How to make boiled and partially fried vegetables palatable?

Question

I boiled carrot and beans pieces till they were soft, fried onions and green chillies in a pan, added 1kg of the carrot and beans to the pan, few pinches of salt and some powdered spices.
Fried this for 20min and the taste of the veggies were still bland. No taste at all.
I was told to add red chilly powder to it, but I did not have any at 11pm in the night. Kept the pan in the fridge.

I can buy red-chilly powder today and try continuing to fry it.

Do you have any suggestions on what I could add to it, how much chilly powder to add, how long to fry it without spoiling it or any other precautions and tips to make it into a tasty dish?

Asked by Nav

Answer

I would do two things to make them more palatable. 1) Boil the briefly (5-10 mins depending on how hard of a veg they are) in salted water. Something like a tablespoon of kosher salt per 4 quarts water. 2) After they are parboiled, I then will saute, simmer, or braise (depending on the recipe/mood/vegetable) in a highly flavored sauce or spice mix until they are cooked.

So if I was cooking the carrots and (green/string?) beans and wanted to use chili powder I would chop some onion and saute that in olive oil while the other veg parboils. Then, add 1-2 tbls chile powder to the onions (and maybe some garlic, b/c everything is better w/ garlic) and let those flavors meld while you drain the veg. Once you have the veggies drained add them to the onions and spice w/ a bit of liquid (wine, beer, stock; maybe 1/2 cup) and let them cook on low until they are as done as you would like them.

Answered by amedinasmith

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