Just about any vegetables can be boiled till soft, then put through the blender, salted and peppered to taste, and yield soup (cream is optional). A quartered peeled onion, half a bulb of peeled garlic, and a quartered peeled potato or two, plus a fair amount of peeled and roughly chopped whatever else (cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, parsnips, turnips, fennel, leeks, celery root or stalks, whatever) is a good template. Dump it all in a pot with water or stock. Boil till it’ll smoosh against the side of the pot when pressed with a spoon. Blend. Salt & pepper.
Less appetizingly, but probably more nutritiously, most green leafy vegetables can be blended with water or milk and consumed in milkshake form. I’ll often take three or four cups (that’s a lot) of spinach and blend it with two cups whole milk and chocolate protein powder. This actually tastes good, if not delicious; a portion half that size is probably a solid amount of food for most people. Even without the protein powder or other flavoring, it is drinkable. Lower portions of vegetables give you better taste for less nutrition. Not a great culinary feat, but a very efficient way to improve diet quality, and eating vegetables raw is probably more nutritious than boiling them extensively.
I’m surprised by the amount of cooking posts here so, questioning my own assumptions: is anyone put off doing this because you lack knowledge about preparing vegetables in the “whatever else” class, or picking the “wrong” whatever else foods, or even peeling things/etc.?
I feel silly even asking this (“Don’t be so patronising, who wouldn’t know how to peel an onion?”), but I’m interested to see if anyone replies.
Peeling onions can be surprisingly confusing. For instance, just under the really papery skin there is sometimes a layer which is partially or entirely thin, greenish, and rubbery. It’s not all that pleasant to eat unless it’s de-texturized (a puréed soup as described above will do the trick), but unlike the papery bits it’s technically food. Keeping it or removing it is a judgment call, but I could imagine finding it an intimidating decision to make if I didn’t know. The bits of garlic cloves that attach them to the base of the bulb are in a similar category. (I cut them off.)
Does anyone have a knowledge gap preventing them from cooking Alicorn’s “easy” soup?
I noticed myself thinking it was so basic that nobody would, but then wondered that such a thought might be completely wrong (given the overall post topic). Maybe there are people daunted by… not knowing how to prepare common vegetables, for instance.
Well here’s what I would say as someone who doesn’t understand cooking—certainly, that looks mostly very understandable and straightforward, though I’m not so clear on the exact procedure for boiling. (And pressed with what sort of spoon, if it matters?) Also there’s definitely some stuff that I think I can figure out but has not been made explicit (e.g., if I’m guessing correctly, we don’t want to include the water when blending, and that should be dumped/strained out first).
But since I don’t actually have an underlying understanding of cooking, I’d stil hesitate to actually use it. Because without that, I have no idea what corrections to make if I messed up, etc. If you just follow recipes without understanding, you can only handle the best case.
Any solid object will do, as long as it tolerates the heat. The only reason for using a utensil at all is that your hand does not tolerate the heat (and if it could tolerate the heat, then it would be unsanitary).
When stirring, the important aspect of the spoon is that it’s wide; a flat utensil would work just as well. (However, a spoon has the added benefit of allowing you to taste the soup, as you add salt, herbs, and spices. Use the spoon to pour a little into a small bowl, let it cool there, and then taste it, or you can just blow on the spoon.)
we don’t want to include the water when blending
You can if you want. It’s a trade-off between the trouble of removing the water and the capacity of your blender (or how many batches you want to blend).
In the final product, it’s best to keep as much water as possible, since thrown-out water includes thrown-out vitamins. (The exception is when the water is used to draw out unwanted flavours or other chemicals, which is not the case with ordinary vegetables but can apply to dry beans, for example.) If you have too much water after blending, return everything to the pot and simmer it uncovered until the water level has gone down, stirring occasionally. (Conversely, if your soup is too thick, return it to the pot, add more water, cover, reheat to boiling, and then turn it off.)
If you’re serving the soup right away, it’s nice to return it the pot anyway to keep it warm as people go back for second and third helpings. Use low heat (so that the soup is never too hot to eat), either cover or add water occasionally as needed (let it come back to temperature before serving after adding new water), and stir occasionally to keep it from sticking.
(Boiling water in uncovered pots escapes into the air, but the air inside a covered pot is quickly saturated with water vapour, after which no more water will leave the soup, or at least very little more water if the cover is not air-tight. However, it’s harder to remember to stir when the pot is covered. I often just let the soup thicken a bit through the meal, neither covering the pot nor adding water.)
In the final product, it’s best to keep as much water as possible, since thrown-out water includes thrown-out vitamins.
One way to avoid this trade-off is to microwave the vegetables rather than boiling them. It produces rather similar results otherwise, but doesn’t leach out water-soluble vitamins.
Regarding the blender, and mortar if you are a traditionalist, I would recommend blending without any liquid if possible. The liquid you use should be only enough to carry the food down to the blades in the blender. Any more liquid and you risk the food lifting away from the blades.
