Why you’ve been cooking your vegetables WRONG

Young Masterchef judge Poppy O’Toole has spent years honing her skills and perfecting some of the UK’s favorite foods, and now she’s teamed up with MailOnline to share the secrets behind turning boring greens into sensational ones.

In addition to making it her life’s mission to perfect the art of the humble baked potato, the Michelin-trained chef and culinary influencer regularly shares her tips on all types of food with her millions of followers to help spice up their weekend routines. .

The 28-year-old has an impressive 3.5 million followers on her TikTok channel, where she shares her favorite food hacks, most recently with a ’12 Days of Christmas Potatoes’ series.

With an additional 427,000 followers on Instagram, the BBC judge is well known for her love of food porn and has also appeared on TV shows including Weakest Link.

She may be the self-proclaimed Queen of Potatoes, but she knows that the other elements of a classic Sunday roast are just as important, starting with one of the least popular items: the vegetables.

The influencer started working in high-end restaurants at the age of 18 and landed an apprenticeship at Purnell’s in Birmingham.

She soon moved to London to pursue her career, but lost her job when the pandemic hit in March 2020.

It was then that he started making TikTok videos and spending time with his Instagram followers, reaching 1.5 million TikTok followers in 12 months.

He first went viral with a video explaining how to make McDonald’s-style hash browns.

Speaking to MailOnline, he revealed a range of ingredients to add to vegetables for flavor at any occasion, from a family barbecue to a fancy dinner party – these hacks are guaranteed to get guests talking.

Roasting vegetables: “it’s always better than boiling or steaming them”

An easy way to liven up vegetables is to roast them, rather than just boil or steam them.

Poppy says: ‘A roasted vegetable’s best friend is honey. I don’t think you can beat honey roasted parsnips or carrots.

“I’d skip the boil and go straight into the oven with a little honey as the perfect accompaniment to any roast.”

‘Composite’ seasonings to take vegetables ‘to the next level’

The influencer also recommends using ‘compound’ butter, which deals with seasonings to elevate the simple components of any meal, like peas, beans and carrots.

She told MailOnline: ‘Another best friend of vegetables is butter, but you can level this out by adding a ‘compound’ butter to your vegetables.

“This is simply pre-mixing the butter with things like garlic or soft herbs like basil, parsley, or rosemary, and then adding this butter to the beans, carrots, or peas after cooking. A delicious garnish to take them to the next level.’

Add feta and bacon to make your veg “a little fancy”

It might seem a bit like cheating, but a well-placed plugin once in a while never hurt anyone.

Most people are familiar with adding bacon to sprouts every Christmas, but Poppy’s version involves a vegetable that’s available year-round.

The chef recommends ‘upgrading’ ordinary peas: ‘I love to pimp these with a bit of bacon and…controversially…crumbled feta for a pea with a rim.

‘Just sauté the bacon, add the boiled peas, serve and crumble bits of feta all over.

“It’s my favorite way to eat peas and it makes roasts a little fancy.”

And… kale?

Poppy’s final complement to the humble vegetable is not one traditionally served at the Sunday dinner table.

‘I need to give kale some love.

“I think it got lost as a vegetable in health fads and fad diets, but humble kale deserves so much more than your January detox smoothie,” says Poppy.

She continued: ‘I’ve found that air frying is the best way to get it crispy. With a little salt, pepper, and as much crunch as you can get, it adds a delicious texture to your roast dinner.

‘A bit like when you add crispy seaweed to your Chinese takeout plate.

Trust me on this.

In 2021, Poppy released her own cookbook, Poppy Cooks: The Food You Need, in which she has an entire chapter on how to perfect a Sunday roast.