3 culinary tricks that might get you to eat more veggies, according to chef Roy Choi

Green legume and chickenhearted stir-fry is 1 of nan galore "vegetable-forward" recipes successful Roy Choi's cookbook, The Choi of Cooking: Flavor-Packed, Rule-Breaking Recipes for a Delicious Life, which he co-wrote pinch Tien Nguyen and Natasha Phan. This crockery uses nan Sweet Garlic Teriyaki Sauce you tin find below. Bobby Fisher hide caption

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Bobby Fisher

In nan precocious 2000s, cook Roy Choi made his people by serving up Korean-Mexican fusion thoroughfare nutrient for illustration short rib tacos and kimchi quesadillas pinch his Los Angeles-based nutrient truck, Kogi.

Although nan sanction of his business intends "meat" successful Korean, nan constituent isn't really nan prima of nan show successful his latest cookbook, The Choi of Cooking. The recipes are much reflective of nan style of cooking he prefers now: "vegetable-forward pinch pit stops of comfortableness on nan way," he writes successful his book.

"I had been filling my assemblage pinch accelerated nutrient and processed nutrient my full life," he says. "So I had to fig out: How tin I make nutrient much delicious, but amended for me?"

The Choi of Cooking, co-written pinch Tien Nguyen and Natasha Phan, is a consequence of that journey. It features dishes that "satiate you but aren't needfully sticks of carrots," he says. Think seared tofu pinch kimchi, roasted cauliflower steaks and a veggie-filled noodle crockery with gochujang sauce.

Cooking healthier starts pinch being assured successful nan kitchen, he says. Having a bully knowing of spirit tin thief you hole veggies you'll really want to eat, and knowing a fewer culinary tricks — for illustration washing and cutting everything successful beforehand — tin make cooking them a small much convenient.

The Choi of Cooking is each astir cooking nutritious meals without sacrificing flavor. Clarkson Potter hide caption

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Clarkson Potter

In a speech pinch Life Kit, Choi, co-host of The Chef Show connected Netflix, shares culinary techniques that he has learned successful his astir 30-year profession successful nan edifice industry. He besides shares recipes for 3 flavorful sauces you'll want to spoon complete each your veggies. (Click present to jump to nan recipes.)

Prep your veggies for illustration they do successful restaurants 

Fresh vegetables and aromatics, for illustration ginger, garlic, onions, celery and carrots, are integral to Choi's recipes. Prepping them up of clip tin make it easier to commencement cooking erstwhile you're fresh to make dinner. Bobby Fisher hide caption

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Bobby Fisher

If you often find yourself buying veggies and past letting them beryllium uneaten successful nan fridge, Choi says he has "a hack for precisely that dilemma."

"You person to give a definite portion of your week to prep," he says. "There is nary patient food, nary restaurant, without prep."

Wash your produce, trim nan items and put them successful retention containers for illustration they do successful master kitchens, he says. "Then they go accessible and easy to propulsion together" erstwhile it's clip to cook.

Choi likes to precut carrots, celery, onions and fennel. He besides peels ail cloves up of clip and keeps them fresh to spell successful nan fridge. "Mince them aliases portion them correct earlier you navigator truthful you don't suffer immoderate freshness of flavor," he says.

Make homemade sauces and condiments

Another measurement to make veggies much convenient to navigator and much breathtaking to eat: Whip up your ain sauces, pastes and vinaigrettes, Choi says. His cookbook has recipes for spirit bombs for illustration Ginger Ponzu Sauce, Magic Sauce and Sweet Garlic Teriyaki Sauce (click present to jump to nan recipes below).

Make these astatine nan commencement of nan week while you're prepping your veggies, he says. Store them successful jars, explanation them and popular them successful nan fridge, conscionable for illustration they do successful restaurants.

These sauces tin make veggies much crave-worthy, he says. "If you operation [a] condiment pinch a bunch of chopped cucumbers and immoderate shredded lettuce, that becomes a repast and it's delicious. You're not really worried astir eating chips aliases candy anymore," he says.

Sauces tin besides make veggies easier to cook. "These will make it imaginable for you to quickly information retired a repast [or] make a stir-fry connected a Tuesday successful little than an hour," he writes successful his cookbook. Throw immoderate pre-chopped veggies into nan oven and spoon a condiment complete them, and you've sewage different meal.

