Follow this 11 step guide. Learn how to cook broccoli, green beans, cabbage and other green vegetables. Make them delicious and nutritious!
Ask a nutritionist or dietitian how to cook broccoli or any other green vegetable and they’ll recommend steaming. They’ll tell you steamed vegetables have more nutrients. That they’re the healthiest. The tastiest.
And they’re wrong.
I was a chef for a lot longer than I’ve been a nutritionist. And my professional experience is influencing this article a lot more than my academic book smarts. But maybe the problem is me. Maybe this old dog refuses to learn a new trick.
I don’t think so.
Am I right about the cooking? …Definitely!
Have I got the nutrition right? …Probably.
Green vegetables are delicate. Clumsy cooking ruins them. Too many greens have all their subtlety and joy obliterated in the kitchen. For broccoli, cabbage or green beans so good you’ll want to pile your plate high – you need to cook them perfectly.
And cooking perfect sprouts, flawless kale or heavenly mangetout is not difficult. But it will never happen in a steamer. For that, you need a pan of boiling water.
Make these eleven steps a habit and you’ll do it every time.
Eating green vegetables should be a pleasure, not a chore
Green vegetables are packed with vitamins, minerals (especially iron), antioxidants and fibre. They’re so low in calories, they almost don’t count (if counting calories is your thing). And if you treat them right, they taste delicious. They deserve a place at the centre of any healthy diet.
Instead, they’re more likely to inspire indifference, contempt or disgust. If broccoli or courgettes do make it to our plate, it’s an afterthought. Added to make it “healthy”. Eaten as penance for diet transgressions – real or imagined.
Cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, spinach… it’s a roll call of childhood nightmares. Enough to make even the most devout dieter retch.
But green vegetables aren’t to blame. They’re delicate and vulnerable. You need to treat them with empathy and understanding.
The insipid taste. The offensive colour. That nauseating texture. They’re all a result of thoughtless abuse, mistreatment and disregard in the kitchen. The hapless green vegetable gets blamed for our casual negligence.
Why do we treat Geen Vegetables so badly?
Our apathy toward green vegetables is cultural. From childhood, we’re told to eat them because they’re good for us. Something to be endured before we’re allowed the good stuff. That message never changes.
And the experience of previous generations influences how we cook green vegetables today. We are guided by the limits of their technology, economics, education and accessibility. And the uninspiring results reinforce the message – health not pleasure.
The outcome is inevitable. Green vegetables wind up on our plate for the wrong reason. Not because we enjoy them, but because they’re healthy. Because we should eat them. Not because we want to.
Boiling water brings out the true flavour of Geen Vegetables
So, let’s imagine you wanted to cook scrumptious broccoli, mouth-watering green beans or utterly delicious cabbage… how do you do it?
Roasting, braising, sautéing and stir-frying are all perfectly valid methods – and I encourage you to try them. But first, experience your broccoli, cabbage or runner beans perfectly cooked in boiling water.
Boiling water brings out the true flavour of green vegetables. And I believe experiencing the true flavour is important. Green vegetables have a mixed reputation. Unfairly blamed for the mistakes of the clumsy cook.
Instead, try them at their purest. Uncluttered and naked. No topping, caramelization or sauce to disguise their flavour. The tastes and textures you discover will stay with you. They’ll influence your choices of topping, sauces and seasoning in the future. And they’ll improve your judgement next time you roast or stir-fry. All your green vegetables will taste better, however you choose to prepare them. Cooking and eating green vegetables will become a pleasure.
I’m carefully avoiding suggesting you boil your green vegetables. Any fool can boil green vegetables and get the mediocre results they deserve. So, don’t boil your greens. Instead, cook them in boiling water. Call me pedantic if you want. But there’s a huge difference.
Because boiling water is a precision tool. And like any precision tool, getting the best results requires care. Let your attention wander and things go wrong very quickly.
The perfectly cooked green vegetable
Overcooked, grey and funky. Underdone, tough and tasteless. Somewhere in between these two extremes, there’s a sweet spot. The perfectly cooked green vegetable. It’s elusive and fleeting. Most cooks miss it and serve them underdone or overdone. Edible but uninspiring.
