Why You Should Burn Your Vegetables

Just plain gross.

I have to agree with the burning of vegetables. I like to burn everything now. I just got Francis Mallmann book and I am hooked. Who doesn't like a good fire.

From the from the photo and the instructions in the article you do not eat the charred part of the vegetable. He says to take off the outside and make the salad from the unburnt inner leaves. We grill veggies in the oven often. To me the charred bits taste awful.

It's so true. Wish it didn't cause cancer. (Tho until frozen food hucksters discover a way to make cancer-free stuff, I doubt we'll ever hear the other side of the story.)

White onions, carrots and garlic, amazing.

Absolutely delicious sounding - and surprising! We will have to give this a go on our conventional charcoal grill.

The cabbage sounds amazing; somewhat of an unexpected revelation in my food world. Long live the Times! I'd say long live the cabbage but they're dead as soon as you pluck em... poor cabbages.

Sounds amazing. Definitely going to try it...
But you should have left a link to your buddy's parrillas!
... and where he guides!

toss on a couple of yellow onions & wait until they're nice & soft.

This quote really grabbed me: "leave them there... until they look like something tragic and ruined." (Part of her his description of grilling whole cabbages.)

I just love the literary image here.

That's my comment!

Alarmist comments about how charred food is a carcinogen in 5...4...3...2...

Nothing like food burnt over live coals! Grew up in Kashmir where we used to cook food for wedding feasts over makeshift furnaces made of stones that used chopped wood as fuel. As kids, I remember taking scraps of raw meat or delicacies like lamb liver and kidneys, hooking them on to wooden skewers and toast them on the live coals...delicious! we could also bake eggs and potatoes by burying them in the hot ash at the periphery of the fire. Something magical in a hot potato pulled from the ashes, peeled hurriedly and scarfed down within seconds, all while piping hot.

This is how humankind started cooking, over a live fire. It appeals to our very core of existence...

Thanks for the encouragement. My friends have laughed at me when I use my grilling mantra..."There'll be some great eating around here when the smoke clears."

In process of seering, many chemical compounds are randomly produced, most with no known effect on our human biochemistry. We just take our chances in eating them.

Be aware what you are burning. Have they reviewed these vegetables for safety after they have burned or developed very brown areas during the cooking process? Potatoes are clearly an issue.

From the American Cancer Society:
Acrylamide doesn’t appear to be in raw foods themselves. It’s formed when certain starchy foods are cooked at high temperatures (above about 250° F). Cooking at high temperatures causes a chemical reaction between certain sugars and an amino acid (asparagine) in the food, which forms acrylamide. Cooking methods such as frying, baking, broiling, or roasting are more likely to create acrylamide, while boiling, steaming, and microwaving appear less likely to do so. Longer cooking times and cooking at higher temperatures can increase the amount of acrylamide in foods further.

Acrylamide is found mainly in plant foods, such as potato products, grain products, or coffee. Foods such as French fries and potato chips seem to have the highest levels of acrylamide, but it’s also found in breads and other grain products. Generally, acrylamide levels rise when cooking is done for longer periods or at higher temperatures. Cooking cut potato products, such as frozen French fries or potato slices, to a golden yellow color rather than a brown color helps reduce acrylamide formation. Brown areas tend to have more acrylamide.

https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/acrylamide.html

Please post a photo of the grill!

Very interesting. If I had another life to study the fascinating stuff I am probably not going to have time to do in this one, I would like to study the entire history of cooking technologies. What I mean is, cooking over open fire with meat on sharp sticks, up through the huge open hearths with pots hanging on hooks over open fire, up through the invention of the wood cookstove, etc. Including all the types of ovens. You had to employ different knowledge and techniques with them all, of course. That's what you're getting to learn with your monster custom grills. Each technology comes with its own specialties and wonderful flavors.

I don't have a parrilla - but a few days ago I found some nice brussels sprouts so chucked them in my electric oven with some 1/8thed (quartered and again) potatoes - shaken in a plastic bag with a tablespoon of olive oil to coat

I didn't know how long they would take in the oven at 190C/375F so I tested one after 15 minutes or so - burnt skin, nice - but tried them variously until the potato was golden - maybe 30 minutes - by then the brussels sprouts looked black on the outer peeling layers but tasted crisp delicious outside - and succulent and unctuous inside - delish !

A favourite Italian place I know offers lunchtime takeaway from huge trays of over-roasted vegetables - I guess he chucks oregano or rosemary or some such and stirs regularly - but they are just delicious too - so all hail to the roasted vegetable !

