I met something strange at a tiny Cuban café. The fritters were crisp outside, soft inside, and tasted like a cozy potato met a nutty chestnut. I asked the cook what it was. He smiled: “It’s malanga.” If you’ve seen knobby brown roots at Latin or Caribbean markets and wondered what to do with them, …
Fennel is perhaps one of the most confusing plants that you can bring into your kitchen. Looks like a very odd onion, tastes nothing like an onion. Has dill-like fronds, they taste nothing like dill. The stalks look like celery, but taste nothing like celery. So what can you do with fennel, how can you …
Cabbage is a very old vegetable and it’s actually the mother of a lot of vegetables we tend to think are healthy, like broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, asparagus, brussel sprouts, and so on. While its derivates are often sulfur-y but delicious, cabbage can be overwhelming, both in smell and flavor. Today we’re looking at why cabbage …
Radishes are perhaps not the most common vegetable on our plates, but half the reason for this is its on again, off again spiciness. Radishes are delicious in their own way, but they sometimes have an unexpected kick that can completely catch you off guard. So let’s see why radishes are spicy (when they are) …
Green peppers are a common item alongside many dishes, and often they’re found in dishes that are supposed to be hot. But as far as you know, green peppers are not ripe, and so are they even spicy? Would a green pepper be sweet? Is there a difference between a green hot pepper and a …
Asparagus is delicious yet temperaments, and sometimes even the best of cooks can get a bad batch of stringy asparagus. Sometimes it’s the cook, sometimes it’s the veggie. So let’s take a look at why asparagus is stringy sometimes, and what you can do about it. Why is asparagus stringy ? Cooked asparagus can be …
Beans, absolutely filling and delicious, but they don’t sit well with everyone. If you’re someone who likes beans (I do!), then you know that cooking your own beans, from dry, is a whole other story than canned beans. Oh, canned beans are amazing in a pinch, and they save you so much time! But I …
The cold season is here and so are the preparations for the holiday menus. One of the staples is the green bean, whether it’s steamed and buttered, or in a casserole, or grilled, or fried, doesn’t matter. It just needs to be on the table. But most people either cook their green beans wrong, or …
Corn is possibly one of the best fall harvests, both because it’s easy to use in many dishes, and because it tastes so good. Unfortunately by the time the holidays come up the fresh corn is already dried and mostly ready to be turned into cornmeal. So your options are mostly canned corn, which is …
Brussel sprout season is fast approaching and figuring out how to make it taste delicious is… a task. Why are brussel sprouts bitter, and what can you do to make them taste better ? Is it true that modern brussel sprouts are milder than the ones grown 100 years ago ? What do you pair …
Cauliflower is a delicious and very nutritious veggie, and you might feel tempted to cook the entire head when you find a good looking one. But what if you get leftovers ? Can you reheat cauliflower ? And what if you’re meal prepping, does cauliflower reheat well and does it get mushy later on ? …
Broccoli, it’s become one of the staples of healthy eating, and for good reason. But it’s also notoriously hard to get right, in terms of texture. For some people it may be a good idea to cook their healthy meals in large batches, and portion them for later in the week (meal prep). And if …
Wondering if you should peel those carrots ? After all, they look mostly clean, wouldn’t a quick scrub get them ready for cooking ? Let’s take a look at whether you really need to peel carrots or not, whether there’s any point to keeping the skin on, and why we peel carrots in the first …
Broccoli rabe(Rapini) is not as common as regular broccoli, but many people that tried it said that it tastes bitter, so in this article, we will talk about why broccoli rabe is bitter. It is always annoying when you want to eat vegetables that are not supposed to be bitter, and you find out that …
There is a lot of hype about aloe vera’s health benefits, but not many people talk about what aloe vera taste like, not the store-bought juice that maybe has some sweeteners, flavoring, or sugars but the actual aloe vera plant. Also, the hype is way over the line of actual evidence and studies that confirm …
We really love basil, and we try to buy fresh one that is on the plant and pick the leaves ourselves, but I never question if I can eat basil stems. But now, after seeing that people are curious if basil stems are edible, I suddenly became curious as well and decided to research the …
We all hate the bitter taste, especially when it comes from something that is not supposed to be bitter, but why is ginger bitter sometimes and most of the time isn’t. Well, in this article, we will discuss if that’s normal or if you should throw away the ginger if it tastes bitter. For some …
If you like eggplants and cook them often, most likely you found some that taste bitter, but why is there any bitterness in eggplant? Are they supposed to be bitter, or should you throw them away? In this article, I will talk about what makes eggplants bitter and how you can get rid of the …
We all know that kale is a healthy and very versatile vegetable, but why is it bitter? The fact that sometimes kale is bitter is off-putting for most people. For this reason, in this article, we will talk about how to remove the bitterness, what causes the bitter taste, and also if it’s safe to …
We all like cabbage salad or cooked cabbage, but sometimes cabbage can have a bitter taste which can be off-putting for most people. In this article, we will discuss why cabbage can be bitter, how to remove its bitterness, whether it is still safe to eat, and more. I understand why you can have this …