Finding the sweet spot transforms green vegetables from edible to truly enjoyable. So what are we looking for?
Taste – Every vegetable has a unique flavour. But that flavour should be subtle and rounded. Slightly sweet with no bitterness. Definitely not strong.
Aroma – everything about its flavour should be reflected in the way it smells. Only overcooked green vegetables have a strong odour.
Texture – Not soft or soggy. And definitely not hard or tough. They should have some bite. But if they’re crunchy, they’re not cooked.
Colour – A deep and rich green. The shade will depend on the vegetable. Too bright and they’re not cooked. Any grey and they’re overdone.
How to cook broccoli and other green vegetables – 11 steps to the perfect results using boiling water
11 steps – it seems like a lot. But most of them relate to one simple principle. Cook your green vegetables fast.
And as cooking is a combination of time and temperature. If you want to cook fast you have to cook hot.
#Step 1 – Cut your vegetables into similar size pieces
#Step 2 – Don’t rely on cooking times
#Step 3 – Use Plenty Water
#Step 4 – Don’t cook too many vegetables at once
#Step 5 – Add your vegetables to vigorously boiling water
#Step 6 – Keep the heat turned up
#Step 7 – Use a lid
#Step 8 – Salt the water
#Step9 – Check your vegetables as they cook
#Step 10 – Drain your vegetables as soon as they’re ready
#Step 11 – Cook them last and serve them straight away
Two quick caveats
- Always use the freshest vegetables you can. No amount of careful cooking will turn tired, old greens into something appetizing.
- Delicate leafy greens like spinach or sorrel hardly need cooking. Boiling water is too aggressive. Instead, “melt” them in a pan with a little oil or fat. It’s simple, tasty and takes seconds.
Every step matters. Some more than others. And it’s worth looking at each step in detail. But first I need to deal with the fallacy being put forward by nutritionists and dietitians.
Why you shouldn’t steam Green Vegetables
Nutritionists and dietitians will tell you steaming is best. They’ll argue steamed vegetables retain more of their nutrients. It’s well-meaning but horrible advice. Ignore them.
And there’s a familiar sub-text to the advice – eat your green vegetables for nutrition (they’re good for you) – not pleasure. But I want green vegetables to be a big part of your diet. I want you to love them. And my chef’s instincts are stronger than my nutritionist’s education. I know steaming wrecks green vegetables.
Cooking should bring out a green vegetable’s best flavour, colour and texture. But the moment when these three elements are perfect is fleeting. It takes a degree of cooking precision that steaming can’t deliver.
Yes, there are times when steaming makes sense – for example cooking frozen vegetables – but it shouldn’t be your go-to method.
Still, there are lots of studies supporting the nutritional superiority of steaming [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Studies that back nutritionists and dietitians. And the general consensus is steaming is best because
- steaming is a gentler heat and causes less damage to delicate nutrients
- boiling leaches nutrient’s out of the vegetables into the water
- steamed vegetables are more flavoursome
I’ll take a look at each in turn, but first I want to address the over-riding flaw with all the studies. Scientific research methodology.
Why scientists can’t cook Green Vegetables
I’m a believer in the scientific method. It’s the best system we have to understand the world we live in. Rightly, a scientific study’s credibility depends on a carefully recorded and reproducible methodology.
The problem is cooking is craft not science. Yes, science helps us understand what happens when we cook food. But cooking food worth eating requires human sensory input.
And researchers seeking reproducibility have created methodologies that are less than ideal. Scientifically sound – absolutely. But culinarily flawed – definitely.
The typical nutrient retention study goes something like this.
Researchers meticulously prepare vegetable samples following an exacting methodology. Multiple batches all the same precise weight. The dimensions of every floret or leaf carefully measured. Half of the batches cooked for an unvarying number of minutes in an exact quantity of water. And half steamed for a fixed and determinate time. Every detail scrupulously recorded. The researcher’s scientific peers reading the paper must be able to replicate the experiment.
But it’s a culinary car crash.
In short, scientists can’t cook. The documented precision of the scientific method won’t allow it.
