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Home › Cooking Vegetables › Boiling VegetablesIt’s hard to imagine anything easier than boiling vegetables. You heat some water, toss in the vegetables, wait a bit, and you’re done, right? But the truth is, there’s a bit more to it than that. For example, should you cover the pot or not? It actually depends on the vegetable you’re boiling.

Boiling vegetables is really super easy. But if you don’t do it right, you can end up with watery, flavorless, tired looking veggies, instead of bright and tasty ones. The key is to cook each vegetable just right so that you lose as little flavor, color and nutrient value as possible during the boiling process.

One of the most important things to keep in mind is that boiling leeches nutrients out of the vegetables, and so the goal is to have them in water as little time as possible, while still getting them cooked!

In this article, I’ll go over the preparation work you need to do, and then I’ll talk about how to boil vegetables.

 

Preparation Work

The nice thing about boiling vegetables is that there’s really no complicated preparation work involved. All you need to do is get your vegetables ready, and get your water ready. But there are a few things you want to keep in mind.

Preparing The Vegetables

No matter what vegetables you’re using, there are a few things you need to do to get them ready for boiling.

• Wash the vegetables. Whether you’re using organic or mass-produced veggies, you need to do this. Gently scrubbing the vegetables under lukewarm water is the best way to go.
• Cut up the vegetables into chunks.

  

  • The smaller the chunks, the faster they’ll cook. That means less nutrient loss, but it also means that it’s a little bit harder to get them to stay just a bit crisp.
  • The chunks should be evenly-sized, so that they cook evenly. Otherwise, smaller pieces will be ready before bigger ones.
• It’s best to cut them not too long before you’re ready to boil them, so that they stay fresher. You can also cut them ahead of time and keep them fresh in water, bu that tends to make the vegetables a bit mushy and waterlogged.

And that’s pretty much all there is to it!

Getting The Water Ready

So you might be wondering what you need to do to get the water ready. It’s just boiling water, right? But to get the best possible results, there are a few things to keep in mind. Remember, the goal is to cook the vegetables as fast as possible. The less time they spend in the water, the less nutrients and flavor they lose.

• No matter which vegetable you use, it’s best to bring the water to boil before adding the vegetables. And if you cover the pot, the water will boil faster.
  • If you add the vegetables when the water is already hot, you don’t need to boil them as long, and you won’t lose as many nutrients.
• For green vegetables, you should use as much water as possible. The more water you use, the less it’ll cool down when you add the vegetables.
  • This is important for green vegetables, because it’s best not to cover them when you boil them. Yes, it’ll help the water get hotter faster, but it’ll also cause the acids and chlorophyll in the boiling vegetables to react, and the veggies will lose their bright green color.
• For any other vegetables, you should use as little water as possible – just enough to completely cover the veggies when you add them to the water.
  • The less water you use, the less nutrient loss. And if you’re not using green veggies, you can cover the pot to get the water boiling again really quickly.
• A little bit of salt goes a long way when you’re boiling vegetables. It serves two purposes.
  • Salt raises the boiling point of water. That means the water boils hotter, and cooks your vegetables faster. And that means less time in the water for your veggies.
  • The right amount of salt will enhance the vegetables’ flavor. You don’t want to use so much salt that they taste salty, but a bit will make the vegetables taste better. Half a teaspoon to a teaspoon of salt per quart (liter) of water will do the trick.
• Bring the water to a boil before adding the salt. The water will boil a bit more vigorously for a second when you do, but it’ll ensure that the salt is dissolved right away. If you add it before boiling, it could deposit on the bottom. Depending on what your pot is made of, the salt could react with it and discolor it.

Once your veggies are chopped and the water is boiling, it’s time to boil the vegetables.

Boiling The Vegetables

Now that your vegetables are cut into chunks, and you have some boiling, salted water, we can talk about boiling vegetables.