A similar problems occurs when mashing, for instance, beans in the mortar and pestle. Liquid allows the larger pieces to glide more easily out of the pestle’s mashing grind.
Dump vegetables into a pot. Pour in water or stock until it reaches the same level as the veggies (less if you plan to add cream, more if you’re nervous about burning it, less if you want thick goopy soup and more if you want thin soup). Put it on a stove burner, turn it up to High, stir at least once to prevent stuff from sticking to the bottom, and check on the smooshability of the vegetables every 5-10 minutes. Add more water if the vegetables are still unsmooshable and the water level has gotten significantly lower.
what sort of spoon
The only reason this would matter would be if you use a short-handled spoon, you will have to have your hand much closer to the boiling water, which is physically uncomfortable. Otherwise the spoon could be wooden, plastic, metal, slotted or not, whatever.
I definitely wouldn’t use the disposable plastic spoons that fast food places give out with their food. Those might actually melt, especially if pressed against the side of a hot metal pot.
While I wouldn’t prefer a fast-food-place plastic spoon, I don’t think it would be in danger of melting in this specific case. Boiling water is a fixed temperature and it will stay that temperature until the water is all boiled off, if I understand it correctly; and the spoon doesn’t spend much time pressed against the pot itself, since the idea is to smoosh a vegetable between spoon and pot.
The pot itself can’t get hotter than boiling either, as long as there’s a bunch of water in it. (This, btw, is how rice cookers detect when the rice is done.)
It won’t melt, but depending on the type of plastic it might become too soft and flexible to be useful for vegetable smooshing. From experience, some types of plastic spoons become too soft to even support their own weight when placed in boiling water.
I would bet yes. Part of the problem is not knowing the tolerance range of the parameters. Like when does the precise timing matter and when does it not.
Precision generally only matters with desserts (which is really a form of kitchen chemistry).
Any other meal has a lot of leeway.
Your first meals may involve veggies that are a bit extra squishy (overcooked) or crunchy (undercooked), or a nasty combination of the two (the temperature was too high or you didn’t stir often enough), but in all the above cases, unless there’s actual carbon (black) on the outside, then you’ll still be able to eat it.
This sounds like a case for apprenticeship. Is there anyone who’d be willing to have you be present, help with the easy bits (maybe—I’m not sure if that would inappropriately add to the stress level), and ask questions while cooking? I’m not talking about just once, though that would be better than nothing.
Another easy healthy thing:
Just about any vegetables can be boiled till soft, then put through the blender, salted and peppered to taste, and yield soup (cream is optional). A quartered peeled onion, half a bulb of peeled garlic, and a quartered peeled potato or two, plus a fair amount of peeled and roughly chopped whatever else (cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, parsnips, turnips, fennel, leeks, celery root or stalks, whatever) is a good template. Dump it all in a pot with water or stock. Boil till it’ll smoosh against the side of the pot when pressed with a spoon. Blend. Salt & pepper.
Less appetizingly, but probably more nutritiously, most green leafy vegetables can be blended with water or milk and consumed in milkshake form. I’ll often take three or four cups (that’s a lot) of spinach and blend it with two cups whole milk and chocolate protein powder. This actually tastes good, if not delicious; a portion half that size is probably a solid amount of food for most people. Even without the protein powder or other flavoring, it is drinkable. Lower portions of vegetables give you better taste for less nutrition. Not a great culinary feat, but a very efficient way to improve diet quality, and eating vegetables raw is probably more nutritious than boiling them extensively.
I’m surprised by the amount of cooking posts here so, questioning my own assumptions: is anyone put off doing this because you lack knowledge about preparing vegetables in the “whatever else” class, or picking the “wrong” whatever else foods, or even peeling things/etc.?
I feel silly even asking this (“Don’t be so patronising, who wouldn’t know how to peel an onion?”), but I’m interested to see if anyone replies.
Peeling onions can be surprisingly confusing. For instance, just under the really papery skin there is sometimes a layer which is partially or entirely thin, greenish, and rubbery. It’s not all that pleasant to eat unless it’s de-texturized (a puréed soup as described above will do the trick), but unlike the papery bits it’s technically food. Keeping it or removing it is a judgment call, but I could imagine finding it an intimidating decision to make if I didn’t know. The bits of garlic cloves that attach them to the base of the bulb are in a similar category. (I cut them off.)
When in doubt, trim.
I cut the onion into a few chunks then remove the inner part. losing 1/8“ or 1/4” of the outermost stuff doesn’t bother me.
If it looks different from the rest, trim it away.
I’m confused as to what exactly you’re asking here.
Does anyone have a knowledge gap preventing them from cooking Alicorn’s “easy” soup?
I noticed myself thinking it was so basic that nobody would, but then wondered that such a thought might be completely wrong (given the overall post topic). Maybe there are people daunted by… not knowing how to prepare common vegetables, for instance.
