Simply prepared vegetables make a great side dish with almost any kind of meal. You don’t even need a recipe to make them, just follow these basic techniques. You can dress them up with grated cheese, your favorite sauce, or even just a little butter. They are also good with dips and salad dressings, or they can be the starting point to create your own recipes.
Vegetables (and fruits) should be rinsed under cold running water to remove all traces of dirt and contaminants. You can either trim and cut up vegetables before cooking or cook them whole.
Cook vegetables until they can easily be cut with a fork; chefs call this “fork tender.” They should also be bright in color.
Boiling is an easy cooking technique that works for most vegetables. The vegetables should be the same size and shape to make sure they cook evenly. Choose a pot that is big enough to hold all the water and vegetables comfortably, and have a colander or strainer ready to drain the vegetables once they are cooked. Soft vegetables, such as broccoli or green beans, will cook faster than hard vegetables, such as potatoes or beets.
To boil vegetables: Wash the vegetables and peel or cut them into pieces, if desired. Fill a large pot with enough water that the vegetables will be fully immersed once added. Add salt to the water (about 1 teaspoon is usually a good amount). Bring the water to a rolling boil and add the vegetables carefully so that the water does not splash up at you. Cook the vegetables until fork tender. Drain in a colander.
Shocking is a technique that chefs use when precooking vegetables. Once the vegetables have been boiled, remove them from the pot and plunge them into a bowl of water and ice. This stops the cooking and, for green vegetables, brings out a color pigment called chlorophyll so that the vegetables stay nice and green. The precooked vegetables can then be reheated in a sauté pan using butter or a small amount of water, or they can be incorporated into other recipes.
Any vegetable that can be boiled can also be steamed. Since the vegetables aren’t submerged in liquid, steamed vegetables may be less soggy than boiled and often have better nutritional value. Vegetables can be steamed using a metal steaming insert or an Asian bamboo steamer (see page 31).
To steam vegetables: Wash the vegetables and peel or cut them into pieces if desired. Place a steaming insert into a pot and pour 1 to 2 inches of water into the pot. Bring the water to a boil, place the vegetables in the basket, and cover the pot with a lid. Steam the vegetables until tender, 3 to 6 minutes depending on the amount, type, and density of the vegetables. Season the steamed vegetables however you’d like—for example, with salt, pepper, fresh herbs, or butter.
High-moisture or tender vegetables can be grilled raw, but dense or starchy vegetables should be boiled first—called par-boiling (short for “partially boiling”)—before grilling to make sure they cook all the way through. These par-boiled vegetables should not be fork tender, but still firm and crunchy. Some examples of vegetables that can be grilled from a raw state are eggplant, onions, zucchini, peppers, tomatoes, and mushrooms. Vegetables that are typically par-boiled include potatoes, carrots, and beets. The grill should be set on medium or medium-high heat and cleaned very well with a grill brush before grilling in order to keep the vegetables from sticking.
Vegetables can also be marinated (see page 32) before grilling, using a variety of ingredients such as salad dressings, mustard, ketchup, soy sauce, or even barbeque sauce.
To grill vegetables: Preheat the grill to medium or medium-high and clean it with a wire grill brush. Wash the vegetables and peel or cut them into pieces, if desired. Season or marinate the vegetables if you’d like. Grill the vegetables for several minutes per side, or until they are tender and have distinctive grill marks.
Thick-skinned whole vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, winter squash, peppers, eggplant, and even mushrooms are great for roasting. The skin protects the interior from drying or scorching. Roasting is also excellent for halved, cut, sliced, or diced vegetables. Toss the vegetables with oil before roasting to keep them from drying out and to help them cook evenly. Add seasonings such as salt, pepper, spice blends, or garlic prior to cooking and then finish the cooked vegetables with butter or fresh herbs right before serving. You could also marinate the vegetables before roasting.
To roast vegetables: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Wash and scrub the vegetables, and cut them into pieces if you’d like. Toss them with vegetable oil or olive oil (or a marinade), season with salt and pepper or other seasonings, and then spread the vegetables on a baking sheet or in a casserole dish. Roast until a fork can be inserted easily into the center.
Broccoli and cauliflower makes a wonderful roasted vegetables and can be roasted relatively quickly. They are also easy to cut up so they can be prepared in almost no time at all.
Tender vegetables such as zucchini, yellow squash, mushrooms, spinach, peppers, and onions are good for sautéing or stir frying. Select a cooking fat, such as olive oil, peanut oil, or butter, that you think will taste good with the vegetables. Oils such as olive, peanut, or vegetable are best for cooking over high heat. Butter can be used as long as the temperature is kept low to avoid burning it. it.
To sauté or stir fry vegetables: Wash the vegetables, peel if desired, and cut them into pieces. Heat the oil or butter in a sauté pan or wok over high heat. Add the vegetables and cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or tongs to keep them from sticking to the pan and to ensure even cooking. Make sure that the pan is not too crowded (you may need to cook in batches if you’re making a large amount). Cook until the vegetables are fork tender, add any seasonings you’d like, and serve immediately.