Here what you need to do:

1. Add the vegetables to the boiling water. You can just drop them in, in which case you should watch out for splashes, or you can lower them in using a spoon.
2. Bring the water temperature back up.
   • For green vegetables, leave the pot uncovered and keep the heat high. It’ll help preserve the green color.
   • For other vegetables, cover the pot. You can reduce the heat, so long as the water stays at a boil.
3. Cook the vegetables until they’re done. Depending on what vegetables you used and how big the pieces are, it’ll take more or less time. The best way to tell if they’re done is to taste a piece every so often. When it tastes done, it’s done!
   • A lot of people like their cooked veggies to still be a little crispy. But however you like them best it the best way to do it. But remember, the more you boil a vegetable, the more nutrients it loses!
4. Remove the vegetables from the water. You can take them out with a slotted spoon, or drain the water out of the pot.
   • If you’re not serving the vegetables right away, you can immerse them in ice water for a few seconds. That’ll stop the cooking process, so that they don’t become overcooked after you take them out of the water. To reheat them, immerse them in boiling water for a few seconds.

Once the vegetables are done boiling, they’re ready to serve as is, but you can always add a bit of butter or seasonings for some extra flavor.

And that’s all there is to it! Boiling vegetables is so easy, and so convenient. The trick is knowing how to deal with the vegetable you have.

Home › Cooking Vegetables › Boiling Carrots

One really easy way to cook carrots is to boil them. All you need to makeboiled carrots is a cooking pot and some water, and you’re ready to cook!

Cooking carrots by boiling might like it’s kind of boring. And while it’s true that they don’t have the caramelized sweetness of roasted carrots, or the crispness of sautéed carrots, boiled carrots can be very delicious if you know how to do it right.

In this article, we’ll talk about how to prepare the carrots for boiling, and how to boil them.

Preparation Steps

Boiled carrots are really, really easy to make, so there’s actually not a whole lot of preparation work needed. Here’s what you need to do.

Wash The Carrots

Like any vegetable, you need to wash the carrots to get rid of any dirt or chemicals that might still be on the surface. Just scrub them gently under lukewarm water, being sure to get all the dirt out.

Peel The Carrots?

A lot of the carrot’s flavor and nutrients is near its surface. So often it’s better just not to peel the carrot, and just wash it thoroughly – you get much more flavorful carrots than way. But if you need to peel the carrot, use a vegetable peeler and be sure to only peel off a single layer.

Cut The Carrots

There are a few things to keep in mind when you’re cutting up your carrots for boiling.

• Boiling causes the carrots to lose some flavor and nutrients, by leeching them out through the surface. When you cut the carrots, you’re exposing more surface area, and so you lose more flavor and nutrients. The result? Bigger carrot chunks taste better when boiled!
• Smaller carrot chunks take much, much less time to cook than whole carrots. Very small pieces might only take a few minutes to boil, whereas really large, whole carrots might take a whole hour.
• You’ll also want to trim the carrot, cutting off the top, which can be kind of tough and woody. You might also want to cut off the tip, too, if it’s not very nice looking.

It’s all about balancing flavor, time, and how crisp you like your vegetables. If you like slightly crisp vegetables, they won’t take as long to cook, and so even cutting them up in small chunks won’t mean too much flavor and nutrient loss. But if you like soft veggies, you might get better results boiling whole carrots. And if you prefer small pieces of carrot? Don’t forget that you can always cut the carrot into smaller pieces after it’s done!

Of course, if you’re short on time, even cutting the carrots in half can make a huge difference in how much time it takes to cook.

How To Boil Carrots

Once the carrots are washed, trimmed, and cut the way you like them, you’re ready to boil them. It’s not hard at all.

Here’s what you do.

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil.

2. If you want, salt the water. About half a teaspoon per liter of water is plenty.

   • Salting the water raises its boiling point, making it boil hotter, so that your carrots cook faster. And the slightly salty water will also flavor the carrots. Of course, if you’re trying to cut back on salt, it’s not necessary – just convenient and tasty!

3. Add the carrots to the water.

4. Cook, covered, until the carrots are as done as you like them. This can take anywhere from a few minutes to half an hour depending on how you cut them and how cooked you like them.

5. Drain, season and serve. Cut them into smaller pieces if needed.

   • You can serve them as is, or with a bit of butter, salt, or other herbs and spices.

There’s really not a whole lot to making boiled carrots. The key is really to know how you like them. If you like them crisp, take them out when they’re crisp! But if you like them very soft, don’t be afraid to leave them in a bit longer. Just test them regularly, and take them out when they’re just perfect for you.

