How to Make Tasty Vegetables

Packed with vitamins and antioxidants, vegetables are nature's answer to a healthy lifestyle. Though many of us know the health benefits of carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli, it's a challenge for many to create delicious, enjoyable dishes with vegetables. Whether you prefer rich sweet potatoes or crispy green beans, eating your veggies each day is a must. Read on to learn some simple tips to make those vitamin-packed foods more tasty.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Your favorite vegetable
• Basic seasonings, such as salt, pepper, garlic, and red pepper flakes
• Unique sauce mixes, such as ranch dressing seasoning

1. Pack in the flavor. Nothing makes vegetables more delectable than adding salt, pepper, garlic powder, and other common spices to your dishes. Some vegetables such as cauliflower only need a little butter and salt to enhance their inherent creaminess.

2. Cook your veggies enough; but don't overdo it. In other words, cook your green beans until they're no longer raw, but don't cook them until they're soggy. This not only depletes them of many key vitamins, they won't be as delicious when you eat them.

3. Be innovative. Instead of making the traditional baked sweet potato with butter, sugar, and cinnamon, put a spin on the dish. First, cut your sweet potatoes into small cubes and bake them until the cubes are soft. Then, combine the sweet potatoes with walnuts, cranberries, butter, and brown sugar for a yummy twist on traditional baked sweet potatoes.

4. Pair your vegetables with meat and side dishes to complement them. Just like you pair red wine with hearty meat and pasta dishes, serve your vegetables with sides that enhance their flavor and texture. Broccoli goes well with chicken and steak; crispy green beans are a great match for soft as butter baked fish. If it looks good together, it probably tastes good together.

5. Feel free to eat your vegetables raw. Though the tomato is in essence, a fruit, when you pair raw tomatoes with raw red onion and a light vinaigrette, you're creating a tangy appetizer salad that goes with most any meal imaginable.

6. Try to include your vegetables in casseroles and pastas dishes. For the anti-veggie individual, this is a great way to mask their flavor while enhancing the dish. Throw broccoli in creamy alfredo dishes or add frozen mixed vegetables to rice and chicken casseroles for a quick and easy rice pilaf.

7. Learn how to cook your vegetables properly. Just like any dish, you need to know the best way to cook those artichokes, radishes, and spaghetti squash. If you under-cook many of these vegetables, they'll be tough to eat and a waste of your time and effort.

Tips & Warnings

• Sprinkle ranch dressing seasoning into a vegetable stir-fry for some added pizazz.
• Learn the differences between steaming, blanching, frying, boiling, and baking before you attempt to cook vegetables.

[splendido]

on 10/20/2008 Don't buy your vegetables from a UK supermarket. They all taste like water. The secret of taste in a vegetable is 1. The variety and 2. The amount of time the plant is given to grow. UK supermarkets like fruit and vegetables to have a long shelf life, good appearance and minimal odour. Taste comes last on their priorities. The biggest joke is that they've managed to convince UK consumers that they need to pay premium for organic to get the privelage of tasty food. Go to continental Europe and this idea will seem quite absurd. If you want tasty vegetables, don't go near a UK supermarket.