Ways to make vegetable taste better

Blackandbeautiful1

Can I get advice on making vegetables taste better? I am not great at cooking, but I can read a recipe. So, please drop some recipes. Please

skinnytacular

I really like roasting vegetables, especially root vegetables this time of year.

https://www.cookinglight.com/recipes/sheet-pan-roasted-vegetables
https://www.cookinglight.com/recipes/roasted-vegetables
https://www.cookinglight.com/recipes/lemon-herb-sheet-pan-roasted-vegetables

https://www.growveg.com/guides/6-ways-to-spice-up-root-vegetables-in-the-kitchen/

Here are some ideas for steamed veggies:
https://www.thekitchn.com/eight-ways-to-make-steamed-vegetables-taste-amazing-tips-from-the-kitchn-73707

https://www.self.com/story/easy-ways-add-flavor-veggies

I personally like to toss my veggies with pesto sauce, olive tapenade, or black bean chili sauce (either purchased or home made for the first two.)

OldHobo

Blackandbeautiful1 wrote: »

Can I get advice on making vegetables taste better? I am not great at cooking, but I can read a recipe. So, please drop some recipes. Please

I'd be willing to bet that you don't need a recipe so much as a firm grip on the simple cooking methods for vegetables. There aren't that many and they aren't complicated.

1. Boil
2. Steam
3. Sauté
4. Stir Fry
5. Shallow Fry
6. Deep Fry
7. Braise/Stew
8. Roast/Bake

My suggestion is to take these on one at a time for the vegetables you know you like. Master at least one method for each vegetable you want to cook. You could learn from a mentor, a good book, articles, videos, or forums. The point is to learn a few methods not memorize or file an endless number of recipes.

• Mastering the methods above should include seasoning, meaning salt & pepper.
• Along the way, you should learn a good deal about fats, usually butter and various oils.
• And acid, like citrus juices, vinegars, maybe even a little wine.
• And combining fats and acids in emulsions.
• Then what herbs do you like? What's growing in your yard or on your window sill? Truth be told, most of them are virtual weeds. They aren't hard to grow.

Few people take this advice early on. Many never do. I won't be offended if you think there is an easier way. Most prefer to buy half a dozen small appliances, various cook-sets, knife collections, and innumerable gadgets in a never-ending quest for the ever-illusive magical cooking talisman.

If you ever do learn to cook though, mastering the methods will have been the path to this particular form of enlightenment.

skinnytacular

If you go down OldHobo's suggested path, I recommended the "cooking school" at Cooking Light: https://www.cookinglight.com/cooking-101/techniques/cooking-class-fundamental-techniquesi-ndex-main

missysippy930

I’ll second the roasting vegetables.
Very simple and delicious. It brings out the natural sweetness in many vegetables. For ease of cleanup, I use parchment paper. It makes it easier to turn them over. Choose vegetables you like to begin. I usually use just freshly ground black pepper and sea salt, but you can season them with any spices and/or herbs.

There are a lot of raw veggies I like, so I keep some prepped for a quick snack. A lot of chewing for low calories.

Joanna2012B

I don't have much to offer, I think vegetables are delicious no matter how they are prepared. @OldHobo has the best answer here imo! My favourite way is to roast vegetables with a little olive oil, seasoning and spice.

mjbnj0001

Good advisories here so far. For about 85% of the time, I follow the "less is more" philosophy regarding veg; that is, they often don't need much done to them, no matter the underlying cooking method. But, every once in a while, something really intricate or saucy or whatever is a real treat. Some veg, such as asparagus, are like two different foods if you prepare them differently, such as steaming versus broiling/roasting (steamed asparagus is sort of grassy; broiled is not). Roasting squash is another example; has to do with concentrating the flavor and/or the Maillard reaction. Sometimes, it takes a while for your mental palate to adjust to simplicity, just as heading into a lower-salt regime take time to adjust. Good luck.

gentlygently

Yes - please avoid overcooking! The sweet spot is usually when they have almost lost that last bit of cruch and well before anything mushy happens....a sharp knife to poke them as they cook is your new best friend perhaps?!

I also aim to buy good quality veg in the first place - yes organic carrots from my veggie box really do taste a lot better than the cheap ‘mass production’ ones...

You might want to have fun stretching what you use veg for - a vege chilli, chargrilled peppers on a home made pizza, making a mushroom sauce and putting it over baked leeks (even better if they are wrapped in puff pastry first).

BarbaraHelen2013

I could not live without vegetables! As a child they were always my favourite part of a meal. They feed my soul!

As others have mentioned I think the reason many people grow up not so keen is that overcooked slimy khaki grey/green piles of mush pass as vegetables for way too many.

For a lot of the green vegetables I like to refer to their cooked state as ‘hot raw’ rather than ‘cooked’. They need to have the vibrant colour and toothsome texture of raw but just hot and softened enough to have a different texture but still a ‘bite’ when eaten.

I’ve very recently discovered the pleasure of roasting cruciferous vegetables and I’m having a lot of joy dry roasting wIth lemon zest and juice rather than oil to keep the calories light.

I also like to use white cabbage, roughly shredded, and briefly steamed/boiled as a rice substitute with meals like vegetable chilli or curries. My rule of thumb is that if I can smell a hint of the vegetable when wafting the steam towards my face, they’re done.

purplefizzy

Buy locally grown vegetables in season.
Waaaay difference (undeniably superior) flavor profiles.
Taste raw, play with various prep methods- shaved fennel and beets are totally different than roughly chunked.
Dense hard stuff likes to get roasted. Use high heat, get the sugars to bloom. Go dark. Not burned. Dark.
Try stuff thinly shaved or sliced and then submerged in hot broth.
Get some good vinegar, high quality olive oil, parchment paper.
Dry roast, then finish with splashes of vinegar or citrus and drizzle oil, salt pepper.

Avoid the standard American sadness of canned or frozen whenever possible.
I’d hate vegetables if I thought canned or frozen were even distant relatives to fresh.

Commercially grown tomatoes are imposters and should probably exterminated. Even when they LOOK decent.. just totally sad. Avoid sad veggies.

nowNOTthenmylife

Hot sauce, herbs seasonings of your liking, fajita seasonings, salt & pepper ...

COGypsy

I typically try to save calories to use on stuff to make vegetables palatable - salt, ranch, any one of a million hot sauces, hummus, cheese, chile-lime salt, aoli, olive oil, egg yolk....all calorific, but worth it if it gets some veggies in me.