In study after study, researchers carefully describe how they tortured a helpless green vegetable. Then they report an analysis of their unfortunate victim’s nutrient content. And their data leads to an obvious conclusion. Steaming green vegetables retains more nutrients than other cooking methods. Especially boiling.
But their rigorously scientific methodology would make any chef wince. Every cooking technique is twisted to fit a reproducible methodology. And without fail, greens are cooked in boiling water with all the finesse of a squaddie in heavy boots.
Still, the study data points to less nutrient loss from steaming than boiling water and other cooking methods. And that leads to the first flawed conclusion.
Steaming is a gentle heat causing less nutritient damage
Steaming isn’t a “gentle” heat. It’s simply a slower and less efficient method of cooking. It can’t deliver the instant heat green vegetables need to cook perfectly. Here’s what happens.
- a layer of air surrounds the vegetables in your steamer insulating them from the full force of the heat. A fan assisted steam ovens can reduce the thickness of this layer – but not enough.
- a tiny amount of steam condenses directly on the vegetables. Yes, GCSE physics tells us that the heat transfer rate of condensing steam is far higher than boiling water. But its small mass doesn’t contain enough stored heat to transfer the cooking intensity.
- in a steamer, vegetables are most often piled on top of each other. And every piece that’s covered only receives heat indirectly through its neighbour.
And your greens heat up slowly. All the time bleeding colour, flavour, aroma and undoubtedly delicate nutrients. Eventually, they start to cook and slowly soften. But they already look, taste and smell overcooked. Steaming takes green vegetables from chewy, undercooked crunch to a pallid, overdone mediocrity without ever passing through perfect.
Still, if you like your vegetables undercooked – aka warm but still raw – then steam your vegetables. They’ll have lost fewer nutrients. But we cook food to improve its texture and taste. The added benefit – especially with vegetables – is the increased availability of their nutrients. So, as you’re chewing your stringy broccoli, ask yourself – Can your gut breakdown those tough undercooked fibres and access those extra nutrients?
Alternatively, steam your vegetables for longer. Chewing will be less of a chore. But that’s the only positive. All the subtleties of taste, flavour and colour will have disappeared along with those delicate nutrients.
Vegetables cooked in boiling water lose more nutrients than in steam
Studies conclude that a significant amount of nutrients leach into the boiling water. And I don’t disagree. It’s a logical conclusion. Colour pigments leach into the water and turn it green. I’m sure nutrients leach into the water too.
Yet, invariably scientific studies breach the basic steps of cooking green vegetables. And I’d argue a significant amount of the nutrients lost in studies is due to poor culinary craft. With the worst offending studies finding the greatest nutrient loss.
Still, even with the best cooking skills, some leaching will inevitably occur. Probably more than if you steamed your greens. But it’s a worthwhile payoff for much tastier vegetables. And you’ll easily reap equal or greater nutrient benefits. Because the more you enjoy your green vegetables the more you’ll want to eat.
Think of it this way, if your water finishes with more than the lightest hint of green you’ve missed one or more of the 11 steps. Your vegetables will taste less than perfect. And a fair amount of their nutrients will have leached into the water as well. Give your green vegetables the care they deserve and they’ll hang on to most of their nutrients along with their colour and flavour.
Steamed vegetables are more flavoursome
Just wrong. Yet an understandable conclusion. Because it is far easier to ruin green vegetables in boiling water than in a steamer.
If steam is a “gentle” heat, boiling water is an “aggressive” precision cooking tool. And you need to pay attention (to the vegetables, not the stopwatch). The results are far superior, but greens can overcook very quickly. And they’ll go from overcooked to ruined almost as fast.
Cooking your green vegetables in the “gentle” heat of steam will never do them justice. But equally, it’s very forgiving. It’s difficult to get the timing wrong with a blunt cooking tool. The results may be bland and mediocre, but they’ll be consistently so.
Researchers assume steaming gives a more flavoursome result because they can’t cook. They ask study participants to choose between passable steamed vegetables and spoiled boiled ones. In that scenario, I too would choose steamed.
If you want more than mediocre green vegetables, use boiling water not steam. Follow the eleven steps and they’ll be far superior to their steamed cousins.
