Women and Food(VEGETABLES)

Never eat boiled vegetables. No one ever hears of a flesh-eater boiling his staple article of diet and throwing away the liquor. On the contrary, when he does indulge in boiled meat, the liquor is regarded as a valuable asset, and is used as a basis for soup. But his meat is generally conservatively cooked—that is, it is baked, roasted, or grilled, so that the juices are retained. If he has to choose between throwing away the meat or the water in which it has been boiled, he keeps the liquor—witness "beef-tea." For some unknown reason he does not often treat his vegetables in the same way, and suffers thereby the loss of much valuable food material.

The vegetarian—being avowedly a thinker and a pioneer—would, it might be imagined, treat what is now one of his staple articles of diet at least as carefully as the out-of-date flesh-eater. But no! For the most part, his vegetables are boiled, and when the best part of the food constituents and all the flavour have been extracted, he dines off a mass of indigestible fibre—mere waste matter—and allows the "broth" to be thrown down the sink, with the consequence that many vegetarians are pale, flabby individuals who succumb to the slightest strain, and suffer from chronic dyspepsia.

The remedy is simple. Treat vegetables as you used to treat meat. Bake or stew them in their own juice. (See recipe for Vegetarian Irish Stew.) At the least, steam them. A little of the valuable vegetable salts are lost in the steaming, but not much. Better still, use a double boilerette. A very little water is put into the inner pan and soon becomes steam, so that by the time the vegetable is cooked it has all disappeared.

No exact time can be given for cooking vegetables, as this varies with age and freshness. The younger—always supposing it has just come to maturity—and fresher the vegetable, the quicker it cooks.

It should not be forgotten that orthodox cooks put all green and root vegetables, except potatoes, to cook in boiling water. This rule should not be neglected when steaming vegetables—the water should be fast boiling.

I will conclude with a few remarks about preparing greens, cauliflowers, etc. 

The general practice is to soak them in cold salted water with the idea of drawing out and killing any insects. But this often results in killing the insects, especially if much salt is used, before "drawing them out." A better plan is to put the trimmed cabbage or cauliflower head downwards into warm water for about half an hour. As I trim Brussels sprouts I throw them into a pan of warm water, and the insects crawl out and sink to the bottom of the pan. It is astonishing how many one finds at the bottom of a pan of warm water in which sprouts are soaked.

1. ARTICHOKE, JERUSALEM.

Steam until tender, or bake with a small piece of nutter on each artichoke until brown. Serve with tomato or white sauce.

2. ASPARAGUS.

Tie in a bundle and stand in a deep saucepan with the stalks in water, so that the shoots are steamed. Serve with melted butter or white sauce.

3. BEETROOT.

Bake or steam. It will take from 2 to 4 hours, according to size.

4. BROAD BEANS.

Steam until tender, but do not spoil by overcooking. Serve with parsley sauce.

5. BROCCOLI.

This is a rather coarser variety of cauliflower. Cook in the same way as the latter.

6. BRUSSELS SPROUTS.

These should be steamed for not more than 20 minutes. They are generally spoiled by overcooking. Serve plain or with onion sauce.

7. CABBAGE.

Steam. Put in vegetable dish, chop well, and add a small piece of butter.

8. CARROT.

Steam until tender. Serve whole or mashed with butter.

9. CAULIFLOWER.

Steam. This may be done in a large saucepan if a steamer is not available. Support the cauliflower on a pudding basin or meat stand—anything which will raise it just above the level of the water. Serve with white sauce or tomato sauce.

10. CELERY.

Stew. Choose a small head of celery, not a large, coarse head which will be tough. Well wash and cut into about 8 pieces. (Keep any large coarse sticks, if such are unavoidably present, for soup.) Put in stew-pan and barely cover with water. Simmer until tender. Lift out on to hot dish. Thicken the liquor with a little wholemeal flour, add a small piece of butter pour this sauce over celery, and serve.

11. CELERIAC.

This is a large, hard white root, somewhat resembling a turnip in appearance, with a slight celery flavour. It is generally only stocked by "high-class" greengrocers. It costs from 1-1/2d. to 3d., according to size. It is nicest cut in slices and fried in fat or oil until a golden brown.