A beautiful vegetable plate, the composition of which may be different, is the visiting card of any holiday or event with a buffet table. Of course, if the plate contains dry carrots, sluggish cucumbers, and if you are lucky, chopped bell peppers seasoned with purchased mayonnaise will not cause any appetite. No wonder many people do not like vegetables. Now imagine: a beautifully laid out juicy and crunchy radish, bright green, freshly picked asparagus, a bunch of ripe cherry tomato tomatoes bursting under the pressure of teeth and lettuce leaves sparkling with drops of water. Appetizingly?
A vegetable plate is a must for a festive table. This is not the main dish of the table, but its main decoration. For those who do not like salads, a vegetable plate is a good way out of the situation. If, mainly, meat will be present on the table, for example in the form of barbecue, then vegetables must be present. The body, absorbing a large amount of fat and protein, will need fiber, which is rich in vegetables.
Where to begin?
And you need to start ... with a trip to the market, because the main condition for a beautiful vegetable cutting is the freshness of vegetables. So, it's time to go to the paradise of plant delights.
All vegetables lose quality over time. To get a beautiful vegetable plate, you need to follow two rules: buy vegetables on the day of the celebration and learn how to store them correctly.
Here are some suggestions:
- Root crops such as carrots, turnips, radishes and the like should be stored in a loose plastic bag in the vegetable compartment. If there is greens that you want to use, they should be wrapped in a damp paper towel and placed in a plastic bag.
- Green vegetables such as asparagus, peas, zucchini, broccoli should be stored wrapped in a damp paper towel in a plastic bag, in the vegetable compartment.
- Lettuce and other leafy vegetables should be stored wrapped in moist paper towels in a plastic bag and left with roots for as long as possible. Separate lettuce just before serving.
- Tomatoes should be stored at room temperature. Never put fresh tomatoes in the refrigerator, as this negatively affects their texture.
Just vegetables? It's boring!
Just vegetables? It's boring!
Add the sauce! But not purchased (although there are a lot of them now - for every taste and color), but made with your own hands. Believe me, it does not compare with the purchase.
The simplest and most delicious sauce is based on sour cream with herbs. Mix a glass of low-fat sour cream with a glass of unsweetened yogurt (you can add two or three tablespoons of mayonnaise), squeeze out two or three cloves of garlic, add a little salt, pepper and add finely chopped greens (two or three branches of parsley, dill and green onion). Pour the sauce into a small saucepan and place it in the center of the vegetable plate.
Color is important
On the vegetable plate can be absolutely any vegetables. But here is the important thing: they must be neatly and correctly cut and arranged in colors. If you have a wide variety of vegetables, you can place them according to the colors of the spectrum - from red to pink tomatoes to bright orange carrots and then to yellow pepper, going to broccoli and cucumbers and ending with purple asparagus. This vegetable slicing looks amazing. But it’s nice and easy to arrange the vegetables so that the colors contrast with each other. In any case, it will look beautiful.
Vegetable plate decoration
Slicing ... Sloppy chopped vegetables can ruin the whole impression and appetite. How to make a vegetable plate?
- Pepper must be freed from the core and stem and cut into strips.
- Broccoli and cauliflower must first be divided into small inflorescences, then, depending on their freshness, they can either be served raw or blanched for no more than a minute in boiling water, and then immediately immersed in ice water. They will become crispy and very tasty (aldente).
- Carrot. Its delivery depends on the size. Large carrots can be cut into strips and serve raw. Small carrots can be blanched and served whole.
- Celery is easy enough to cut into strips. Remember to clean it to remove long, viscous, fibrous threads. Store celery in ice water.
- Cherry tomatoes should be served as is. You can even not remove them from the branch, if this is permissible.
- The cucumber is peeled, cut in half lengthwise, the seeds are removed with a spoon, then cut lengthwise into strips.
- Radish can simply be washed and served right with leaves, if it is very small.
- Peas. The pea is removed from the pea, and if the peas are tender, calmly serve them raw, and if they are large and dense, blanch and then arrange an ice shower for them.
- Zucchini and squash are usually served aldenta (blanching plus ice water). But if you have milk zucchini with a very delicate skin and without seeds, then it can be served raw.
New Year and Christmas
New Year's and Christmas feasts, too, can not do without vegetable plates. You can make a Christmas tree of vegetables. For this we need: broccoli, cauliflower, yellow pepper, cherry tomatoes and a little crispy straws. Rinse and dry the vegetables thoroughly. Separate the extreme inflorescences of broccoli and cauliflower from the stems. Arrange the broccoli on a serving platter, giving them the shape of a tree, and the tomatoes in the form of a garland. Lay out strips of bell pepper in the shape of a star and cauliflower in the form of snow (see photo above). If desired, you can close the lid and store in the refrigerator for up to four hours. Just before serving, place a straw on the bottom of the tree to form a trunk.
For children
It's no secret that children especially do not like vegetables. But the kids love the fun and love to play. So, you can make a work of art from a vegetable plate. So vegetables will be more fun to eat. For a children's table, various animals, mushrooms, birds, and so on can be cut from vegetables. Do not create huge designs. Better it will be small, but beautifully decorated dishes. For such work, the kids will be sincerely grateful. For example, you can make palm trees: string olives on skewers, decorate the top with parsley. Or make a frog princess out of a cucumber. Any fantasy flight will ultimately be successful.
Carving as the art of cutting vegetables
When we were little, they told us that eating vegetables is good, that they will make us healthy. But the Japanese came up with another motivation: their vegetables are a whole work of art, and the name of this art is carving. The ancient Japanese practice of carving vegetables (and fruits) easily inspires us to eat healthy foods. And really, how not to eat a carrot if it looks like a rose? Or a radish that looks like a peony? Of course, vegetable plates decorated in this way are not cheap. But not a single serious event can do without curly vegetable slicing.