What I have learned is that it is different for each vegetable, and can also be different depending on what I am making. I make note of that here.
So first things first... choose your veggie! Organic, local, fresh is best, but bought from the store frozen veggies work too. I'm a big fan of buying a bunch of local veggies when they are in season, pureeing them and freezing them in usable quantities. It only works if you have the freezer space though. Anyway, for this page I have chosen cauliflower, because I have used it the most on my blog so far. I'll throw in some carrot pictures too.
Start with your veggie...
Chop it up. One time I read the instructions for my blender, and it said to cut food pieces up into 1 inch pieces. So that is what I try and do with the veggies... although, I usually push it a little...
side note: you can puree the stalk, but it seems to make it a little more bitter.
Wash them well. I should probably do this first, but it just seems hard to wash a whole cauliflower.
So, next you can either puree the fresh veggie, or depending on the veggie, you may need to steam or boil it. I don't have a good way to steam a lot of veggies, so I have been boiling mine. Some veggies, such as tomatoes (wait, it's a fruit!), are easy to just puree fresh. Others, like carrots, are dense and hard to puree fresh. My blender is good, but it is not atomic, so I usually boil them.
Boil until the veggie is soft, I usually eat one to see what the texture is. I guess I go for maybe a little less mushy than, say, soup veggies? Well, if your blender can handle it, then do what works for you.
In my blender I have to start with the liquid. So most veggies (but not all, tomatoes are an exception, shoot, and also a fruit!) need extra liquid to make the puree, so I start with either 1/2 cup water or milk in the blender and just a few veggie pieces to get it going. If your blender is atomic, then dump them all in! (Wait, get to know your blender before you do that...)
From here it's sort of a guessing game. Put in more veggies until you need more liquid, then add more liquid. I know I need more liquid when my blender stops blending it. :) To give you an idea, I used 1 1/2 cups of water with this head of cauliflower. Usually I only need 1 cup, so this must have been bigger than usual. The carrots, which are more dense, require more water. These 10 carrots needed 2 1/2 cups of water to make my blender happy.
Blend longer for a smoother puree, which hides easier. Or not, sometimes a little texture is nice too!
Ta da!! The head of cauliflower made just over 4 cups of puree, and the 10 carrots made closer to 5 cups.
The best thing about vegetable puree is that it really is such an easy way to get more veggies into your diet. If I have a tupperware with puree in it in the fridge, it is so easy to spoon some into our eggs in the morning, into salad dressing or soup or a smoothie at lunch, and into any casserole, rice or pasta dish at dinner. Lets just say, we have eaten quiet a few more heads of cauliflower since I have started this blog!
