Busy urban professionals can make incremental changes towards healthier and more conscientious eating with a steady supply of salad vegetable ingredients. But storing vegetables can be difficult, especially for those living in small apartments in the city.
Vegetables need proper storage and have short shelf-lives. Apartments and condominium units are also smaller.
Whether you’ve been percolating on a new year’s resolution for some time now, or whether changes in your lifestyle are the products of formal and intensive visioning and goal-setting, you definitely need to consider how our individual consumption habits affect our country’s systems for food, farming, manufacturing, delivery and waste management.
Challenges with eating more vegetables
We understand that eating more conscientiously can be difficult for urban professionals who are single or living together but who have only themselves to do housework, are time-poor, and travel often.
Vegetables need proper storage and have short shelf-lives. Apartments and condominium units are also smaller with little to no direct sunlight, so molds that lead to quicker spoilage and food waste are a constant enemy.
Filipino salad vegetable ingredients as a staple
In the Philippines, tomatoes, eggplants and cooked or raw leafy greens are popular salad vegetable ingredients. You can add these to your shopping list so you’ll have a fresh supply for lunches at the office or meals in our apartment.
- You can wash tomatoes, cut them and serve with chopped onions and salted egg.
- Eggplants can be roasted and served with tomatoes and onions and seasoned with vinegar.
- Leafy greens like bok choy, kangkong and alugbati can be steamed or sauteed with garlic and seasonings.
- Other greens like spinach, kale, lollo rossa, arugula or lettuce can be eaten raw.
How to store salad vegetable ingredients
- Steaming green leafy and beany vegetables
A tip we got from one of our loyal subscribers is to immediately steam vegetables like kangkong, beans and okra and to store them in the refrigerator inside locked containers. Steaming isn’t a high-temperature process so there is minimal nutrient loss. You can then season the vegetables with your favorite spices when you have decided on what you prefer or need to do with them for the day.
- Washing and rinsing other leafy greens
Washing leafy greens like lettuce, spinach, arugula and cabbage as soon as you get home will reduce the hassle of meal preparations. Once you rinse them, you can wrap the greens in a tea towel and refrigerate in a container.
- Storing tomatoes
Tomatoes are best stored at room temperature away from direct sunlight, especially if they are still unripe. You can put them in a basket outside of the refrigerator. This will help them ripen more evenly. Once they are ripe, you can store them in the fridge.
- Keeping root crops in the dark
We’re not saying you should withhold information from root vegetables like garlic, onions, potatoes, ube and squash. We mean that they should be stored in a cool, dark, dry spot outside of the fridge. So cupboard or box can be a good place for them. You can then wash them or peel them when you’re ready to cook.
If you’re shifting towards consumption habits that are good for both your body and the Philippine food system, you can start by subscribing to Good Food Community’s Salad Pack.
And with our storage tips, you’ll be able to have your dose of fresh salad vegetable ingredients while reducing spoilage and food waste.
goodfoodcommunity.wordpress.com 