Preparation Tips & Recipes

Most of the work in preparing vegetables involves washing, peeling, paring, and chopping. If you don't have time for fresh vegetables, frozen, or even canned are perfectly healthy choices. Check the produce section of your supermarket for packages of veggies that are already washed and chopped for you. You'll find baby peeled carrots, precut and washed broccoli and cauliflower florets, broccoli slaw (shredded broccoli stalks–great for stir fries), salad mixes, cabbage shredded for coleslaw, washed spinach, and more. When it comes to cooking fresh veggies, I use more or less the same technique for all vegetables: steaming followed by a quick sauté. (The exception is leafy greens which require their own cooking technique described below.) Here are the steps for cooking just about any type of vegetable:

  1. Clean vegetables and remove any inedible portions.
  2. Cut into bite size pieces.
  3. In a large, deep frying pan, heat about an inch of water. Place a steamer basket in the pot, add the veggies into the basket, cover and steam until the vegetables are just as tender as you like them.
  4. Lift the steamer basket out of the pot (use a pot holder!) and pour off the water.
  5. Add a tablespoon or two of olive oil to the pot and add the veggies. A quick sauté will really perk up the flavors. Add any seasonings you like and cook for just a minute or so.

Cooking leafy greens:

Steaming vegetables is one of the most healthful ways to cook them, but it just doesn't work for leafy greens like collards, kale, mustard and turnip greens. I use the technique from the wonderful cookbook Greens Glorious Greens.

  1. Tear the greens into bite size pieces. You can include the stems or not–it's up to you. (I don't use the coarser stems.)
  2. Plunge the greens into a big bowl of cold water and swish them to clean. Drain the water. Do this a couple of times or even three to get rid of the grit that sometimes clings to the leaves.
  3. While cleaning them, bring about 2 cups of water per pound of greens to boil in a large pot. Add the greens. Cover and boil (yes, boil!) for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain the greens.

At this point, as for the vegetables above, I like to give my greens a quick sauté in a bit of olive oil and season them. Here are some good flavoring ideas for leafy greens:

  • Sauté onions with a clove of minced garlic and a pinch of cinnamon. Stir in the cooked greens.
  • Sauté chopped onions and garlic in olive oil. Add a 1/4 teaspoon of ground cayenne (more or less to taste) and salt and black pepper to taste. Add a pound of cooked greens.

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