Good morning. Today’s we’re focusing on how to incorporate more vegetables into your cooking routine.

• We’re curious: what are your go-to choices in the produce section? Reply to let us know and we’ll report back.

Frozen vegetable prep

Last year, this video on the main channel covered cooking with frozen aromatics and frozen vegetables. 1.5 million people resonated with it so we wanted to highlight a big takeaway: you can chop and freeze vegetables ahead of time with minimal loss in quality!

How do I do this protocol?

1. Dice or chop any frequently used vegetables or aromatic (like onions, sweet potatoes, broccoli, and carrots).

2. Portion them into airtight bags and freeze for later use.

3. When you are ready to make a meal, take out a portion — feel free to sauté or cook with them straight from frozen!

Why does it matter?

1. Motivation: Lowering activation energy means you’ll cook more for yourself at home. Having vegetables you already prepped makes you more likely to eat them too.

2. Time savings: Prepping ingredients in batches is much more efficient than having to dice something at the start of every meal.

3. Inspiration: Already having certain vegetables ready to go gives you a starting point for choosing a meal.

Notes: Soft or watery ingredients like mushrooms, cabbage, leafy greens, or tomatoes don’t freeze well. Their cell structure breaks down and they will leak and go soggy when thawed.

RECIPE RECOMMENDATIONS ✅

Cooking with vegetables

Looking for ways to cook with vegetables? Try out these veggie forward dishes:

FOOD TRENDS 🚀

Peruvian cuisine

Is Peru’s cuisine revolution the next big thing?

Over time, cuisines rise and fall in popularity across the globe and especially in the US restaurant scene.

• For example: Thai food quickly rose in popularity in the American 60’s and 70’s, while stagnant French white tablecloth restaurants fell out of vogue.

In recent years, with the help of social media, enterprising immigrant families, and more adventurous American palettes, more and more diverse cuisines are establishing themselves in the US restaurant scene. (There are so many to cover in future editions — from Filipino to Sichuan to Pakistani spots and more.)

Nobu, a trend-setting establishment we’ve covered before, was one of the first places in America to serve Peruvian cuisine, particularly ceviche, which used sushi’s popularity to introduce people to the raw fish offering cured in leche de tigre, the country’s staple citrus-based marinade.

• Now, of course, ceviche is commonplace everywhere, as is Peruvian-style roasted chicken, a heavily spiced bird served with an herbal cream sauce blended with aji amarillo, Peru’s local hot pepper.

What a lot of people don’t know is that Nobu is an example of Nikkei cuisine, the melding of Japanese and Peruvian ingredients born from the influx of Japanese immigrants to the country at the end of the 19th century.

This Japanese-Peruvian wave is becoming proudly more visible through innovative fine-dining establishments like Miami’s Itamae & Maty’s, not to mention Nobu’s empire-like expansion to 56 locations worldwide. Keep it coming!

READER Q&A 🧠

How do we experience temperature when eating?

Answer: Great question, Stow. We'd say temperature falls under the physical element of flavor, which is different from texture (although sometimes temperature and texture are related, like a sauce thickening as it cools).

• Most textures could be categorized under creamy, crispy, crunchy, chewy, or unctuous.

• Temperature can affect how we perceive taste and aroma, notably colder foods come off as more muted.

Thus, the temperature of food has more physical effects rather than inherently having a texture or taste of its own.

You can read more about how we distinguish texture from other parts of the flavor equation on our fundamentals pages.

Have a culinary question? Reply to send it in for a chance to be featured and get your question answered.

WINNING READER SUBMISSION 🏆

Mac & cheese

This week’s winner prepared Ethan’s green chile white cheddar mac & cheese. Looks delicious!

Reply with your best home-cooked food photos for a chance to win & be featured!

EXTRA HELPINGS 🍽️

A read: The Case for Eating Lunch With Your Colleagues

In a minute or less: Making Fresh Pasta

What we’re watching: Queso Fundido

Food science: Salt Explained

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