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Crudité Platter of Seasonal Vegetables
Prep: 20 minutes/ Cooking: 10 to 15 minutes/ Yield: 12 servings
Unlike raw crudités, most people find these vegetables more tender, tasty, and digestible. You can prepare the vegetables up to 8 hours before company arrives. Second-day leftovers are great for pack lunches or quick meals at home. I vary vegetables with the season. For company, consider serving vegetables with a selection of 2 or 3 dips or dressings.
FYI: As an appetizer, figure 1/2 to 1 cup cooked vegetables per person. As a side salad figure 1 1/2 to 2 cups per person if you will not be serving a tossed salad or other cooked greens.
Ingredients:
3 quarts filtered water
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon unrefined sea salt (1/4 teaspoon per quart)
Additional filtered water and ice for chilling
3 medium carrots (about 3 cups), cut into sticks suitable for dipping
1 medium cauliflower, 5 to 6 inches in diameter (about 5 to 6 cups), cut into florets with enough of stem attached to made a handle for holding
1 pound asparagus (about 4 cups), woody bottom portion discarded where it breaks easily and remaining stems cut into 1 1/2- to 2-inch lengths
1 medium-size sweet red bell pepper, halved, cored, seeded, stemmed, cut into 1-inch wide strips
1 sweet yellow bell pepper, halved, cored, seeded, stemmed, cut into 1-inch wide strips
1. Arrange each kind of vegetable in a separate bowl.
2. Bring salted water to boil in large pot over medium-high heat. Immerse pasta insert in at least 3 inches of water or have a large skimmer ready to promptly retrieve vegetables.
3. Cook each variety of vegetables separately, but in the same water in this order: carrots 30 to 60 seconds, cauliflower 1 to 3 minutes, asparagus 60 seconds, peppers 30 seconds.
4. After cooking each vegetable, remove with skimmer and plunge in ice water. Remove from cold water, drain and squeeze to remove excess moisture. Add more ice to bowl as needed. Let water to return to boil before adding a new vegetable and start timing once water returns to boil. When done, discard cooking water.
5. Arrange vegetables on more platter(s). Serve 2 or 3 dips or dressings in small custard cups on the side. Refrigerate leftovers and use within 3 days or freeze. Do not reheat.
Entire recipe: 565 calories, 35 g protein, 104 g carbohydrate (32 g fiber), 1 g fat, 784 mg calcium, 797 mg sodium
1 heaping cup: 47 calories, 3 g protein, 9 g carbohydrate (3 g fiber), 65 mg calcium, 65 mg sodium
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