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Many people underestimate the potential of vegetables, considering them to be something secondary, like an optional addition to meat or fish. Of the latter, all of them are often cooked, except perhaps desserts, while vegetables are destined for the role of a side dish, at best – a snack before the main course. This, at the very least, is not fair.
Vegetable brethren should be respected no less than their more successful neighbors in the refrigerator, and many other products will envy the number of different ways in which they can be prepared. Of course, I am not encouraging anyone to become a vegetarian, but it may turn out that after reading this article, you will begin to love vegetables a little more. They deserve it.
Bake in the oven
Baked vegetables may well serve as a main course or serve as a side dish. The good news is that you can do this with a lot of vegetables, if not most. For example, place the carrots on a sheet of foil, season with salt, pepper and cumin, seal the foil, and bake in the oven until soft. You can bake potatoes, beets, fennel, onions, and so on in a variety of ways.
Baked champignons *
Fry
With this, I think, there will be no questions. I can only advise you to use a wok instead of a regular frying pan and cook over high heat so that the vegetables do not lose their color and crispness. The thinner you cut the vegetables, the faster they cook.Recipes:Fried oyster mushrooms with soy sauce
Brussels sprouts with pine nuts
Spinach with wild mushrooms
Glaze
In order to cook vegetables, for example, carrots, in this unusual way, you should boil them until soft, then fry in syrup, stirring constantly. There are a great many options for this recipe, but the output should be bright vegetables with a sweetish taste, pleasing to the eye with a shiny glaze. You can also glaze beets, turnips, onions, or even sweet potatoes if you can get one.
Steam
Steaming is a very healthy way to cook vegetables that I’m sure many of you use. By steaming green vegetables or rice and not being greedy with seasonings, you will get a dish that will not be inferior in taste to more familiar side dishes.
Make mashed potatoes
Most often, we cook mashed potatoes, but you can make mashed potatoes from any root vegetables or pumpkin varieties, individually or in all kinds of combinations, and each time it will be a separate dish with a pronounced personality. Also, next time try adding crushed garlic, grated cheese, chopped herbs, nutmeg to your usual mashed potatoes, and you will be surprised at the result.
Prepare a salad
The salad can be made from any vegetables, they seem to be created for this, so you should not be afraid of experiments. If you serve salad as a side dish, remember that, firstly, it should not be too heavy, and secondly, it should not distract the attention of the eater from the main dish (unless, of course, this was conceived by you from the very beginning).
Blanch
Blanching is great for all vegetables that can be eaten raw. If you dip the vegetables in boiling water for a few moments, they cook on the outside but remain crisp and crisp on the inside, which adds flavor and texture. Alternatively, you can blanch leafy vegetables, from regular lettuce to kale. Blanch the leaves, drain in a colander to drain, then season with olive oil and season with salt and garlic.
Cook in batter
Tempura, a method of cooking in batter invented by the Japanese (more precisely, borrowed from the Portuguese), is also suitable for vegetables. Suitable for him are carrots, bell peppers, pumpkin, zucchini, green beans, broccoli, onions, mushrooms, and so on. It’s very simple – chopped vegetables are dipped in batter and then deep-fried. Serve vegetable tempura with sauce as a hot starter or main course.
Put out
Stewed vegetables is a dish familiar from childhood, and probably no one needs to teach it to cook. Well, if at some point it seems to you that stewing vegetables is boring and uninteresting, remember that you can use not only water for this. Boil the zucchini quickly, then cook in cream and you won’t be disappointed.
Stuff
Zucchini or peppers with minced meat are familiar to everyone, so if we want to cook something unusual, we will have to turn on the imagination. How about stuffed potatoes with mushrooms or small cherry tomatoes stuffed with cheese as a cold snack? Just look at your existing products from an unusual angle and you won’t be short of ideas!
Cook in suvide
Souvid is a relatively new method of cooking, for which products are packed in vacuum bags and cooked in a water bath at a cooking temperature, and not a degree higher. This allows you to get dishes of amazing taste and texture, which retain the maximum of vitamins and nutrients, and vegetables, fortunately, can also be prepared in this way.
Make casserole
A vegetable casserole with a golden cheese or rusk crust is another way to prepare a delicious, satisfying and warming vegetable dish. Grease a baking dish with butter, add chopped vegetables, add liquid (such as cream or wine) if necessary, season well, sprinkle with grated cheese or breadcrumbs, and bake until tender.
Serve with pasta
Vegetables go great with pasta, be it Italian pasta or noodles from Southeast Asia. In the first case, boil the pasta separately, separately prepare vegetables that can be quickly fried or stewed in your own juice, in the second, vegetables can be fried with noodles, and take soy, oyster or any other of the extensive range of Asian sauces as a sauce.
Grill
Grilling is the best compromise if you want to cook a delicious meal using a minimum of fat, and many vegetables are great on the grill. In the hot season, it is better to cook vegetables in the fresh air, but winter is also not a reason to deny yourself a grill: a grill pan or an electric grill for the kitchen will come to the rescue.
Make pancakes
Vegetable pancakes are a wonderful dish familiar to everyone from childhood. By the way, it is not at all necessary to cook pancakes from long-familiar zucchini and potatoes. How do you like the idea of making tender, fluffy pancakes with leeks or the usual carrots?