"You don’t need to season them..." Disagree but otherwise cooking over fire is the best.

I would love to see some photos of Brendan's grills in action!

I'm always looking for ways to make veggies even more tasty, and yes I have a wood pellet smoker in my back yard that turns any vegetable into a delight.

However, given that the NY Times also publishes stellar articles on food nutrition, some may apply the title that you have chosen as being advisable for healthy eating. "Burning" vegetables destroys most (probably all) of the dietary enzymes that are considered indispensable for maintaining good health. At least with steaming or sauteing, etc, these enzymes may be captured. "Variety and balance" would have been a good reminder to include in the (nice) article, rather than "burning" as an imperative.

Intentionally burning anything to be consumed is not the best idea, despite benefits of flavor, texture. Any idiot knows this. Cave men didn't have to worry: they rarely reached forty...

How about a picture of the parrillas?

By the way, next time you see a home made parilla, take a picture.

Well call me crazy but I never thought that unnecessarily increasing ones exposure to cancer was a smart way to cook. Combusting wood, gas, or charcoal emits chemicals known as Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons. Exposure to these so-called PAHs is known to cause skin, liver, stomach, and several other types of cancer in lab animals, but how does it affect humans? Well, I guess you and your family and friends can see what happens :)

It's true. My favorite vegetable to burn is broccoli. Usually, this is done if I make fried rice.

"Hot slaw welcomes improvisation."

Many recipes do, and this one is no exception. I'll be making this on Saturday, and along with the cabbages I'll also char a small sweet onion that I'll shave into the hot slaw.

I'm already hungry!

When you discover that giant zucchini you've overlooked in the garden, cut it long-ways into steaks about 1/2 inch thick. Coat them with olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, oregano, salt and pepper and grill until semi-soft. Unbelievably delicious! Grilling gives veggies the most wonderful flavor.

I'll have to go buy a green egg for my wife after reading this. Thanks a lot.
I have an Iranian friend and business associate that won't build a fire unless he can cook over it. And to me the vegetables are the best part. We had whole beets cooked in the fire while camping earlier this year. They were amazing!
Thanks for the great ideas.

Grilling or roasting is the single best way to cook many vegetables, from asparagus to zucchini (try slicing it paper thin then marinating and grilling -- you will be surprised by the results). I'm a vegetable grower and I "burn" most of my veggies.

But I've never tried it with whole cabbage. Thanks for the idea, I will give it a try soon.

I am not enthusiastic about the idea of burnt vegetables, but I applaud the use of parrillas for grilling fish. The best fish is frilled until it is crunchy of the outside, but soft inside, such that the flesh can be easily separated from the bones.

I think the author should consider exposure to a host of chemicals caused by the burning of food. For example, toxic Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) have a high concentration in burnt foods.

Not a word on the health benefits - or dangers - of eating burnt vegetables? Burning carbohydrates and starches (like potatoes) has already shown to produce cancer-causing acrylamides.

Nice recipe.

I might not want to eat an ashen outer layer, but I'd leave some of those charred bits on, and chop them up with the rest of the cabbage. I'd also char up that cabbage on my cast iron (perhaps with some carrots).

In "Seven Fires, Cooking the Argentine Way", Mallman's first commandment of cooking over fire, "Don't Touch".

Let that thing sit, burn/char/whatever. When it's burnt, I might move it to another part of the grill (if I don't have a parilla, which I don't) and let it get to the desired level of softness.

Leave some husk on a corn cob, and do the same thing. Just let a little of the char through to the kernels, not too much. Mix that in with the crema.

The Spanish and Portuguese invaders learned from the indigenous people that they burn native vegetables like Chili peppers or potatoes that Europeans had never eaten. Dr. Steven R. Gundy guesses that indigenous people knew that these vegetable skins were not suitable to eat. He explains in his book " The Plant Paradox" that these vegetables contain toxic "lectins", gluten-like protein, particularly in skins and seeds in order to prevent being eaten by insects and animals. He cautions that most of so-called healthy whole grains, beans, nuts, tomatoes etc. contain toxic "lectins" in the outer layers and seeds that damage gut membrane, cell membrane and many other part of our organs. These are pure scientific findings that most of us have never heard of unfortunately.

Be right over Sam. Thanks.

And, umm, carcinogens, no? Please, tell me no. But I think, yes, carcinogenic.

Where's the picture of the Argentinian grill? I haven't tried it with cabbage but it's the best way to do corn, and charred green peppers are to die for. Just throw it in the fire.

Totally agree. I burn beets on my grill. Cool and peel the crust off . . . the best, sweetest roasted beets ever.