Cooking Vegetables Correctly
During the “winter blues” I am going to be talking about cooking vegetables. The recipes posted during the next few issues will not feature fresh 
vegetables. I live in Oklahoma and those are not plentiful now. Plenty of time to talk about those locally grown veggies in the summer.
Vegetables provide a major part of our daily vitamin content and should be essential to our diet. The method of preparation determines how much vitamin content is retained. It also accounts for the taste and eye appeal.
It is very easy to over cook vegetables. This results in them being bland and soggy. Boling not only robs us of vitamin content, it is the main culprit in turning vegetables to a lifeless, tasteless form. My belief is that there are very few vegetables that should be boiled.
OK — so we aren’t going to boil. What are we going to do?
First option, steaming vegetables is always a good choice. This will leave vegetables full of life. They will be crisp and colorful. It will also not deplete the vegetables of their vitamin content.
By rule of thumb, vegetables will only need a few minutes in the steam.
For those who do not have official vegetable steamers, an easy steamer can be fashioned out a of pot, a metal colander, and a pot lid. Place a small amount of water in the bottom of a given pot. Fit the metal colander into the pot. Start to boil the water. You will begin the see the steam rise. Place your vegetables into the metal colander and place the pot lid over the metal colander and pot. This collection of kitchen items will allow you to steam vegetables as good as any fancy store bought steamer.
There is also a small steamer basket available at most stores that carry any type of kitchen utensils including discount stores.
Another good option is to cook your vegetables in a wok. The secret to the wok is that it cooks quickly at a very high temperature. Vegetables retain their flavors, textures, and colors with small amount of nutrient loss.
My favorite wok recipe for vegetables is to cook broccoli, carrots, bok choy, and snow peas in a very light garlic sauce. The vegetables remain crisp and the garlic adds just the right amount of flavoring. This combination can be served with any cut of meat.
I hope you will see that secret to cooking vegetables is not to over cook. Vegetables need to remain crisp, full of color. It’s all about flavoring and proper cooking methods. As you learn different tricks as to how to bring your vegetables to life, these will become the most requested dishes on your dinner table.
How many days this past week did you serve vegetables for at least one meal? What is your favorite vegetable recipe?