#LockdownTales #GreensInTheFridge
Eating green leafy vegetables is very important to build immunity. Especially during a pandemic of this nature, where no cure has been found, the only thing we can rely upon is our own immunity. While all vegetables are available, with the lockdown in place, its important to store some of the vegetables for a long time, so that the number of trips to the vegetable vendor can be reduced.
I will write about some vegetables that stay fresh without refrigeration and those that lend themselves to freezing, but this post is about how to store green leafy vegetables. We get Spinach, Coriander and Fenugreek right through the year. Am adding broccoli to the green vegetable list even though its not leafy ! We have also started getting Lettuce, Kale and other salad greens because of the hydroponics farms that have come up in Manesar and a few other places.
- Never wash the green leafy vegetable till you are ready to cook it.
- Just cut off the stems if they have a lot of the roots or soil on them.
- Wrap them in white tissues or paper towels
- Place them inside a plastic bag and preferably keep them on top of your vegetable tray.
- Don’t place any heavy vegetable or some pan/pot/tin over them in the fridge.
- Ensure that your plastic bag is totally dry
Separate them into bunches that you can cook at one time so that you don’t have to take them out and repack them every now and then. If there is moisture in the plastic bag, the greens will spoil rapidly. Do not use the spoilt, slimy greens ever. If greens are packed this way, they stay fresh for nearly a week to ten days.
The other staple in South Indian food is the curry leaf. I can’t think of making any South Indian curry without the curry leaf being a part of it. This versatile and mineral rich leaf is also the easiest to store – just remove the leaves from the stem, put them into a plastic bag and plonk them in the freezer. They stay fresh for six months ! This was the biggest learning from Anu when we visited Keshav and her in Munich. Because they don’t get enough curry leaves easily in Germany, they pack a large batch every time they visit India and just freeze it.
Stay Safe. Stay Home. Eat Greens !