Preparing and cooking vegetables
- a guide for the new cook

Having a father with an allotment meant that growing, preparing and cooking vegetables has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.

There were four of us children and we all had jobs to do when it came to putting food on the table, even from a very young age.

I can remember being shown which plants were weeds and which weren't, and the exasperated look from my parents when I got it wrong! I can remember picking up the potatoes and putting them in the basket as my Dad went along the row digging up the plants. Even better, picking pea pods and popping some as I went along the row, enjoying the sweet taste of fresh peas. Oh, and the strawberries! OK, so they aren't vegetables...

If you do grow your own, you will often find that you have more of a particular vegetable than you know what to do with! A variety of recipes for using them up will prove useful, along with instructions for freezing vegetables for later use and also tips to ensure your child gets their 5 a day.

If you are not lucky enough to have your own garden in which to grow your own, you can still enjoy fresh vegetables from the shops. Nowadays, there is even more variety available, with produce being brought in from all over the world. You are no longer limited to what is in season (although those varieties are often cheapest).

But faced with the vegetable aisles you might wonder what on earth to do with some of them.

How do you tell if they are fresh, do they need peeling, how long do they take to cook? This section of the site will try to answer your questions. We will soon have you cooking vegetables like a pro!

Asparagus

A luxury vegetable to enjoy in the summer months.

Learn how to cook asparagus, then try a variety of recipes for asparagus including asparagus soup.

Daikon Radish

A long white root with a peppery taste, also known as mooli. Read about my first experience of daikon radish and how I used it. NEW!

Mushrooms

An essential in any kitchen, mushrooms can be cooked by themselves or used with other ingredients in recipes such as mushroom risotto, mushroom sauce, mushroom and zucchini pasta, or of course mushroom soup.

Potatoes

Let's start by looking at the many ways to cook potatoes, then we will move on to tasty potato recipes from around the world.

Zucchini

A late summer vegetable, learning how to cook zucchini (or courgettes) can be very useful. Not only can it be served as a vegetable but it can also be used in cakes and bread!

Traditionally used in ratatouille you will find many more zucchini recipes on this web site. Why not try a delicate soup or stir-fry.

Updates

This page will be regularly updated as I add more pages about cooking vegetables to the site. You may wish to bookmark it and come back to visit often.