Anyone know what salting does to vegetables?

(Bob M) #1

So, I’ve applied salt to vegetables with good results.

My wife made a recipe with kale, where you take salt and rub it into the kale and let it sit. It was fresh kale from the local farm, and it actually turned out great (and I typically despise kale).

I also made this from zucchini:

https://altonbrown.com/recipes/zucchini-ribbon-salad/

I did remove the “skin”, but you salt the zucchini and let it sit for a while. Normally, zucchini causes me issues, but this salad did not. (Edit: I also ate this once without removing the skin, and had no issues.)

Is it plausible that salt had some effect on these, to make them easier to digest? Or possibly remove some anti-nutrients?

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #2

The main effect I’d expect is some dehydration. It’s why salt curing is used to preserve foods.

As to other possible effects, I don’t know, but I suspect some forum member does.

#3

I’ve started ‘using’ sauerkraut and kimchi as posted before in the food thread.

To be honest, too early to tell physiolgical good or bad…but I have been enjoying the odd bite; guilt free.

(Little Miss Scare-All) #4

Here’s a hypothesis…

Coming from an Italian family (as I’m sure other ethnicities do as well) we always salted our eggplant to extract those brown, bitter juices out, before cooking. Not doing so would often lead to stomach crappiness and excessive bathroom trips at 3am, AKA the time when the ghosts are out and will touch you if you do not sing and shuffle to the bathroom quickly enough.

My guess is, since kale is bitter also, maybe the salt extracts the crappiness much in the same way as it does for the eggplant.

Just a thought.

#5

I only know that it makes zucchini strips/spirals more tender :smiley: (Oh raw vegan kitchen. It was sooo long ago… I loved the food I made but everything was a mostly useless snack to me.)

I was always perfectly fine with each and every vegs if I liked the taste so IDK what it does regarding problems…