Favorite Vegetable Preparations?

[saf]

I roast any summer veg that I have and then small dice it, throw it in with quinoa and usually some lemon vin. My go to dish when there are people that don't eat meat at my house. It also makes a great side dish .

[Argonaut]

Cauliflower and broccoli, stir fried with a little soy sauce.

[oc_in_fw]

Roasting red peppers is a great way to start several dishes. I like to roast them right on the coals of my grill, but you can do this on the grill itself, in a broiler, on a gas stove, etc.

I almost NEVER have steak without grilled red, yellow, and orange peppers. Beats mushrooms (gag) any day of the week.

[Cochese2323]

Green beans and asparagus, I toss with minced garlic and olive oil, then spread out on tin foil and throw em under the broiler in the over for a few minutes until cooked to my liking.

Soaking corn in water with the husk still on it then throwing it on the grill is awesome too.

Pretty much any time I grill meat, I take an onion and cut it along the equators so it makes whole slices of rings and throw the slices right on the grill.

Don't know if we are talking potatoes too, but potatoes sliced thin wrapped in tin foil with onions, peppers, garlic and butter slow cooking on the grill so the ones on the bottom get all crispy is my summer time favorite.

[Rushman2112]

Another Indonesian one - this is probably from Java and due to the lack of spiciness equally probably Dutch influenced (they were the former colonial power), given that the Indonesian word for carrot is "wortel".

A carrot - julienned.
Some cabbage - shredded
Couple of finely chopped shallots
Couple of minced cloves of garlic
Salt and white pepper
A beaten egg.

Stir fry the shallots and garlic for a while, until fragrant. Add the carrot and cabbage, and fry until soft, say 5 mins. Add the eggs and scramble until the eggs are cooked and fully mixed in with the veggies. Season to taste.

Works well as a side dish with a meaty main dish, or equally well as a main veggie dish with steamed rice.

[Samurai-5]

Steam cauliflower (on a grill of course) then mash into a variation of mashed "Potato's" Add salt, pepper and butter. :)

[SliceOfLife]

Greens + Some kind of heat + some kind of fat + garlic.


Bean stew (your favorite beans, cranberry are traditional) with kale.

Mirepoix, tomatoes, garlic, red pepper flake, beans, Kale. Cook it how you'd expect.
Use vege base for stock (chickens better, but it's fine vegetarian) Add some bean gravy if you like.
Crouton and Parmesan on top.

[Alacrity59]

Grilled peppers and onions. Corn roasted in the husk. Fresh green or yellow beans almost any way (boiled, lightly grilled with a bit of olive oil and garlic).

[Penguinetti]

OK. As with most Indonesian dishes, the key is in the spice paste, the "bumbu". For this, you need a couple of shallots, 2 - 3 cloves garlic, 3 - 4 red chillies (the ones that are finger length size), maybe 2 bird's eye chillies, deseeded, for some heat, an inch of ginger, an inch of galangal, tsp ground coriander, large pinch ground cumin and a big tsp of tumeric - helps it go really yellow! - and a good pinch of salt and pepper. I think white pepper works best in Indo cooking but black is OK. I blitz all this in a small processor with a touch of water to help it out, but the mrs grinds it by hand with a flat pestle and mortar... Moving swiftly on, heat some neutral oil in a wok till quite hot and get the bumbu in. Indonesian cook books will say at this point "cook until the bumbu is fragrant" - you can only tell by your nose here. At the fragrant stage, add a cinnamon stick, a couple of cloves, and coconut milk. Bring to a gentle simmer, and add the peeled, cored, cubed pineapple.

Cook until you think the pineapple is done - about 15 mins usually.

Serve with steamed rice and a nice cold Bintang beer.

Roasting red peppers is a great way to start several dishes. I like to roast them right on the coals of my grill, but you can do this on the grill itself, in a broiler, on a gas stove, etc.

I turned these into a simple side dish with a balsamic vinaigrette.