Don't beryllium acrophobic to usage a small MSG

Adding a touch of monosodium glutamate (MSG) is simply a awesome measurement to adhd restaurant-level spirit to location cooking, Choi says.

For decades, nan seasoning was vilified and stigmatized for making group consciousness ill, a sentiment fueled by anti-Asian racism and xenophobia successful America, reports NPR's subject podcast, Short Wave. But modern nutrient scientists person recovered nary grounds to support that claim.

As for Choi, nan constituent is his "secret weapon," he says. "It's for illustration a hidden umami," a savory, meaty flavor often recovered successful mushrooms, food and herb sauce.

You've apt encountered nan nutrient additive successful mayonnaise, ketchup and chips, Choi says. He lists it arsenic an optional constituent successful his cookbook recipes for citrus ranch dressing, shabu-shabu broth and lo mein spaghetti. (A very mini information of group are sensitive to MSG and mightiness want to debar it.)

So if you'd for illustration to research pinch it, spell up and adhd a small MSG. "A small other ne'er hurts," he writes successful his cookbook.

Recipes: 3 flavorful sauces from cook Roy Choi

Recipes from The Choi of Cooking: Flavor-Packed, Rule-Breaking Recipes for a Delicious Life

The Sweet Garlic Teriyaki Sauce, from The Choi of Cooking. Use this condiment for stir-fries, arsenic a glaze for wings and arsenic a marinade, Choi writes successful his cookbook. Bobby Fisher hide caption

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Bobby Fisher

Sweet Garlic Teriyaki Sauce

Use this condiment for stir-fries, arsenic a glaze for wings and arsenic a marinade, Choi writes successful his cookbook.

Makes 3 1/2 cups

1 1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup atom vinegar
1/2 cup orangish juice
1/4 cup pineapple juice
2 serrano peppers, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup full ail (15 to 20 cloves), sliced
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 mean yellowish onion, sliced
1/2 cup chopped scallions
1 spoon crushed reddish capsicum flakes

In a mean pot, harvester 1 cup water, nan soy sauce, atom vinegar, orangish juice, pineapple juice, serranos, garlic, sugar, onion, scallions and capsicum flakes. Bring to a boil complete precocious heat. Reduce to a simmer. Skim nan scum from nan aboveground of nan liquid pinch a spoon. Gently simmer until nan ail softens, astir 20 minutes. Remove from nan heat. It's fresh to use.

To shop it, cool it completely, past move into an airtight instrumentality and refrigerate for up to 1 week. You besides tin frost this successful cleanable crystal cube trays: Cool nan condiment completely, past strain and discard nan solids, and move it into nan tray. Frozen, it'll support for 3 months.

Ginger Ponzu Sauce

This condiment keeps for astir a week and gets amended nan longer it sits, Choi writes successful his cookbook. It will support moreover longer if you region nan ginger and jalapeño. Add those successful conscionable earlier serving. 

Makes 1 cup

1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup atom vinegar
Grated zest and juice of 1 lime
1 tablespoonful grated caller ginger
1 jalapeño, thinly sliced
Salt and freshly crushed achromatic pepper

In a bowl, harvester 1/4 cup water, nan soy sauce, vinegar, lime zest, lime juice, ginger and jalapeño. Stir to combine. Season pinch brackish and capsicum to taste. It's fresh to go.

Magic Sauce

This is Choi's type of his mom's magic sauce, he writes successful his cookbook. Spoon it complete roast vegetables, aliases flip it pinch immoderate rice. 

Makes astir 3 cups

1 cup gochugaru
1/2 cup gochujang
1/2 cup chopped yellowish onion
1/2 cup beef broth aliases water
6 tablespoons food sauce
1/4 cup atom vinegar
1/4 cup toasted sesame oil
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped garlic
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce

In a blender, harvester nan gochugaru, gochujang, 1/2 cup water, onion, beef broth, food sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, ail and soy sauce. Puree until smooth, past it's fresh to use. Keep it successful an airtight jar aliases instrumentality and refrigerate; it'll support for astatine slightest a month. Note that correct retired of nan fridge, it whitethorn beryllium a small thick; you tin adhd a scatter of h2o to loosen it up earlier using.

The integer communicative was edited by Sylvie Douglis and Meghan Keane, pinch creation guidance by Beck Harlan. We'd emotion to perceive from you. Leave america a voicemail astatine 202-216-9823, aliases email america at LifeKit@npr.org.

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