By Melanie Albert, Nutrition & Wellness Expert, Author and Speaker, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition

To further my cooking expertise for myself and my clients in speaking engagements, cooking classes and writing, I’m enrolled in a Professional Plant-based Cooking Certification with the Rouxbe Cooking School. I am definitely learning amazing skills, such as knife skills, and new ways to prepare simple, healthy, beautiful food.

This week, I learned something totally new: Sweating vegetables. Why do we even sweat veggies and how do we do it? I learned that sweating veggies is the first step in preparing the flavor profile of a dish, it’s a dry heat method of cooking and a very gentle way to cook. Patience is key.

EXPERIENCE NUTRITION 9 Ways 90 Days Organic Veggie Sweat Recipe
The recipe I prepared for my class was local organic veggies with quinoa. Within “9 Ways to Enjoy Food & Life” eating real food, cooking simple meals, and eating local, in-season produce are important. So, this recipe is perfect.

EXPERIENCE NUTRITION 9 Ways 90 Days: Sweating Organic Veggies Recipe

Ingredients
Approximately ½ cup of each of the following organic veggies:
• Onion
• Fresh garlic cloves
• Carrots
• Red pepper
• Celery
• Squash
• Quinoa cooked in a home-made veggie broth
• Plus, Olive oil, sea salt

Simple Steps
• Mince all veggies
• Place olive oil, onion and a pinch of sea salt in sauté pan, turn stove on medium-low and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. It’s important to be very patient, with the gentle slow heat, and do let the pan get hot enough to hear sound (that’s the moisture of the veggies).
• Add in the carrots, celery and fresh garlic, and again cook until the veggies are a little soft.
• Add in the red pepper and cook until soft.
• Add in the squash and cook a little. (I prefer a little crunch in squash, so I only cooked it about a minute).
• Fold the quinoa into the sauté pan
• Enjoy!

Come on over to our 9 Ways 90 Days Facebook page to see more Sweating Veggies photos and to share your sweating veggies photos.