Because preparing and cutting vegetables in the correct way are not just small daily actions , affect:
On the loss of nutrients
When we clean vegetables and eliminate external or hard parts, which seem useless or less valuable, losses in nutrients can be very high, especially in vitamins and mineral salts that are concentrated in different percentages in the various parts of vegetables (outer leaves or internal, stems, cores, leathery parts).
For example:
- in the potato the maximum concentration of vitamin C is in the areas placed near the peel; a peeling can therefore result in a significant loss of vitamin
- in the carrot, whose peripheral areas are rich in B vitamins
- in lettuce and spinach, whose outer leaves are high in carotene, in vitamins of the B complex and in ascorbic acid.
to minimize these waste it is important to choose fresh vegetables and carry out these preliminary operations with awareness.
Sulla consistenza e sulla percezione di alcuni sapori rispetto ad altri
From the healthy point of view pay attention during the cleaning and cutting of vegetables allows:
- immediately find out if the vegetables are of good quality: if it is too dry or, on the contrary, too soft, the cut fails.
- obtain the desired consistency and give the vegetable fiber the right size: neither too big (because not everyone loves to chew, especially for children, and avoid annoying swollen belly if you are not used to consuming foods rich in fiber), nor too much small (because it oxidizes and dries quickly becoming woody, as can happen to grated carrots and left in the air).
From the point of view of taste, breaking the cellular structure of vegetables releases their liquids containing vitamins and precious minerals that are also responsible for the taste:
- onion, garlic, leek and shallot acquire their characteristic pungent taste
- broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage are enriched by an aftertaste with smoky notes
- the tomato releases its herbaceous and fresh aroma
- other vegetables such as chicory, field salads, radicchio di Treviso become bitter.
On the appearance of the plate
The gustatory emotion starts from the head stimulated by what we see, then everything develops at the moment of tasting. Our senses communicate with each other: the shape, the color, the right consistency, the sound we hear when we bite and then we munch, the taste, the aroma, are all sensations that we can also find in a dish of only vegetables.
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