Very often in recipes you can find the phrase “save vegetables”, which, as a rule, refers to onions, carrots, roots. And almost never after it does not appear what is sautéing and how to do it according to the rules. We’ll tell you, for those who are not in the know.
Sauteing is a preliminary heat treatment of a product in order to improve the taste and aroma of dishes. It consists of frying finely chopped vegetables over moderate heat in a sufficient amount of oil, and this is done until soft, avoiding burning.
Why do this? The fact is that onions, carrots and other roots contain essential oils that give the soup its characteristic taste and aroma. But, if the onion is simply thrown into boiling water, most of these oils will quickly disappear and the dish will taste bland.
And during sautéing, essential oils from onions and carrots evaporate gradually, and some of them are taken up by fat, in which the vegetables are sautéed (evenly heated). If you add the roots processed in this way to the soup at the very end of cooking, then almost all the taste and aroma of onions and carrots will be preserved. After all, fat releases essential oils much more slowly. In addition, the carotene contained in carrots dissolves in vegetable oil and gives the soup a pleasant color.
Sauteed vegetables have a golden color and delicate texture, they make ready meals tastier, more aromatic and healthier.
Passing rules:
- Place the chopped vegetables in a shallow preheated dish.
- The layer of onions or carrots should not be more than 5 cm
- Fat or vegetable oil is used in the amount of 15-20% of the weight of the pastured vegetables
- Stir the onions and carrots constantly to coat them evenly with fat.
- Sauteing must be carried out quickly enough over low heat.
- Avoid browning.