The Soft Approach: In Praise of Soft-Cooked Vegetables

A cook ventures past the point of al dente

By Lesley Porcelli

The Soft Approach: In Praise of Soft-Cooked Vegetables

Credit: Todd Coleman

I blame Julia Child for our national aversion to soft vegetables. It wasn't until she started urging American cooks—in her books and on her PBS series, The French Chef—to blanch everything from green beans to kale and then shock them in cold water, that a bright green color and firm texture were programmed in our minds as the platonic ideal. Well, I grew up on soggy broccoli rabe, and that's still my favorite way to eat it. Granted, broccoli rabe that's cooked just beyond its bright green state yet is still unpalatably bitter is a foul punishment. But something happens if you keep cooking it past that point. Eventually it becomes mellow, unctuous—creamy, even—the stems melting away in the mouth as ethereally as the florets.

That was how my grandmother, who hailed from the Abruzzi region of Italy, prepared it, but early on I noticed that broccoli rabe like my nonna's was nowhere to be found outside our home. In restaurants and on cooking shows, it was prepared one way: blanched, then sautéed. And served one way: safely on the firm side of tender. When I got a kitchen of my own and started collecting cookbooks, I realized that the most respected food authorities were opposed to certain long-cooked vegetables. In the vegetable volume of Time-Life's The Good Cook series (1979), the editors advised to "keep the cooking time brief" for all crucifers lest they "become sulfurous." Yet I knew full well that Nonna's broccoli rabe—and my own—never had that offensive smell. And then there was food science writer Harold McGee, whose On Food and Cooking (Scribner, 1984) proclaimed, "Prolonged cooking makes members of the onion family more sweet and mellow, but the cabbage family gets more overbearing and unpleasant." Full stop.

You've got to really push the envelope, push through the just-cooked stage, and you arrive at that sweet complexity

McGee explained the chemistry behind that cabbagey stink, but he failed to account for the sweetness that comes around if you brave through that stage and keep on cooking. But, I thought, what about the greens that simmer to sweetness for hours in kitchens across the American South? Or the many Middle Eastern dishes of vegetables rendered luscious via long stewing? None of my heroes acknowledged these foods; none of them, it seemed, had ever left the pan on the heat for too long and made a happy discovery. What did they serve, I wondered, in the heart of winter, when everything else on the plate was roasted, and a bit of squishy comfort was warranted?

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This article was first published in Saveur in Issue #141

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Comments (6)

by JUDEJACKSON on 2011-10-04

What we cooks in the south have always known........

by DLEUZZI1 on 2011-10-04

Father Knows Best....love the broccoli cooked down, but if you are puttin it on a sandwich I like it a bit firmer!
No matter how you cook the broccoli rabe its fabulous!

by murvet on 2011-10-05

Thanks for a wonderful article. In Turkey, vegetables are always braised until they're soft. In winter, with a bit of butter and enough water, eaten warm. In summer, with olive oil, and eaten at room temperature. When the vegetables are cooked, the remaining liquid is evaporated until there's just enough to dunk your bread into. They're comfort food. Can you imagine quick-blanched beans or broccoli being comfort food?!

by CHICKENFOG on 2011-10-06

Thanks for voicing this idea: love my soft veggies. That squeak of under-cooked green beans is so creepy!

by TUMINOMELISSA on 2011-10-08

I'm raised with a full-blooded Italian momma and my veggies have always been soft and FULL of flavor. Loved this article and looking foreword to trying some of the recipes.

by RHONDAYES on 2011-10-17

Even as a child I knew the way vegetables were served publicly was wrong. Being the daughter of southern parents you learn what good and proper cooking is. My mom could make magic happen in a kitchen that looked as though the cupboards were bare.

I love flavorful and soft cooked vegetables...roasted??? Roasted was and still is the best method for cooking root vegetables. Yummmm