Can I throw out my oven and replace it with a grater?

[NotQuiteCockney]

Seriously, this week I discovered that grated beetroot is edible raw. Is everything edible raw if you grate it? Ok, not meat, but all vegetables?

Maybe not potatoes? What about butternut squash? Can I put vinegar on it instead of cooking it, iyswim?

[TooTickyTheAppleMuncher]

My dp's mum used to eat raw potatoes - don't think I could - but any other veg is fine, I'm sure. Why the vinegar?

[NotQuiteCockney]

Oh, if you add vinegar it softens things, breaks down stuff, doesn't it? Hence ceviche, and coleslaw. I'm sure there are other examples ...

[iota]

lemon juice has a similar effect to vinegar

[iota]

I seem to recall that kidney beans need to be well-cooked or they are poisonous

[TooTickyTheAppleMuncher]

Actually, I think most beans need to boil vigorously for 10 minutes, but not if you sprout them.

[TwigTwoolett]

have you just lost it?

[iota]

see here

[NotQuiteCockney]

My oven? Or my grater?

Yes, beans, you're right, can't eat those raw, not even grated.

[iota]

anyway, veg can be steamed or boiled on a hob or in a steamer - you don't need an oven for veg

[BettyBatShapedSpaghetti]

courgettes can be grated/sliced and eaten raw in a salad with a vinegar-based dressing (DP said that the vinegar "cooks" them in some way)

-you really are having a food re-think/crisis (in the nicest possible way ) aren't you? I posted on your "accidental veggie" thread

[NotQuiteCockney]

Ok, so, new plan. I must work out how to cook kidney beans, and make brownies (and muesli, and cakes, etc etc) in a grater.

I'm not serious about binning the oven, I'm just startled by how much easier things are to cook if you grate them first. I've just grated up a lot of butternut squash, and it seems kinda edible raw, although I am planning on cooking it.

[NotQuiteCockney]

Yeah, I've done that with courgettes, there's a lovely recipe on the abel and cole site.

I am apparently having a food-mad day. Bought lots of strange things in my food order, and am planning meals for the weekend etc. Coming out of a v tiring week, although this weekend will be mad, and I won't have any time to cook really.

[elclose]

nqc , what are the strange things you bought and what are you gonna do with them? the otherday i was making pasta and dd said can i have courgette with it ? due to lack of cooking time i grated it into the pasta a minute before it was finished cooking, my daughter who is nearly 4 then mixed in some pesto and crumbled in some feta and we all ate it(she thinks she is master chef now and is going around telling everyone she makes dinner)

[NotQuiteCockney]

I bought a greenish papaya (internet order) with hopes of making tom yum. Bought tiny potatoes (don't normally buy potatoes) with intention of making oven chips. Bought salmon, which I haven't had for ages, with intention of making recipe someone here told me.

[oxocube]

Surely potatoes are poisonous raw? Am sure I saw on some crappy telly epic saga years ago that the heroine was starving herself by saving her food rations for her children whilst trying to stay alive by eating raw potatoes (she was working on a potato farm!) Or am I imagining this?

[NotQuiteCockney]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I've read potatoes are poisonous raw, or at least not good for you.

[TooTickyTheAppleMuncher]

The eyes and any green bits on potatoesare definitely a no-no, something to do with being in the nightshadefamily (asare tomatoesand aubergines).