Harvest Season is Here

Vegetable basket

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Mushrooms

Bulb vegetables

Leaf vegetables

Cruciferous vegetables

Fruits or Vegetables?

Root Vegetables

Stalk vegetables

Tuber vegetables

Legumes and corn

Fresh herbs

Articles by your vegetable specialist

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Vegetables Plain or Fancy
Hearty Soups
Salty and Sweet
Preserving Summer's Bounty
Tips and Tricks

Always appreciated, garden vegetables have not lost their popularity. Colourful and crisp, they lend themselves to a thousand and one combinations. These earthly treasurers are a feast for the eye as well as the palate. Stock up while they're all found in abundance at your nearest Metro.

Vegetables Plain or Fancy

Garden vegetables aren't limited to traditional or family dishes. They add a pleasing touch even to the most discriminating of tables.
Start off with an appetizer that gets the room buzzing: small bunches of broccoli slightly blanched and topped with a horse-radish and walnut vinaigrette or arrange them attractively on a tomato or red hot pepper coulis. Make it an appealing side dish by serving it lightly cooked with sliced pears, diced Roquefort and a creamy walnut sauce.
Vegetables cut julienne style, seared in a light oil with a few drops of sesame oil added, lend an exotic touch.
It's unanimous. Salmon filets are even better served in a red hot pepper coulis with lemon juice and a drop of cream.
Grilled hot peppers, summer squash, eggplants and onions brushed with garlic and herb flavoured olive oil are irresistible in salads, side dishes or entrées.
Cold or warm, salads offer limitless ways to combine vegetables and other ingredients. Try green beans, shrimp and almonds; new potatoes, red onions, walnuts and goat cheese; cauliflower, red hot peppers and black olives ... All as pleasing to the eye as to the palate!

Hearty Soups

Hot or cold, soups comfort or refresh.
For variety, perk up “old standbys” with exotic herbs or spices, or dare to try an out of the ordinary mix: cream of carrot with curry and coriander, cream of broccoli enriched with cubes of bleu d'Auvergne or eggplant and tomato soup with a little garlic.
Add artichoke bottoms cooked and diced in minestrone or cream of asparagus soups.
Green bean and potato soup takes on a new taste garnished with a puree of basil, garlic and olive oil.
Try these refreshing combinations on hot days: radish and apple velouté, tomato and beet soup with citrus fruit zest or soup made with summer squash, onions, olive oil and plain yogurt. Just add shrimp for a soup that's a meal.

Salty and Sweet

Ideal companion of sweet/salty cuisine, the onion is enjoyed both as an accompanying vegetable and condiment: caramelized with veal, candied with pâtés or in chutney with fruit.
Carrots also go well with sweet flavours. Try a salad of grated carrots, with quartered oranges and grapefruit along with a little cinnamon. Tempt your taste buds with carrot juice mixed with honey and coconut milk.
When cooking carrots, don't hesitate to add a trickle of apple or orange juice to enhance their sweet taste.
Chutneys and marinades of fruit and vegetables with a bitter-sweet taste do credit to meat dishes and accompany cheeses wonderfully.
Vegetables also go well with desserts: carrot cookies, summer-squash muffins, beet and carrot cake or green tomato pie.

Preserving Summer's Bounty

Home canning and freezing vegetables are two ways to take advantage of their abundance at summer's end. Now's the time to lay-in provisions you'll enjoy year-round.
Stored in a dark, dry and cool environment, well-prepared home-made preserves keep so long as the seal remains intact. They're best enjoyed within a year of canning, however.
Watch for signs of spoilage such as a bulging lid, a leaky jar, a spurt of liquid upon opening or viscous or pulpy marinades. These are signs that the jar is damaged. Avoid tasting the product and discard it immediately.
Vegetables stored in plastic bags made especially for freezing will keep for up to a year in a freezer at –18°C.
Most vegetables do not need to be thawed before cooking. Add them as they are to soups, sauces or casseroles. Cooking time will be shorter than when using fresh vegetables because the frozen vegetables were partially cooked during scalding.
Fully enjoy the flavour of fresh vegetables as well as their nutritional value by using them up as quickly as possible.
With the exception of onions, which should be left uncovered, most vegetables will keep in the refrigerator in a perforated plastic vegetable bag.
Broccoli, spinach and green and yellow beans keep for 4 or 5 days. Fresh carrots, cauliflower, hot peppers, tomatoes, radishes, new potatoes, summer-squash and lettuce all last up to a week while onions and beets are good for up to 4 weeks.

Tips and Tricks

Keep lettuce and spinach extra fresh by washing, draining, wrapping in absorbent paper and refrigerating them in an airproof plastic bag. If you buy them in airtight sealed packages, refrigerate them that way.
Do not wash other fresh vegetables before storing because this accelerates spoilage.
Cut the green tops off root gourd vegetables (carrots, radishes, beets) before storing because these dehydrate the vegetable and diminish its nutritional value.
Lose fewer nutritional elements and vitamin C by cooking vegetables as quickly as possible, using cooking methods that require little water or liquid, such as steaming or in the microwave.
Keep the vegetable broth as it contains nutritional elements and use it in soups or sauces. Freeze the broth in ice-cube trays and place the frozen cubes in freezer bags to use only the necessary amount when desired.