How to cook broccoli and other green vegetables – 11 steps to the perfect results using boiling water
#Step 1 – Cut your vegetables into similar size pieces
Smaller pieces cook faster than larger ones. If you throw a motley selection into your boiling water your giving yourself a dilemma. Do you prefer perfectly cooked small pieces and raw bigger ones? Or is flawless large chunks with mushy smaller ones better?
Still, don’t over think it. Similar size pieces – not identical. There’s no need to get your measuring calipers out.
How big should you cut them? It depends on the vegetable and it’s not a critical decision. (Although it’s best to avoid the extreme ends of the size spectrum.)
#Step 2 – Don’t rely on cooking times
Independently of their size, different types green vegetables cook at different speeds.
And even different batches of the same kind of vegetable will need more or less time.
There are just too many variables…
…variety, freshness, starting temperature (out of the fridge or at room temperature), shape and size of the plant and how you’ve cut it, the amount of water in the pan…
You get the idea.
The answer is to throw away the stop watch and rely on #Step 9.
#Step 3 – Use Plenty Water
The most common mistake people make is not using enough water. You’ll even find articles recommending as little water as possible to reduce nutrient leaching. It’s just bad advice.
Because when you add cold vegetables to your pan the water temperature falls. If there isn’t plenty of water, it drops a lot. As the temperature slowly rises your greens stew. Slowly cooking. All the time leaching delicate flavours, colour and nutrients. By the time they’re cooked they’re a grey soggy mess – even steaming is better than this!
So how much water do you need? By weight, at least 5 times the amount of water to green vegetables. It’s worth weighing it once just to get an idea of what that looks like. You may need to buy a bigger pan.
The best way to cook green vegetables is fast and hot and that takes plenty of water.
#Step 4 – Don’t cook too many vegetables at once
This rule is the opposite side of the coin to #Step 3.
If you overload your boiling water with too many vegetables its temperature drops too low. Don’t. The result is the same grey soggy mess as breaking #Step 3.
Again, you may need to buy a bigger pan.
(Every commis chef I trained always made this mistake. In professional kitchens, large quantities of green vegetables are often cooked in batches. The hapless commis thinks it’s obvious. It’s quicker to cook fewer bigger batches than lots of small ones. Adding more vegetables to the pan is a shortcut that’s too tempting to ignore. Long story short… preparing their vegetables all over again from scratch is a good learning experience.)
#Step 5 – Add your vegetables to vigorously boiling water
Water boils at 100˚C. As your water heats up the hotter water rises and natural convection currents are created. The water starts to circulate up and down in the pan. But these currents create areas of still water around the edges of the pan. These still water pockets are cooler.
Wait until the water is boiling vigorously. The energetic boiling action mixes the water and cool pockets are eliminated. All the water will be at 100˚C.
If you want to test this theory, give a pan of water a quick stir as it first comes to the boil. It will immediately stop boiling.
It’s tempting to add your green vegetables when the first bubbles start.
Don’t.
#Step 6 – Keep the heat turned up
Adding the vegetables to the water will take it off the boil. Keep the heat turned up. Return the water to the boil as quickly as possible. You want your vegetables to spend as little time as possible in that twilight zone below boiling point.
And once the water is boiling again, don’t be tempted to turn down the heat. Keep the water boiling hard. This keeps the vegetables and water moving. And that’s essential.
Without this forced movement, a layer of cooler water will collect around the individual vegetable pieces. This will insulate them from the full force of the heat slowing the cooking process.
What’s more, the vegetables will sink to the bottom of the pan and pile up. This prevents the water from circulating freely between the pieces. Without direct exposure to the 100˚C water your vegetables cook more slowly.
#Step 7 – Use a lid
Bring the water to the boil with a lid on. Less heat will be wasted to the atmosphere and it will take a lot less time.
After you add your vegetables, keep the lid on until the water re-boils. The water will return to the boil faster. Your greens spend less time in the twilight zone below 100˚C.
As soon as the water re-boils remove the lid. This is important because your vegetables release volatile acids as they cook. These acids damage delicate nutrients (e.g. vitamin C), colour pigments and flavours. Taking the lid off allows these volatile acids to escape harmlessly into the atmosphere.
