Method of producing soft vegetable material

It is intended to provide a method of producing a soft vegetable material which sustains the shape of a food material and is particularly suitable as a food for elderly people. The method comprises the following steps: (1) the step of freezing a vegetable material and thawing the same to give a thawed food; (2) the step of dipping the thawed food as described above in a liquid dispersion of a pectin-degrading enzyme or a cellulose-degrading enzyme under reduced pressure; and (3) the step of heating the thawed material having been dipped as described above at a temperature and time sufficient for inactivating the pectin-degrading enzyme or the cellulose-degrading enzyme as described above. The thawing treatment in the above step (1) may be carried out simultaneously with the enzyme-dipping treatment under reduced pressure in the next step.