Enjoy!

Home › Culinary Schools

Why should you be interested in the best culinary schools? Well, if you’re visiting us at Enjoy How To Cook, chances are you’re interested in cooking and learning how to cook. And we’ve got lots of information to help you really understand how cooking works.

But what do you do if you don’t just want to learn to cook? If you’re really passionate about cooking, you might be thinking of making a career out of it. And that’s where culinary arts schools come in.

There’s a lot of information online, and you can learn a lot. But the best culinary schools give you even more than information: you get professionals to guide you, a structured curriculum, and a lot more insight into the professional world.

That’s why I created this section. If you love cooking so much that you’d like to become a professional chef, read on.

I’ll talk about the advantages of going to a culinary arts school, and about different things to consider when looking at culinary schools. Then, I’ll give a list of some of the best culinary schools.

Why Go To Culinary School?

If you’re really serious about wanting to pursue cooking as a career, then it’s a good idea to look into getting a culinary arts degree. You can learn a lot online (a ton, in fact), but the best culinary schools just offer so much!

Here are some of the benefits of going to a culinary arts school.

• You have expert chefs to teach and guide you. Often, when we’re learning to cook on our own, we tend to make lots of mistakes, and slowly learn from them. It helps to have a chef watching over your shoulder to keep you from making at least some of those mistakes!

• You get credentials. After graduating, you’ll have a culinary arts degree. And like any other field, a degree can open all sorts of doors, or at least make it much easier to get a foot in!

• Depending on the school, you can learn about so much more than just how to cook. Here are a few things you might learn:

  
  • A history of cooking, how cooking techniques have evolved over time.
  • How to plan meals and make a menu.
  • How a restaurant kitchen works and how to manage it.
  • Some programs even focus on nutrition.

But really, the greatest thing is that the best culinary schools can help you turn your passion for cooking into a career.

It’s not always an easy career path though, especially at first. Many chefs (some quite famous now) started out their careers washing dishes. The salaries can start out pretty modest, but get better as you move up the kitchen ladder.

And even when you do move up the ladder, it’s important to remember that as a chef, you can expect to work meal times and week-ends – when everyone else is eating, basically!

All that means it’s important to be very passionate about cooking if you’re thinking about getting a culinary arts degree. It’s so much easier to put in the hard work when you love what you do. Because then it’s not work at all – it’s fun!

Find The Right School For You

The first step towards finding the best culinary schools for you is to think about what you need. Different schools offer different things, so it’s important that you know what matters most to you. A great school for one person is not necessarily as good for someone else!

Here are a few things to think about when you’re looking into different culinary arts schools.

Hands-On Training

Does the culinary arts school offer lots of hands on training? Learning to cook means you actually have to cook. But that’s not all.

• Some of the best culinary schools have apprenticeship or internship programs. These allow you to take all the theory you learned and apply it in a real world, practical setting. It’ll give you a feel for how the industry works, and it’ll definitely give you an edge when you’re looking for a job. People prefer to hire someone with experience, after all!
• Some schools also run student-staffed restaurants. If you’ve ever been to one, it’s usually fantastic gourmet food at decent prices. But it’s also wonderful for the students to get to work in a real restaurant and understand how it works.

A good, solid, theoretical education is important. But being out there in the field is a tremendous learning experience, and it’s something you should consider when looking at culinary arts schools.

Student-Teacher Ratio

Some people do really well in large classes. But fewer students means that the teacher’s attention isn’t as divided. And even if you do well in a large class, it’s always nice to have extra help and attention. You learn much faster with an expert helping you with your mistakes.

Specialization Options

Does the school allow you to specialize in your area of interest? Some people have something specific in mind when they dream about being a chef. Here are just a few examples of possible specializations.

• Desserts. Is your passion actually baking and making desserts? You might want to look for a school that lets you specialize as a pastry chef.
• Specific cuisines, like Thai or Italian. Many culinary arts schools have wonderful French cuisine programs, but not all offer global cuisine programs.
• Health and nutrition. There are a number of absolutely delicious things you can make that are horrible for you. If you want to learn make delicious food that’s actually good for you, some schools will be better than others.

