brown foods, is moderately contractive, as it draws water out. It is a technique used most often in modern households with gas or electric ranges, which keep fire contained while allowing a space underneath. In traditional technologies, such as open fires and brick ovens, this particular cooking method is difficult to implement. Shorter cooking times are generally more appropriate for warm weather, as they do not contract the food overmuch nor add too much heat. Long, hot cooking, as in baking and deep-frying, works best in the cold. Deep-frying, though an old and very popular cooking technique, is one not generally recommended in light of our current nutritional information. In spite of that, deep-fried food remains highly favored by many and is served unabashedly by scores of restaurants. I find that it is only edible when crisp and dry and served with a sharp side dish, such as horseradish, mustard, ginger, or grated Japanese radish( daikon) to aid in the digestion of the