Culinary art is a separate territory within which its own rules and laws apply. A true professional knows that meat must have a good, satisfying and mouth-watering “arrangement”, which can be dishes from vegetables and mushrooms.
Harmonious combination
An ensemble of these two components can be directly an independent dish. Vegetables and mushrooms are a great addition to meat and other “soloists”.
Traditionally, dishes from vegetables and mushrooms were everyday food. Only festive feasts pushed them to the secondary plan, giving way to meat, fish or poultry. The explanation is worth looking for in religious principles. The fact is that about 200 days a year (out of 365) falls on a post, which means that the Orthodox man could only have vegetables and cereals on the menu, which were sometimes diluted with fish dishes. There is nothing surprising in the fact that on Christmas or another holiday I didn’t really want to put dishes of vegetables and mushrooms on the table.
However, times have changed. Now the side dish is paid much more attention, if only because vegetables and mushrooms themselves are nutritious products from which you can prepare a lot of amazing and delicious dishes.
Cooking features
An important feature - vegetable and mushroom side dishes should be steamed. This will preserve the attractive appearance of the products, as well as all their useful qualities. To use the full value and nutritional value of the ingredients, you must follow some rules:
- Almost all vegetables, except beets, green peas and carrots, should be dipped in boiling, slightly salted, water (about 10 grams of salt per 1 liter of water).
- For cooking vegetables, approximately 600 to 700 ml of water per 1 kg of food should be used.
- After the vegetables have boiled, you just need to reduce the fire - this is necessary to boil the vegetables and prevent the liquid from boiling out.
- Spinach leaves, bean pods, asparagus, peas and artichokes are boiled in plenty of water - this will help to avoid color loss.
- Frozen vegetables should be cooked in its original form, without defrosting.
It remains only to add that dishes from vegetables and mushrooms can be complex and simple. The latter include cold snacks and simply sliced foods, which can act as a light side dish in spring or summer.
Garnish classification
Garnish is intended to decorate or complement the main course. Accordingly, the classification of side dishes occurs according to a completely understandable principle: to meat, poultry, fish or seafood. Vegetable dishes can be served raw - in which case it will be a light side dish for meat. In addition, vegetables can be baked, fried or stewed. It all depends on the level of the festive celebration and the situation itself.
There are several types of side dishes:
- Vegetable.
- Cereals and legumes.
- Mushrooms.
- Pasta.
- Fresh greens.
- Varieties of cereals.
Side dishes are not only for decorating dishes. Vegetables contain large amounts of vitamins and nutrients, which is very useful for digestion. The main thing is to choose the right supplement, which will not only improve the taste of the dish, but also make it more useful and digestible.
Proper cooking and serving of vegetable dishes
Any housewife should know which side dish complements meat, poultry or fish. It will not be amiss to recall how to combine dishes and culinary delights. This will help not only to create complex dishes from vegetables and mushrooms, but also to combine them for various occasions.
So, for example, boiled meat perfectly complements potatoes, carrots, green peas or bean pods cooked in the same way. Braised turnips, zucchini, eggplant, the same potatoes or carrots are in harmony with stew. In this case, the meat can first be fried, and then brought to readiness by stewing along with vegetables. So the dish will turn out more juicy and rich.
Dishes and side dishes from vegetables and mushrooms are beautiful in themselves - they can be used as the main product on the summer table, when the body does not require heavy food.
Julienne deserves special attention - finely chopped vegetables and mushrooms baked in a cheese pot. This dish will become the highlight of the festive table and will certainly cause exclamations of admiration.
Summer-autumn menu
The end of summer and the beginning of autumn is a wonderful time when a whole grocery store is at hand. And if you still go to the nearest forest - you can pick up a couple of mushrooms, which will become the main ingredient in an unusual dish.
There are several ways to cook juicy and fragrant julienne, which will certainly be appreciated by everyone present at the table. So, recipe number 1 - "Simple julienne with zucchini and mushrooms."
To prepare the dish you will need the following ingredients:
- A pound of champignons.
- A slightly smaller amount of sour cream is approximately 400 grams.
- 1 onion and the same number of zucchini squash.
- 100 grams of grated cheese.
- 2 tablespoons of flour.
- Salt and spices.
First of all, it is necessary to fry finely chopped zucchini in a pan, then add onion, chopped into thin slices, and mushrooms. The mixture is stewed in a pan for 10 minutes. Then you need to make the sauce. Mix flour and sour cream in a pan, add a small amount of water, and then send to vegetables and stew until cooked. Serve the dish in pots, sprinkled with grated cheese.
Hot dishes of vegetables and mushrooms
Here it is worth paying attention to the method of serving stewed zucchini with mushrooms. Ingredients can be found in any garden or the nearest store:
- 2 zucchini;
- the same amount of tomatoes;
- 300 grams of porcini mushrooms;
- 4 tablespoons of sour cream;
- garlic;
- salt and spices.
First of all, you need to stew the mushrooms with sour cream. In parallel with this, you can do zucchini. Cut vegetables into small rings (not more than 1 cm), roll in flour on both sides and fry in a pan. Tomatoes also need to be cut into rings and slightly dried in a dry frying pan.
After this, put the fried zucchini on a large dish, season it with crushed garlic using a press, then build a layer of mushrooms stewed in sour cream, and then put a thin layer of tomatoes. The whole structure generously wakes up with fresh finely chopped greens. Sprinkle with a little soy sauce.
His Majesty Julien
This time classic, with porcini mushrooms and eggplant. In principle, dishes from vegetables, mushrooms and cheese can act as an independent side dish, which does not require the main ingredient. You will need the following ingredients:
- 300 grams of porcini mushrooms (suitable and frozen);
- 200 grams of hard cheese;
- the same amount of sour cream and eggplant;
- some butter for frying mushrooms;
- a little vegetable oil for frying vegetables;
- Well, of course, salt and spices.
The ingredients are prepared. It remains only to learn the features of cooking dishes from vegetables and mushrooms.
Step by step recipe
Fresh porcini mushrooms should be cut into small slices, put in a pan and fry in butter. Wait for the complete evaporation of the liquid, then add ½ part of sour cream and simmer for another 5 minutes. Then you can cook the eggplant - finely chop the vegetables and fry in a pan, adding grated cheese at the end.
After this, the mushrooms should be laid out in ceramic pots, sprinkled with vegetables on top, pour the remaining sour cream, the remaining grated cheese and send to the oven for 10-15 minutes.
Each housewife has her own unique recipes for cooking vegetable and mushroom side dishes. With the onset of the summer season, meat and other heavy foods that replace succulent and wholesome vegetables leave the daily menu.