Today’s tip is about how to boil your vegetables while preserving their nutrients and color. The way you boil your vegetables depends on whether they are grown above the ground or under it. Root vegetables, for example beet root, potatoes, carrots, are grown under ground.

All underground vegetables:

– start by washing your vegetables very well keeping their roots and leaves

– immerse them in cold water

– add 1 tea spoon sugar and 1 tea spoon salt to a pot

– boil the vegetables for 45 mins

– when cooked remove from boiling water and place them in cold water

essential tip:

make sure not to cut the root tips or the green stems off in order to keep all nutrients intact.

For above the ground vegetables, for example, هندبة (dandelion), cabbage leaves, vine leaves, swiss chard…

– wash the leaves thoroughly with cold water

– chop them up into big pieces

– bring a large pot of water to boil

– add 2 tablespoons of sea salt and 1 tablespoon sugar

– as the water is boiling, fill another large pot with cold water

– drop your greens into the boiling water (in batches and not all at once)

– make sure to submerge the leaves for not more than 1 minute

– check if they are tender

– transfer the leaves into the cold water

– keep for a few minutes

– transfer to colander, squeezing the water out using both hands in a ball shape

– change the cold water for the next batch, since it will warm up after you placed the previous boiling batch

– keep repeating this process until all your leaves are done

essential tip:

since it is the season and these greens are in abundance, follow this method and preserve as much as you can in your freezers for later use during your summer lunches and dinners as they make a great side dish.

in the above picture are the 2 most popular ways to present هندبة (dandelion).

*The taheeni طحينة sauce was done with the seville orange juice that you can find in my previous tips.

With love, Jahna