Keeping greens bright
Heat makes vegetables release their own acids, and acid turns bright chlorophyll olive. So boil broccoli or green beans 2 to 4 minutes in lots of water with the lid off. The acids escape and get diluted.
Chill in ice water to stop cooking
Hot vegetables keep cooking after you drain them. Drop blanched beans into ice water for about as long as they boiled, then drain. The color and snap stay, and you can reheat them for 30 seconds later.
Test yourself
Questions from the interactive lesson, with the answer and the why.
Your green beans turned gray-olive last time. Which method gives the brightest ones?
Boil 3 minutes in a big pot, uncovered. Plenty of water dilutes the acids, the lid is off, and the time is short.
True or false: A pinch of baking soda in the water keeps greens bright, but a lot turns them mushy.
True. Alkaline water protects chlorophyll but dissolves the pectin that holds cells together.
What went wrong? You simmer green beans in a covered pot with lemon juice for twenty minutes. The beans turn dull and olive.
Acid plus 20 minutes of heat dulled the green. Lemon juice is an acid, and long heating adds to the effect. Add lemon after cooking.
Fill the blank: Lemon juice and vinegar dull green beans because they are ___.
Lemon juice and vinegar dull green beans because they are acidic. Acid replaces the magnesium in chlorophyll, which leaves an olive pigment.
You dressed a spinach salad with lemon vinaigrette 2 hours before dinner, and it looks dull and limp. Why?
The acid slowly dulled the chlorophyll. Lemon acid turns chlorophyll olive and wilts leaves over time. Dress the salad just before serving.
