FRUIT, VEGETABLES & PULSE

 1) To give a special taste to your boiled vegetables add some julienne, crispy bacon the moment you serve them.

 2) Your cauliflower will remain white if you add a lemon slice in the water when you boil it. Also, adding some milk will absorb its heavy taste.

 3) If you cover your fresh fruit salad with lemon slices the apples and bananas won't turn dark. Take out the lemon just before serving it.

 4) You can preserve a lot of julienne cabbage in plastic bags in the fridge for a long time.

 5) If you want to stuff cabbage, put it in the freezer for one day. When it de-freezes its leaves will be soft and they won't break easily.

 6) You can prepare your salads many hours before eating them and preserve them in the fridge but you should put oil, vinegar and salt the moment you are serving them.

 7) Combine any kind of green vegetable with chicken, bacon, ham, fish, cheese lumps or seeds and your salads will be a wonderful, light dish.

 8) Never leave vegetables in the water for too long, as they will lose many of their vitamins. Better wash them under running water and then let them dry.

 9) If you buy unripe bananas, put them in a plastic bag, in room temperature. They will ripen incredibly fast. Eat them just before they start blackening.

 10) To maintain mushrooms fresh and white, put them in the fridge in a plastic bowl, covered with a piece of kitchen paper only. For even better results pour over them some lemon juice.

 11) Don't let mushrooms soak in water because they will become too soft. Better clean them with a soft cloth and slice them using the wire egg-slicing tool. It's much more effective.

 12) To make cucumber salad more digestive, remove the seeds from the centre of the cucumber and add a pinch of sugar into the oil and vinegar which you will pour it over with.

 13) When you boil vegetables choose them to be of about the same size. Moreover, after boiling them strain them immediately. This way they will remain crispy and they will preserve their green colour.

 14) To easily peel tomatoes, peaches, grapes, etc. put them in boiling water for 2 mins. Oranges require 5 mins. On the contrary, to easily peel boiled potatoes or boiled eggs, put them in cold water for 2 mins.

 15) To give life back to a withered lettuce, put it in a bowl with cold water, and pour some lemon juice on its top. Then leave it in a cool place for half an hour.

 16) Boiled lettuce, strained and covered in olive oil and lemon juice is a strong cathartic against constipation!

 17) Want to freeze vegetables? Clean them well, cut them to pieces, scald them for 3-4 mins and neatly put them in  the freezer, in plastic bags.

 18) Wrap the aromatic herbs with kitchen paper and put them in the fridge, in plastic bags. this way they won't rot.

 19) If your apples have become withered, don't throw them away. Turn them into stewed fruit, after having cleaned them well though.

 20) To gain more juice out of oranges or lemons, plunge them into boiling water for 1-2 mins and then squeeze them at once. You can have the same effect if you cut them in halves and put them in the freezer in plastic bags for 2 days. Then de-freeze them in room temperature.

 21) Carrots taste much better if you add 1 spoonful of virgin olive oil and 1 spoonful of sugar and mix them well while boiling.

 22) After you have boiled and strained greenery, put some salt and lemon juice in their broth and drink it! It is unbelievably healthy, full of vitamins and does good to the stomach, too.

 23) You haven't enough time to boil vegetables to produce vegetable broth? Don't panic. Put carrots, onions, garlic and water in the blender and your broth will be ready in 3 mins!

 24) Pour some boiling water onto onion slices and then dry them using kitchen paper. This way they will be cooked or fried faster and more easily.

 25) To revive your celery, put it in a bowl together with water and a potato cut in half. Then put the bowl in the fridge for a few hours.

 26) Never add fresh pineapple in jellies, because they will not congeal. Instead, boil it for 5 mins or use tinned one.

 27) To help avocados ripen faster, put them in a plastic bag together with a couple of bananas and seal it well.

 28) To be sure that your vegetables are completely cleaned, flush them well and then put them in a washbowl together with cold water and a cup of vinegar. After 10 mins rinse them and they will be ready then.

 29) A ginger root will be preserved out of the fridge for several months if you plunge it into a glass of vodka. It will also get better taste.

 30) Brussels sprouts adopt a special taste if a) when you boil them add some white wine and b) spread some fresh spearmint just before serving them.

 31) The best crust for fried zucchinis, eggplants or mussels is the following professional recipe: flour, water, baking powder, some fresh yeast, a pinch of soda (sodium bicarbonate), a little virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.

 32) When you cook fresh beans, peas or okras in the casserole, these will get a special flavour if, among all the other aromatics you add a sliced, green pepperoni.