Resume Writing and Interviewing

Writing a resume for the first time can be intimidating. Often you get that lingering feel that you’re not doing it right. And interviews are even worse!

The very first job interview I went on, I was so nervous I wanted to run away and go back home. Luckily I wanted the job more, so I stayed… but I was terrified.

Some schools offer extra classes to help you with your resume writing and interviewing skills. And that can be a huge help. They’ll give you advice on what to include in your resume to ensure you get an interview. And they’ll help you practice for interviews so that you go in feeling confident. It makes a real difference!

Scholarships

A culinary arts degree can open lots of doors for you, and help you get a good job, but first you have to pay for the degree! If you need a bit of extra help paying tuition, don’t despair! Many of the best culinary schools have some kind of scholarships or financial aid, so check out what they have to offer.

The Graduates

How well do the graduates do? If you want to pursue cooking as a career, you want to make sure that your culinary arts degree will actually help you. Check out the schools’ graduates. Are they successful? If most of them are, odds are it’s a great school!

Some celebrity chef graduates can be neat, but remember to look at the graduates as a whole. Not everyone can go on to have their own television show, but if most of the graduates get to cook and live out their dreams, then that’s a good sign.

Some Of The Best Culinary Schools

Here are just a few culinary schools out there. Check them out, and find out which one is right for you.

• New England Culinary Institute
• Culinary Institute of America
• French Culinary Institute
• American Culinary Federation
• Cordon Bleu Culinary School
• International Culinary School at the Art Institutes

All of these schools are great culinary arts schools. Any one of them is a good place to start looking for the right school for you!

Remember, figure out what you want, and then find the best culinary school for you. It’s the first step towards earning a culinary arts degree, and turning your passion for cooking into a wonderful career.

Home › About Me

Yes, anybody. My mother might tell you that if I was able to learn to basic cooking skills, there’s hope for just about anyone.

She has this great, embarrassing story about how at the age of twelve I still didn’t know how to make a sandwich. And sadly, it’s perfectly true.

But I’ve come a long way since then… I’ve learned to love cooking, and even though I cook everyday, I still just love the feeling of eating something delicious that I made myself.

I’ve learned quite a few tricks and techniques over the years, and it’s made a world of difference for my cooking skills. And I’ve really found that a great quality meal just makes you feel better.

So I created this website to pass on what I’ve learned about cooking! Because it’s not that hard – anybody can learn basic cooking skills. You just have to know what to do!

And once you do, you’ll find that the best restaurant in town is right in your own home.

 

Growing Up

I may not have always loved cooking, but I have always loved baking. Cookies, cakes, fudge, brownies… that’s what got me started in the world of cooking.

I may not have known how to make a sandwich when I was twelve, but I could make cookies or a cake from scratch if I was in the mood for something sweet!

Of course, at some point I realized that cookies and cake make a delicious diet, but maybe not such a balanced one. And I knew I was going to have to move out of my parents’ place someday, and then… no more mom to cook for me!

So I hovered in the kitchen. In the year or two before I moved out, I learned all the basic cooking skills I could. I practiced, and I went online and found recipes. And I found out that cooking something good isn’t so hard after all.

But the biggest revelation for me was realizing that a cooking method is worth a thousand recipes. It’s one thing to have a great cream of celery soup recipe. It’s a whole other to realize that you can make pretty much any cream of vegetable soup following the same technique.

And once you know the basic cooking method, you can start improving every recipe you come across!

Life Really Begins…

In 2008, I met the man of my dreams. In 2009 we got married, and I moved from Canada to the United States so that we could be together.

And nothing in the world could make me happier!

Of course, going through immigration meant that I couldn’t work for a while. I had just left a job in Montreal where overtime was a regular thing. So going from that to having all day long to do whatever I wanted took a bit of adjustment.

Meaning I had to find something to do or I would have gone crazy!

Having all day meant I could spend as much time as I wanted cooking, but there’s only so much we can eat. So I created this website.

I’ve always loved teaching. I’ll admit it… I’m a bit on the nerdy side, and in school, I’d help my friends with their math homework. And it was always such a great feeling to sit down with someone, work through a problem and see that light come on as they just got it.

