This Is How to Ensure Your Veggies Aren’t Soggy

We’ve all chopped up our vegetables, popped them in a pan, and despite our best efforts, they come out soggy. Thankfully, there’s a prep step that’ll help prevent those water-logged messes.

With high water content vegetables like zucchini, eggplant, and bell pepper, you need salt and a little bit of time to make sure they don’t go soggy when cooking.

How does this work exactly? The salt draws the water out of the veggies helping them crunch up before cooking and ensuring they won’t release the water will in a pan or the oven. To use the trick. add 1/2 to one teaspoon of kosher salt per pound of veggies. Toss them with the salt in a colander, and then place the colander into a bowl. Let the veggies sit for 30 minutes to a few hours, and you’ll see the water begin to drain from them and into the bowl.

You’ll likely notice that your vegetables have shrunk a bit, but that’s just due to moisture loss. Once the water has evaporated from them, they’ll be more flavorful, and you won’t have to contend with them cooking in their own water and getting mushy.

If you want to remove the water and then store your veggies, check out these containers that’ll keep them fresh in your fridge.

[Via America’s Test Kitchen]