For years I've always used the side of the large chef's knife to scoop up the vegetables I just chopped and carry them to the pan or bowl or wherever they need to go. Then a friend (the lovely Olga) gave me a tip I thought was too good not to share: use your bench scraper instead.
With a nice wide surface area, it can scoop up at cup of so of veggies at a time so you don't have to make as many trips back and forth from cutting board to stove. Plus I love finding second uses for task specific kitchen tools. It gives them more cred and another reason to take up valuable drawer space.
By the way, if you don't have a bench scraper (which is usually used to scrape up dough and cut bar cookies and such), I wouldn't advise running out to buy one just for veggie scooping. But if you've got one languishing in your drawer, consider pulling out more often. You won't be sorry.
Even better for chopped chocolate and nuts. Just because they are more likely to land on my chopping board. ;)
Posted by: Dessert By Candy | 08/12/2011 at 08:52 PM