Wednesday, August 4, 2010

chopping tip- where have you been all my life?

So when your counter looks like this... you'd better have a shortcut trick to chopping all these goodies. I now have one! Maybe I'm the last to know this one... I wouldn't be surprised. If you recall, I didn't learn about Jack Johnson until early 2009!

My Grandma's sister cam through on this one. She suggested I use my blender or food processor to chop up the vegetables. There was just so much chopping my hand for the relish. See, I thought the blender would cream it all together.

Ok, so the trick part is that you place the vegetable in the blender and then fill it to the top with water.

Pulse blend a time or two or three. Mushrooms and tomatoes need fewer pulses than say onions, peppers, carrots, etc. I've been using this trick like crazy the past few days. Did you see that first picture?

Dump out the water and you have your nicely chopped vegetables.

Less than a minute later and I have all the green peppers, carrots, onions and squash that I needed for the pasta sauce I was making.

Three batches of pasta sauce and two batches of salsa later and my chopping hands thank my Aunt Sue! I don't even know what this picture is.... salsa I think.

So, am I the last to figure this out?

5 comments:

Kelly said...

i didn't know that either! i thought the blender would mush everything up. I may just have to try this soon.

grandma said...

I don't fill the blender so full. It works for me. I have made slaw that way for years. It is sure faster and easier than using a grater. Your salsa and sauce look great.

Sandy said...

I've never heard of that either... but what a great idea! Thank you for sharing it.

Carole Davids said...

Im going to use this trick.

JoAnna said...

GENIUS!! I always thought I'd end up with gaspacho if I put them in the blender, so I've never tried. And I bet with the tomatoes, some of the seeds end up going away too when you drain the water. That is brilliant and I will surely try it when I start canning again!