They also serve as a base for a wonderful cream soup -- just blend them and add some chicken or veggie stock and some cream and S&P.

You can also chop them and mix in grated cheddar and mayo for a fantastic dip or sandwich spread.

I have quoted these two just for ease of access as I would like to try both of these.


BUT, here's one my wife likes:

4 beets
handful walnuts, chopped
maple syrup
romaine lettuce
goat cheese
2 parts olive oil, 1 part balsamic vinegar, 1 part orange juice

Clean and boil the beets till tender, then pull them out and cut 'em up bit sized. Keep the water, by the way, and add some salt, pepper, a little chicken seasoning, and ou have a pretty decent little drink going on.

Anyways, throw the walnuts into a pan and toast them up a little bit, then add a TBSP or so of maple syrup, and stir them together. Mix the walnuts, beets, lettuce, and crumbled up goat cheese, and serve with the dressing made of OO, balsamic, and OJ.

[Penguinetti]

Oh, although this is not a vegetable, it is delicious and great for summer.

2 pints blueberries, boiled in 1/4cup water mixed with some sugar (you're looking for the water to JUST cover the blueberries, maybe with a little cap, and you only want to cook until the blueberries pop). Then you strain/press the blueberries through a sieve to get a nice consistency, mix with a cup or 2 of white wine (i don't remember exactly how much), mix in some sour cream, and let cool (or refrigerate). Eat cold. It's wonderful.

[otto76]

I do a lot of stir fry in a wok, probably 99% of my dinners are some variation on this.
Lately my favorite is this:

Heat up a little sesame seed oil in the wok, with some habenero pepper slivers and a chopped garlic clove to flavor the oil.

Add chopped portabello mushroom caps, thinly sliced carrots, broccoli, chopped leeks to oil once it's sizzling

Splash in a little tamari, rice vinegar, chinese hot pepper oil or crushed chili

Once it's nearly finished add some thinly sliced lean beef to the mix, I cook it about med rare.

It's so good, and if you don't go crazy with the oil & tamari, pretty healthy. These are probably my favorite veggies out of the combos I've tried but the only one I think I need all of the time is the mushroom caps. They hold a lot of moisture and so it makes it easy to cook everything without having to add more tamari or soy sauce or vegetable broth, etc, to moisten it all up and keep it from being overcooked. So besides being delicious on their own they really help the whole meal out quite a bit.

[otto76]

OK. As with most Indonesian dishes, the key is in the spice paste, the "bumbu". For this, you need a couple of shallots, 2 - 3 cloves garlic, 3 - 4 red chillies (the ones that are finger length size), maybe 2 bird's eye chillies, deseeded, for some heat, an inch of ginger, an inch of galangal, tsp ground coriander, large pinch ground cumin and a big tsp of tumeric - helps it go really yellow! - and a good pinch of salt and pepper. I think white pepper works best in Indo cooking but black is OK. I blitz all this in a small processor with a touch of water to help it out, but the mrs grinds it by hand with a flat pestle and mortar tha she acquired on a shopping expedition in Jakarta with her mother when we first got married - hers is always better as a result because it bruises everything and gets the essential oils out whereas the blitzer just purees everything - but I just don't have the wrist action for her pestle and mortar...

Moving swiftly on, heat some neutral oil in a wok till quite hot and get the bumbu in. Indonesian cook books will say at this point "cook until the bumbu is fragrant" - you can only tell by your nose here. At the fragrant stage, add a cinnamon stick, a couple of cloves, and coconut milk. Bring to a gentle simmer, and add the peeled, cored, cubed pineapple.

Cook until you think the pineapple is done - about 15 mins usually.

Serve with steamed rice and a nice cold Bintang beer.

This sounds really good! I've been interested in trying some homemade curry, the pre-mixed stuff at the grocery store is okay but nothing to brag about. My wife is the curry fanatic in our house, she'd probably love this.

[Rushman2112]

This sounds really good! I've been interested in trying some homemade curry, the pre-mixed stuff at the grocery store is okay but nothing to brag about. My wife is the curry fanatic in our house, she'd probably love this.

