How can you preserve the colour of a vegetable better-cooking it covered or uncovered?
Things Required:
Broccoli or zucchini
2 pots, one with a cover
Directions:
Cut off the stalk and separate the flowers of the broccoli or cut the zucchini into quarters.
Cook half the vegetable in a large quantity of boiling water in a covered pot for five to seven minutes.
Cook the other half in a large quantity of boiling water in a pot without a lid for five to seven minutes.
This Is What Happens:
The broccoli in the uncovered pot retains its colour. The broccoli in the covered pot does not.
Science Behind It:
The colour changes less in the uncovered pot because some of the acids of the plant escape in steam during the first two minutes of boiling. When the pot is covered, the acids turn back into liquid, condense on the lid and fall down into the water.
The bad news is that, without the lid, you lose more vitamins into the air. And because it takes longer to cook without a lid, the nutrients have more time to be drawn out of the food.
