Today, I want to take a deep dive into the world of green vegetables. I want to talk about why your green vegetables are turning grey when you cook them, and what you can do to prevent this and impart the most flavour during cooking. When cooked, green vegetables should still be green. They should not be mushy, slimy, or grey at all. There are some things that you may be doing which could be having an adverse effect on you green vegetables. Below is a list of five things that you can do or not do to improve how you cook your green vegetables.

Don’t over cook them.

Over cooking green vegetables is the surest way to turn them grey and mushy. With things like peas and broccoli you are really just trying to soften them. Peas may burst open a bit, which is fine as long as you remove them from the heat immediately after they do. When cooking broccoli you really just want the stem to be fork tender. This just means that you can easily stick a fork in it. Cooking green vegetables just to the point that they are cooked, will yield a more flavourful, texturally pleasing, and nutritious vegetable.

Don’t boil the with a lid on the pot.

Boiling green vegetables with a lid will make it much easier to over cook them which obviously is not what you want. The only time it is okay to cook green vegetables with a lid is when you are steaming them. Steaming takes much less time than boiling, and yields more nutritious vegetables. There is a greater risk of over cooking when steaming however due to the higher heat involved. If you are going to steam vegetables like green beans and broccoli understand that they will cook in 2 – 3 minutes.

Don’t cook the with baking soda.

I don’t really know why anyone would cook green vegetables with baking soda (or any vegetable at all for that matter) but don’t do it. Baking soda will turn your peas, broccoli, green beans, asparagus, or whatever, slimy, mushy, and grey pretty much instantly.

Don’t cook them with acid.

Lemon juice or vinegar can add a nice touch to asparagus, green beans or brussel sprouts after they are cooked. However, adding any kind of acid to green vegetables during the cooking process will destroy their colour and leave you with unattractive grey vegetables. Save the acid until they are already cooked.

You need to season them.

Green vegetables are delicious on their own, but giving them a bit of help with just one or two ingredients can to bring out their natural flavour and really enhance your dining experience. Once they are cooked, add a bit of butter or olive oil, salt and pepper, lemon juice and chili flakes, fresh herbs, parmesan cheese, the list goes on and on.