Thanks guys. They key is the spice paste and it really does taste better ground by hand as I said, but it is a real technique to master. Any type of curry you make fresh will be better than any shop bought stuff, it will be cheaper probably, and you know exactly what's gone into it.

[Tim_McD]

I do a stir fry on the BGE about once a week. I grill off some chicken and once that is done I put the Weber stainless steel wok on to super heat.

A julianne of carrots, onions, celery and the white part of the scallions are tossed with olive oil and go into the wok. Drop the lid and cook for a couple of minutes before giving them a toss. Once they are tender crisp; I dump out them into the serving bowl while the greens cook. The greens are baby bok choy, shredded green cabbage, the scallion greens and plenty of chopped garlic and fresh ginger.

They only need a quick toss with some olive oil, then a sear in the wok. Once they are wilted - everything goes into the serving bowl (meat, veggies, greens) and are quickly sauced with a mix of oyster sauce, soy sauce and a generous tablespoon of hosin (a little less than a cup total, whisked together).

Even the kids hit that one hard

[Rodeoflyer]

yellow squash and zuchini, brushed with olive oil and grilled.

[djh]

I regularly cook up a pan of rice in a paella style using green beans, mushrooms and bell peppers. Using a base of sliced onions and whole garlic cloves cooked in plenty of olive oil, I add paprika and tomato paste and stir through before adding arborio rice to the pan. Next come the green beans and after heating them with the rice and stirring everything to coat properly, I add chicken stock (you can obviously also use vegetable stock) to more than cover the rice. Once the pan is at a simmer, I add chopped mushrooms and bell peppers and occasionally a couple of sprigs of rosemary.
This makes an excellent meal or a wonderful side dish when I am cooking meat on the bbq.

[ricardo9505]

I'm big on antipasto salads. and greek dishes for eggplant, and Latino eggplant recipes. also I love cooking veggies on a cast iron grill. sometimes I blanch them for 30-50 seconds in boiling water.
I buy my veggies at the chinese markets (cheap and many varieties). bok choy is a must every week. and spinach. stir fried of course with ginger and garlic

[ia_james]

Don't know if we are talking potatoes too, but potatoes sliced thin wrapped in tin foil with onions, peppers, garlic and butter slow cooking on the grill so the ones on the bottom get all crispy is my summer time favorite.

You forgot the Montreal Steak Seasoning!! Grilled asparagus is my favorite, broccoli Normandy with a little seasoned salt in a foil packet is also excellent.

[The Count of Merkur Cristo]

For me, I love simple preparations like any vegetable that's roasted...baby carrots & onions, asparagus, broccoli, zuchini, cauliflower, orka, corn on the cob. Just a little olive oil, truffel salt, seasoned pepper w/ garlic. Roast veg's in 350° oven until 'al dente'...superb!!!

"Bon Appétit...Celebrating the Chef in You!!! CBJ

[Blackbeard's Delight]

I was going to start a thread like this! I have been playing 'power forward' on team Meat and Cheese most of my life, but apparently vegetables are good for you. I have done a little reading online and I am going to try to have a couple vegetable-only meals a week to start off.

I found one recipe for a 1-pot meal that I tried today. My variation was this: cut up an onion and about two cups of mushrooms and saute in a big pot. Add uncooked rice and beans with water that have the same cook time. When about 5 minutes from finish, add a bunch of chopped greens (I used collard greens... yum!). When done, stir and serve with a sprinkle of salt.

I can vouch for this being very filling and flavorful. I had two bowls of it and was pretty full. It's a warm dish that hit the spot on a cold rainy New England day.

Of course you can add anything like garlic, curry, plus any other veg to the mix. I imagine with butter or bacon in the mix it would be completely killer, but I am trying hard to get away from that kind of delicious trouble! I also have brussell sprouts and fresh garlic for the next batch. We'll see.

This would also make a great side dish for a some kind of meat, even a fish dish.