Between eating a ton of veggies, and the garden we keep during the summer, I knew hosing down my veggies wasn't doing the trick. I called a friend who gave me this simple recipe, and it was worked great for me! They have a ton of them online, and I experimented with a few others, but this is my go to for clean produce. Last summer we had an amazing garden, but half of it went to waste because we didn't know how to handle any prep. One day while doing the soak I realized "Why am I not doing prepping any of these vegetables?". Now, maybe you realized this the entire time, dare with me, I am new to all of this. Now, a few months later and a little more organized, this is my route.
What you need:
I start buy taking everything I am going to eat this week, and the things I want to put in the freezer out of storage. I take all the tags off, and do a simple rinse with water, trying to get the bigger clumps of dirt off before I set them back on the counter. I set up a cutting board on one side of the sink, so if I need to do any chopping or prep I can have that set up right away. I then set up different "stations" for drying. Usually I grab a handful of kitchen towels and put them on surfaces around me. I do about 5 at a time, its really up to you. If I am blanching any vegetables, I would put on a big pot of water at this point! I will say that prepping all this before you get started really helps everything go easily.
- One Lemon
- White Vinegar
- Kitchen Towels
- Paper Towels
- Tupperware
- Produce Bags (the ones you get at the grocery store to bag the produce)
I start buy taking everything I am going to eat this week, and the things I want to put in the freezer out of storage. I take all the tags off, and do a simple rinse with water, trying to get the bigger clumps of dirt off before I set them back on the counter. I set up a cutting board on one side of the sink, so if I need to do any chopping or prep I can have that set up right away. I then set up different "stations" for drying. Usually I grab a handful of kitchen towels and put them on surfaces around me. I do about 5 at a time, its really up to you. If I am blanching any vegetables, I would put on a big pot of water at this point! I will say that prepping all this before you get started really helps everything go easily.
I scrub down my sink with soap and water, making sure to get it nice and squeaky clean. I make sure to clean the tops of the sink and the sink stop. If you have a sink you might not trust, you can use a bowl for this, I use the sink because it doubles as cleaning I would have to do later. After it is clean, I start to fill it using room temperature water. You don't want hot, and cold is fine as well, my kitchen has some serious draft in the winter and I use room temperature to keep my hands from freezing!
Squeeze in a lemon! You can fish out the seeds, but they are fine floating at the bottom. I always cut my lemon in half, microwave it for about 45 seconds, and then squeeze it in. heating the lemon makes more juice come out! Make sure the lemon is ok to touch before you grab it, sometimes they get super hot.
Then add 1 cup of vinegar. Some websites say a half cup, some say a cup and a half, but I use a cup and feel like it does the trick. Do whatever works for you! Now that my mix is complete, I wait for the sink to be 3/4th full,and I swirl around the water, mixing the lemon and vinegar.
Soak your produce!! I usually fill up the sink and let them sit for about 15 to 20 minutes. The best way I find is to load up the sink, occasionally turning the produce around to make sure all of it is getting soaked. After 15 minutes, pull something out, putting something else in. That way nothing is too cramped, nothing sits too long, and you can get to work on the rinse and prep!
Rinse the veggies off! I give it a good long rinse, maybe a minute, I make sure I move stuff around, giving it all a good shake at the end. Take a look at everything, toss anything that is still looking rough or anything that is mushy and turning bad. This may seem wasteful, but I do this and my veggies last for a long, long time, and I only ever toss a handful out for each prep session. If you are blanching you and now prep and get working on that before you go on to the next step
Spread your produce out on a drying station. You don't want a big pile, it will just trap water and make the drying process impossible (trust me I have tried). Drying usually takes the longest, maybe 30 minutes depending on what you need to dry. Thats why I set up more than a few drying stations around the kitchen. I also put a small layer of paper towel over my kitchen towels (because I don't have a ton of kitchen towels at this point), just to absorb the immediate water and make it easy to reuse the station on the next round of veggies. If its taking a long time, you can always grab a towel and wipe the excess off. I usually do that with tomatoes, squash, anything with a "waxy" exterior.
After everything is nice and dry, I put all of it away. For years I had assumed every thing loved being in the fridge, and had no idea how it was stored. I dug around the internet and read different guides, and started experimenting with different storage methods. I like to reuse the produce bags they give me at the store, I usually just turn them inside out and pop anything heading to the fridge in them (carrots, celery, peppers, mushrooms).
The veggies that like to sit out I toss in our hanging baskets, which are great for un-ripened fruit because they get tons of sunlight(avocados, lemons, limes, apples, bananas)! The onions go into a paper bag with holes punched in it. The potatoes get put into a ceramic crock, they last forever in that thing!
The frozen veggies get put into containers or bags, depending on what they are. Any greens that are being frozen I place on a sheet with paper towel first, and once they are frozen (usually when you are done, if you time it right) I put them into bags. Then I am done! If this is planned, its just an hour or two in your day. I love the ease of knowing that everything I am eating is clean and it cuts serious time out of the week during meals/snacks/packing lunch to have everything prepped.
Do you have any short cuts you do for your produce prep? Share them in the comments section! Thanks for reading!
Do you have any short cuts you do for your produce prep? Share them in the comments section! Thanks for reading!