We are all busy with our jobs and we hardly get time to go to the grocery store to buy fresh vegetables in the weekdays. So literally many of us buy them in the weekends and eat them throughout the week. Here are some tips to keep them fresh for a longer time and keep intact their nutrients too-
- As soon as you bring them in home, just cut the bad leaves from them. If they remain there , they will tend to ruin the other too. So better leave them first.
- Trimming of stalks or other parts help to enhance the self life of leafy vegetables. Also they will take lesser place in the refrigerator. So you can store more in a small place.
- If you have so many green leafy vegetables, place them in your clean and empty sink and wash thoroughly to wash out any sand, soil from them. Keep them there for some time to clear other debris.
- If you are planning to cook them in next one or two days, you can chop them. Otherwise store them in whole .
- Place a clean cotton cloth or towel on the table and place the clean leaves there. Don’t make a thick layer of leaves. Make sure you have just keep them in a thin layer to dry them.
- After that roll down carefully the cloth or towel. It helps to dry the wet leaves and enhances their life when they are stored in the refrigerator.
- If you planning to eat salads in that week, try to eat them early days of that week. Cause older leaves tend to taste a little bitter and not so fresh.
- If you want to cook them you can use them in the mid week days. But after that you can use left leaves to garnish or for pizza toppings or in veg rolls in later days of the week.
- Don’t store them in the plastic carry bags with tightly binding the neck of the plastic. It never keeps your leafy vegetables fresh and causes nutrient loss in them.
- Never use preservatives. Your vegetables are already treated by several way in the market before you buy them. Please don’t do further harm to your body yourself.
Cautions- Now sellers do add chemical colors and artificial fresheners to the vegetables to make them look fresh and colorful. But as you know these colors are too much harmful for your health. So you need to take some cautions.
- Always soak them for a moderate amount of time in the clean water before cooking. It will help to wash out chemical colors.
- These colors are highly carsinogenic and causes cancer.
- Sometimes leafy vegetables got attacked with fungus and mold. You should careful enough to check them before you cook if they have fungus or not.
- Always avoid the rotten part of your leafy vegetables as they can give your food rotten smell. They are not at all healthy too.