How to cook a vegetable you have never cooked

The questions to ask it

1. Is it hard or soft? Hard things need long or wet cooking; soft things need short and dry.
2. Is it wet or dry? A watery vegetable will steam in its own liquid unless you give it high heat and space. A dry one needs fat or moisture.
3. Is it starchy? Test with a fingernail — a starchy vegetable is dense and chalky rather than juicy. Starchy things roast, mash and fry well.
4. Which part of the plant is it? Roots roast and braise; stems suit both; leaves want brief cooking; flower heads suit roasting and steaming; fruits suit almost anything.
5. Does it smell of anything raw? Taste a small piece raw if it is safe to. A bitter one wants fat and salt; a sweet one will caramelise.
6. Does it have a tough part? Peel, core, stem base or outer layer. Most unfamiliar vegetables have one and it is usually obvious once you cut it.
7. Then choose a method and cook a small amount first before committing the whole thing.

What each structure wants

Dense root or tuber

Roast, braise, mash or fry. Long cooking, and it will take on colour well.

Watery fruit vegetable

Courgette, aubergine, tomato, cucumber. High heat and space, salting first, or eaten raw.

Leafy green, tender

Brief heat, or raw. Wilts in a minute.

Leafy green, tough

Kale, cavolo nero, collards. Longer cooking, often with fat and acid.

Stem

Celery, chard stalks, cardoon, kohlrabi. Braise or sauté; often needs peeling or stringing.

Flower head

Broccoli, cauliflower, romanesco, artichoke. Roast, steam or fry; do not boil to death.

Pod or bean

Brief cooking if tender, long if starchy.

Anything bitter

Fat, salt, acid and a little sweetness. Charring helps.

The safe default methods

If you learn nothing about it, one of these will work.

• Roast it. Cut into even pieces, oil, salt, hot oven until it browns and gives to a knife. This works for most vegetables and improves nearly all of them.
• Sauté it in fat with garlic, and finish with lemon. Works for anything that is not woody.
• Braise it. Fat, aromatics, a little liquid, a lid, gentle heat. Rescues anything tough.
• Steam or blanch a small piece to see how long it takes and what it tastes like plain. This is genuinely informative.
• Char it. High heat, cut side down. Very few vegetables are worse for it.
• Do not boil it in a lot of water, which is the one method that makes almost everything worse.

Two things to check before cooking anything unfamiliar

First, that it is a food. Not every plant that looks like a vegetable in a market is one you should eat raw, and a few common vegetables — notably some beans and some tubers — need specific preparation before they are safe. If you do not know what it is, find out what it is before you cook it.

Second, whether it needs any particular treatment. Some foods require specific cooking before eating, and that is a food-safety matter rather than a culinary one. FoodHQ does not publish those procedures; the Food Standards Agency is the authority in the UK and its guidance is the one to follow.

Neither of these is a reason to be timid about an unfamiliar vegetable. They are a reason to identify it first.

Common questions