Well here’s what I would say as someone who doesn’t understand cooking—certainly, that looks mostly very understandable and straightforward, though I’m not so clear on the exact procedure for boiling. (And pressed with what sort of spoon, if it matters?) Also there’s definitely some stuff that I think I can figure out but has not been made explicit (e.g., if I’m guessing correctly, we don’t want to include the water when blending, and that should be dumped/strained out first).
But since I don’t actually have an underlying understanding of cooking, I’d stil hesitate to actually use it. Because without that, I have no idea what corrections to make if I messed up, etc. If you just follow recipes without understanding, you can only handle the best case.
Any solid object will do, as long as it tolerates the heat. The only reason for using a utensil at all is that your hand does not tolerate the heat (and if it could tolerate the heat, then it would be unsanitary).
When stirring, the important aspect of the spoon is that it’s wide; a flat utensil would work just as well. (However, a spoon has the added benefit of allowing you to taste the soup, as you add salt, herbs, and spices. Use the spoon to pour a little into a small bowl, let it cool there, and then taste it, or you can just blow on the spoon.)
You can if you want. It’s a trade-off between the trouble of removing the water and the capacity of your blender (or how many batches you want to blend).
In the final product, it’s best to keep as much water as possible, since thrown-out water includes thrown-out vitamins. (The exception is when the water is used to draw out unwanted flavours or other chemicals, which is not the case with ordinary vegetables but can apply to dry beans, for example.) If you have too much water after blending, return everything to the pot and simmer it uncovered until the water level has gone down, stirring occasionally. (Conversely, if your soup is too thick, return it to the pot, add more water, cover, reheat to boiling, and then turn it off.)
If you’re serving the soup right away, it’s nice to return it the pot anyway to keep it warm as people go back for second and third helpings. Use low heat (so that the soup is never too hot to eat), either cover or add water occasionally as needed (let it come back to temperature before serving after adding new water), and stir occasionally to keep it from sticking.
(Boiling water in uncovered pots escapes into the air, but the air inside a covered pot is quickly saturated with water vapour, after which no more water will leave the soup, or at least very little more water if the cover is not air-tight. However, it’s harder to remember to stir when the pot is covered. I often just let the soup thicken a bit through the meal, neither covering the pot nor adding water.)
One way to avoid this trade-off is to microwave the vegetables rather than boiling them. It produces rather similar results otherwise, but doesn’t leach out water-soluble vitamins.
Regarding the blender, and mortar if you are a traditionalist, I would recommend blending without any liquid if possible. The liquid you use should be only enough to carry the food down to the blades in the blender. Any more liquid and you risk the food lifting away from the blades.
A similar problems occurs when mashing, for instance, beans in the mortar and pestle. Liquid allows the larger pieces to glide more easily out of the pestle’s mashing grind.
Dump vegetables into a pot. Pour in water or stock until it reaches the same level as the veggies (less if you plan to add cream, more if you’re nervous about burning it, less if you want thick goopy soup and more if you want thin soup). Put it on a stove burner, turn it up to High, stir at least once to prevent stuff from sticking to the bottom, and check on the smooshability of the vegetables every 5-10 minutes. Add more water if the vegetables are still unsmooshable and the water level has gotten significantly lower.
The only reason this would matter would be if you use a short-handled spoon, you will have to have your hand much closer to the boiling water, which is physically uncomfortable. Otherwise the spoon could be wooden, plastic, metal, slotted or not, whatever.
I definitely wouldn’t use the disposable plastic spoons that fast food places give out with their food. Those might actually melt, especially if pressed against the side of a hot metal pot.
While I wouldn’t prefer a fast-food-place plastic spoon, I don’t think it would be in danger of melting in this specific case. Boiling water is a fixed temperature and it will stay that temperature until the water is all boiled off, if I understand it correctly; and the spoon doesn’t spend much time pressed against the pot itself, since the idea is to smoosh a vegetable between spoon and pot.
The pot itself can’t get hotter than boiling either, as long as there’s a bunch of water in it. (This, btw, is how rice cookers detect when the rice is done.)
The inside of the pot can’t get significantly hotter than … right, he water just turns gas phase more rapidly.
It won’t melt, but depending on the type of plastic it might become too soft and flexible to be useful for vegetable smooshing. From experience, some types of plastic spoons become too soft to even support their own weight when placed in boiling water.
I would bet yes. Part of the problem is not knowing the tolerance range of the parameters. Like when does the precise timing matter and when does it not.
Precision generally only matters with desserts (which is really a form of kitchen chemistry).
Any other meal has a lot of leeway.
Your first meals may involve veggies that are a bit extra squishy (overcooked) or crunchy (undercooked), or a nasty combination of the two (the temperature was too high or you didn’t stir often enough), but in all the above cases, unless there’s actual carbon (black) on the outside, then you’ll still be able to eat it.
This sounds like a case for apprenticeship. Is there anyone who’d be willing to have you be present, help with the easy bits (maybe—I’m not sure if that would inappropriately add to the stress level), and ask questions while cooking? I’m not talking about just once, though that would be better than nothing.