"Boil vegetable in lots of water, until soft"

This is how I started my cooking journey. I mean every recipe book insisted! A diligent new cook I sure was, so I followed directions :) Then it transitioned to -

"Let the water boil first and then add the vegetable to cook it just for short time - retains nutrition. You are cooking it to death otherwise!!!".

Oh god no......! Really? :(. Few more years and then -

"Steam the vegetables. Boiling causes nutrition loss. It all seeped into the water and look what you did - you threw that water away. How dumb are you now?! !"

@#$#@$#$%$, $@%#@$%$#,#%^$%^$%^, T#%^$%^#^$%^@ ; to until recently -

"Just stir fry. Best way to eat veggies....".

Why? I am just one step away from eating everything raw anyway! Oh well :) One way it's good to see I have kept changing (and hopefully) moving towards a positive direction. Green Living and Gardening have been the reason for such a change. And this has also been the reason now to adopt OPOS®



OPOS® is an One Pot One Shot technique (invented by Ramki of One Page Cookbooks fame ) that makes use of Indian styled Pressure Cooker pan to make all recipes wholesome, quick and nutritionally sound. It introduces Flash Cooking as one of the basic and essential steps to making many of its recipes.

Flash cooking in general means - cooking food in a flash/jiffy by using very high heat for short time.

In OPOS®, this flash cooking takes place in a pressure cooker. Cooking time ranges around 5-8 minute mark for most vegetables, with vegetables retaining (or with enhanced) colors, flavor is profound and nutrition mostly intact. There is no boiling or wasting of water, no sitting around waiting for the vegetables to cook, saving of energy (gas/electricity/time) or washing multiple vessels. Let's begin this journey with cooking Green Beans. We have had abundant green beans harvest and I have been using this method often in the last few months.

What You Would Need (Makes enough for 3-4 people as a side dish)
• 500 grams Green Beans
• 2-3 tsp Coconut Oil, or any oil of your choice
• 3/4 tsp Sea Salt, or to taste
• A 3.5 litre Pressure Cooker

Process

Chop the green beans finely.



Add 2 tsp oil to your pressure pan. You can add upto 3 tsp. If using it for a side dish wherein you would need to add a tempering/tadka later, I use 2 tsp now and 1 tsp later for tempering. But it's not an issue really :)

Note: If you face burning/or fear burning, you can add 3 to 4 tsp water along with the oil. After having done this many times and understanding my pressure cooker I have slowly eliminated addition of water completely.



Spread the oil so that it covers the bottom of the pan.



Add the chopped green beans and spread it around uniformly.



Add salt to taste. I use Himalayan Pink Salt and added 3/4 tsp since that amount is perfect for us.



Close the lid and place it on High Heat. Its very important to make sure no steam is escaping the sides. A pressure cooker in perfect cooking order is essential for OPOS® success.



Within a minute (or max 2) you will find the safety valve extending and the pan ready to start whistling. If it doesn't, check your pressure cooker. Time is crucial since otherwise it will lead to burning!



Wait for 2 Whistles. It should come within another minute (max 2). 1 whistle will make for a nicely crispy Green beans, akin to stir fried beans. Partly cooked with a slight crunch to it. 2 whistles makes for soft green beans but yet firm. Keep alert to burning. Until you do this few times and getting familiar with your pressure cooker, I would suggest being wary.



Switch off gas. Immediately release pressure from the pan using a spatula or spoon. We do not want it to cook further, hence doing this pronto is essential.



Once the pressure settles, remove the weight and open the pressure pan lid.



Perfectly cooked green beans, with few of them caramelised (yum!), all ready. Total Time Taken from switching on the heat to switching off (measured using Timer) 5:52 minutes. The size of your pressure pan will also determine the time. But it should be around this time mark.



Immediately remove the contents into another pan in order to avoid the Green beans cooking further owing to the heat in the pressure cooker pan.



Use it in your recipe. I usually prepare a tadka while that's cooking in the pan and add it to the bowl, give it a mix and serve. Total cooking time should have been around 5 minutes!