And I thought, wouldn’t it be great to help people learn basic cooking skills? To show them how easy and fun it can be, and improve their quality of life by giving them the chance to make first-class meals for themselves.

Enjoy How To Cook

My goal with this website is to show people that great cooking is something anyone can do. And that it’s something you can actually learn to love.

I think that the best way to do it is to start with basic cooking skills: how to pan fry, how to make soup, how to roast… because without those basics, every time you cook, you can feel as though you’re swimming into unknown waters – and that’s not the best feeling.

I do my best to explain what you have to do and why you should do it. It’s amazing how knowing why can make all the difference.

Here’s an example that isn’t related to cooking. I recently got a sewing machine. I had never owned one, and basically had no idea how it worked on the inside, but I could use it.

Well, something happened and it stopped working. And it was so frustrating because I didn’t know what to do about it.

So I went online, and read up on how a sewing machine works. I learned all about bobbins and thread and tension, and just knowing how it worked helped me figure out what had gone wrong with mine.

Well, cooking is the same way. If you know the chemistry of what’s going on, then suddenly a whole new world opens up for you.

And that’s the world I want to show you!

Home › Cooking Vegetables › Baking Spaghetti SquashBaking spaghetti squash is a great way to enjoy a very cool vegetable. If you’ve never tried it before, spaghetti squash is just what it sounds like – a squash that gives you spaghetti-like strands when you cook it. Cool, right? It does taste like squash, but it doesn’t have a very strong flavor, which makes it perfect for sauces and things… just like spaghetti!

I think baked spaghetti squash is great. I like its mild taste. It’s not as squashy as some of the other squashes. And I find it tastes better than pasta (although I do prefer some sauces with pasta). But the thing I like best is that, for me, it feels much lighter than pasta, so that I just feel better after eating spaghetti squash.

So how do you do it? Baking spaghetti squash is mostly pretty easy. We’ll go over a few ways to do it. First, we’ll talk about preparing the squash for baking. Then we’ll go over how to bake it. And finally, we’ll talk about how to get the very cool spaghetti strands.

Here we go!

 

Preparing The Squash

Before baking spaghetti squash, you have to prepare it. That means washing it and, if you like, cutting it up.

Washing

Just to be on the safe side, you can wash your spaghetti squash. The inside of the squash is nice and clean, of course, but there might be dirt and bacteria on the skin, and they could sneak on in once you start cutting up the squash.

To wash it, just run it under lukewarm water and rub it, or brush it with a vegetable brush. Be sure to dry it afterward, so that it’s not slippery, especially if you’re going to be cutting it. And that’s it!

Cutting – Do You Have To?

This is the big question: before baking spaghetti squash, do you need to cut it? In half? In quarters? Not at all? If you’ve ever cut a spaghetti squash before, you’ll know why this question is such a big deal. Cutting a raw spaghetti squash is not easy at all. It’s a really hard vegetable, and getting the knife to cut all the way through is really tough. Especially if you have about the same strength as a newborn kitten, like me.

So, do you need to cut it, or not? In fact, you can cut it or leave it whole. But each method has its advantages and disadvantages.

• Cutting a raw spaghetti squash is pretty annoying and hard to do. If you don’t have a good, big, sharp knife, or are kind of butter-fingered, you might want to wait till the squash is cooked before cutting it. It’ll help avoid nasty accidents.
• Once you’ve cut the squash, you’ll need to remove the seeds. Now, it’s harder to get them out when the squash is raw. If it’s cooked, you can just easily scoop the seeds out. But, raw squash is so hard that you can scrape the insides pretty vigorously to get the seeds out without wasting any of the good vegetable, so it’s really not that bad.
• You’re going to have to cut the squash at some point. If you don’t do it before, you’ll have to do it once the squash is cooked. It’ll be a lot easier to cut, but it’ll also be a lot hotter, so you have to be careful.
• If you cut the squash, it’ll cook faster. The baking time goes from about an hour for a whole squash, to about 35 to 45 minutes for one cut in half. Not a huge difference, especially since baking spaghetti squash ahead of time works so well.

When I’m baking spaghetti squash, I prefer to cut it beforehand. It’s tough, and it’s annoying, and it usually ends up with me calling the squash names, but all in all I’d rather get it over with early. That way I don’t end up having to deal with a hot squash and cutting it up while trying to make the rest of dinner.

