While we’re cooking at home from our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown, a great way to use some vegetables is to grate or shred them. That works for some vegetables, though not all of them. For example, shredded or grating brussels sprouts is a great way to use them in salads. The same thing with squash. Shredding or grating things like potatoes does not work very well unless you also cook them as well. And shredding or grating vegetables does not really work with soft vegetables like tomatoes are they fall apart. If you want to use smaller sizes of soft vegetables, it’s better to slice with a knife or mandolin.
On our San Francisco Food Tours, we frequently see our stops shred or grate vegetables as a way to use fresh vegetables without having to cook out the flavors and letting the flavors come through. It’s also a great way to do that at home.
An easy and quick way to shred or grate vegetables is a food processor. Most of them have a shredding blade. If you don’t have food processor, you can also use a box grater. Either way, be sure to get rid of any excess moisture after you grate or shred the vegetables, so it’s not too soggy.