The lid on until boiling, then off. It’s the best compromise for fast cooking and reduced volatile acid damage.
#Step 8 – Salt the water
Even if you follow all the other steps, if you don’t salt your water generously your green vegetables will be slightly disappointing.
What does salt generously mean? It depends on the amount of water. Roughly one heaped teaspoon for every couple of litres is about right.
I can hear the outcry, “Too much salt is bad for you!” Don’t worry, almost all the salt is poured away with the water. If you were to sprinkle salt on your vegetables after cooking you would consume far more.
Still, adding salt to your cooking water increases the sodium content of your vegetables by 10-20 times. And that sounds scary!
But 80g of green vegetables (1 of your 5-a-day) will contain only 5% of your recommended daily sodium intake. That’s ok even on a low salt diet.
If you’re struggling to keep your salt intake down, look at other areas of your diet. Adding salt to your vegetable’s cooking water is not the problem.
#Step 9 – Check your vegetables as they cook.
As your vegetables cook go through a steady colour change. When their ready they’re a vibrant and rich green. The shade depends on the vegetable.
The colour change will guide you. But you must check the texture to know when they’re ready. You want to catch them at the perfect moment.
Testing with a knife is and option – broccoli for example. But for smaller vegetables like green beans you need to fish one out and take a bite.
Cooking vegetables in boiling water is a precision technique. That moment when they are perfectly cooked is short-lived. Checking too often is not a problem. Not checking enough is a sin. And you’ll pay for it with mediocre greens.
#Step 10 – Drain your vegetables as soon as they’re ready
When your happy your vegetables are perfect drain the water. Don’t hang around. They will pass over very quickly.
And worst of all, don’t just turn off the heat and leave them. The longer they sit in cooling water the more inedible they become.
Drained vegetables will keep for a couple of minutes. But no longer. Just enough time to add any oil, seasoning or dressing you want. Then onto your plate.
#Step 11 – Cook them last and serve them straight away
This follows on from #Rule 10.
Green vegetables won’t wait for the rest of your meal to be ready. But whatever else your eating will wait for them. And if it’s fish or meat, a few minutes resting is often a good idea.
Time enough to deal with your greens.
Serving tips
The perfect green vegetable doesn’t need a lot.
I like to drain them and return them to the pan. A quick few seconds back on the heat drives off any residual moisture.
Then add a little of your favourite fat or oil. Butter works with almost all green vegetables. Extra virgin olive oil is another good choice. But I encourage you to experiment.
(A little fat is always a good idea with green vegetables. It improves their “mouth feel”, prevents drying out and enhances fat-soluble vitamin uptake.)
And adding a few herbs, spices or other seasonings can transform your greens. Garlic (powder’s fine) goes well with green beans. Fresh ground black pepper with cabbage. Crumbled blue cheese with broccoli. Fine bacon lardons with Brussel sprouts. (You won’t need any other fat with these last two.)
A squeeze of lemon juice can be another great addition. The acidity can really lift and compliment some greens. And lemon juice is full of vitamin C which gives your gut a real boost with iron absorption.
Again, try things. Find what you like.
Once you’ve added your fat and seasoning pop the lid back on. Quickly toss your vegetables and they’re ready to serve.
Pro tip – go lightly on the fat and seasoning. You want to enhance the vegetable’s beautiful, natural flavour. Not hide it. After all, you’ve worked hard to achieve it.
A last word
I said it at the start. Green vegetables are delicate. It’s all too easy to ruin them in the kitchen. Flavour, texture and nutrients damaged and lost.
Cooking is a combination of time and temperature. And the right mix enhances the availability of the nutrients just as surely as it improves the taste. The ideal combination for green vegetables is fast and hot. And for that, you need boiling water.
But what if my chef’s instincts are wrong? And green vegetables really do lose more nutrients when you cook them in boiling water. No worries. You’ll be piling your plate high with delicious broccoli, cabbage and beans because you love them. Any nutrient differences will be eclipsed – and then some!
Cook your green vegetables for the pleasure on the plate and the nutrients will look after themselves.
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