If you decide on baking the spaghetti squash whole rather than cutting it, be sure to poke it all over with a knife or skewer, about 8 or 10 times. If you don’t, the steam released by the cooking squash can build up on the inside, and make the squash explode. Wasteful and messy.

Which Way To Cut?

So there’s one more thing to think about before cutting and baking spaghetti squash: do you cut the squash lengthwise and end up with halves shaped kind of like boats? Or cut it crosswise so each half looks more like a mug?

It all depends on how long you want your strands to be. The strands don’t go from one end of the squash to the other. They actually wrap around it crosswise. So you can get longer strands cutting it crosswise.

• Longer strands look more like actual spaghetti, and give a bit more of an elegant look. And you can twirl it around a fork, which is neat.
• Shorter strands are easier to eat.

I prefer the short strands myself. It’s true, I don’t get the long, pretty strands, but all in all it’s easier to grab a bit of everything on my fork that way!

Notes

• Once you’ve cut the squash in half, you can cut it again in quarters if you like. It won’t bake all that much faster though, since the pieces will still be just as thick. All it does is make the strands shorter whenever you cut it lengthwise.

Baking Spaghetti Squash

Once it’s washed and cut up, baking spaghetti squash is super easy. Just pop it in the oven and wait! Here’s how you do it.

1. Preheat the oven to 375F.
   • Anywhere from 350F to 400F will work just fine. 400F is a bit on the hot side and will cook the squash faster, but it might make it caramelize. It’s not a bad thing, but it’ll mean a few odd, browned strands that won’t taste like the rest.
2. Place the squash on a baking sheet. If you cut it, place it cut side down. If not, be sure to poke holes in it to let the steam vent.
   • You can rub oil or spices on the squash before baking it, but it’s not necessary. The steam will keep the squash from burning. Also, you usually serve spaghetti squash with a sauce or something like that, so it doesn’t really need any seasoning while it cooks.
   • If you want an even easier clean up, you can line the baking sheet with foil or parchment paper.
3. Bake the spaghetti squash in the preheated oven until it’s done. You can test to see if it’s done with a sharp knife. Poke the skin, and the knife should slide in easily.
   • An uncut spaghetti squash will take about an hour to bake.
   • A cut squash will take less time, about 35 minutes.
   • Over-cooking the squash will turn it to mush and you won’t get the spaghetti strands. So keep an eye on it!
4. Let the squash cool about 10 or 15 minutes before handling it.

And that’s it! You now have a baked spaghetti squash.

Notes

• If you decided on baking the spaghetti squash whole, now you have to deal with cutting it and scooping out the seeds. When it’s cool enough to handle, slice it in half, lengthwise or crosswise. Be careful because the inside will still be very hot. You should be able to scoop the seeds right out. Don’t use too much pressure or you’ll end up scooping out good squash, too!

Getting The Strands

The whole point of baking spaghetti squash is to get those nice spaghetti-like strands. So your job isn’t quite done yet! Once the squash is cooked and has cooled down a little, you can grab a fork and get ready to spaghettify it.

Here’s how you do it.

1. Grab a regular dinner fork.
2. Scrape the sides of the squash.
   • I find that scraping lengthwise works best. It’s going against the direction the strands are in, and gets them out better.
   • The only exception is the two tips – the strands are tougher to get out there, and I find scraping crosswise helps.
3. Scoop out the strands and place them in a bowl. You can remove them as you scrape to give yourself more room to work with.

Your spaghetti squash strands will keep for a few weeks in the fridge in an airtight container. Or, you can freeze them in an airtight container, but they can get mushy when you defrost them. If that happens, they won’t really look like spaghetti strands at all.

You can also store the cooked spaghetti squash before scraping out the strands, but there’s not really any advantage to doing that except for the fun of procrastinating.

And that’s all there is to baking spaghetti squash. Of course, now that you have your nifty, yummy spaghetti squash strands, you’ll want to dress them up a little bit. Something as simple as butter or olive oil and sautéed garlic can be wonderful, but you can also add vegetables, meat and cheeses – Parmesan and feta are especially nice with baked spaghetti squash.

Enjoy!