How To Boil

Rob Cotton of Leith's School of Food and Wine takes you through the simple steps of perfectly boiling potatoes and beans. Enlarge

How To Boil

Rob Cotton of Leith's School of Food and Wine takes you through the simple steps of perfectly boiling potatoes and beans.

Prep:
2m
Cook:
10m
Total:
12m

Ingredients

  • new potatoes
  • green beans
  • salt

Method

The key to boiling vegetables is to have a much larger volume of water than you need. This will ensure the water won't loose too much heat when you add the vegetables.

Add a little salt to 2 pans of boiling water.

To cook the potatoes, add them to the salted boiling water and cook for about 8-12 minutes. To check whether they are ready, pierce the largest potato with a cutlery knife. You should be able to pierce it all the way through. To double check, you can remove the potato and cut it into quarters to make sure it is cooked all the way to the centre.

To cook the green beans, add them to the pan of salted boiling water. Once brought back to the boil they should take about 2-3 minutes. To check whether they are ready, remove a bean and bite into it. It should have a slight crunch, but not be too raw.