How do you cook vegetables?

[pacific breeze]

I mostly steam, bake or sautee them in olive oil. Or eat them raw.

[Fonzarelli23]

I don't eat a lot of vegetables. When I do, it is usually included in a recipe so they're usually sauteed in olive oil.

[muchlove]

I used to have a bamboo steamer that I used all the time. Steamed veggies are great.

I usually stir fry them, cook them in something, or just eat them raw.

[moomies]

I LOVE roasted veggies!! I usually stirfry them cuz it's easy and quick. Other times I either boil them or steam them. I also sometimes pickle them (Japanese tsukemono). Grilled/BBQed veggies are good, too.

But I heard that stirfrying destroys all the nutrients cuz the food is cooked in very high heat. With boiling, you drain them out when you pour out the water. Steaming is the best way to keep all the goodies in veggies.

I love salads, too. Potato, brocoli and cauliflower salads are my faves and I always make these.

[Glasgow53]

Steaming veggies is really good, especially in a bamboo steamer. They have metal ones, too, but with metal ones, the steam condenses on the lid and drips down onto the food, and can make it watery. Bamboo doesn't do that. The bamboo absorbs the moisture.

[SVZ]

ooh, don't heat olive oil it's baaaaaad. instead use grapeseed oil or even coconut oil.

i usually steam, and then drizzle olive oil on it

[A*O]

Ohhhhh good tip on bamboo vs metal steamers! I usually steam my veggies, with occasional roast or grilled on the barbie. I NEVER fry (unless it's onions to go into a stew or something which I saute in olive oil).

[SVZ]

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=george&dbid=56

here's a good site on which oils to use in cooking

[sputnik]

steamed. i have a bamboo steamer and also an electric one i got as a gift
i love roasted veggies. some of my faves are baby potatoes and carrots and eggplant, with some olive oil and rosemary... or asparagus with pine nuts and olive oil, and i just cook it under the broiler.
stir fry is good too.
i try to avoid cooking with olive oil, but sometimes (like when you're doing onions and garlic), you have to use it for the taste.

[muchlove]

But stir fry is so yummy!!!

[pacific breeze]

I sautee in olive oil all the time. I've never heard that it destroyed nutrients of the oil and veggies. Someone should tell the Mediterraneans that -- they have one of the healthiest diets going.

[SVZ]

heat destroys most nutrients, like vitamin c etc, but that's not an issue of the olive oil itself.

the issue is that olive oil has a low smoking point, when it begins smoking it's chemical makeup begins to change, forming oxidants, and bad stuff

[pacific breeze]

Well, in Italy and Greece they do pour quite a bit of olive oil on veggies and salads etc. So maybe they've got it right after all. I will probably buy grapeseed AND olive oil tomorrow as I am nearly out.

I had heard that grapeseed oil was good.

[muchlove]

Regular olive oil... not virgin or extra virgin... isn't too bad to cook with. It doesn't smoke as easily.

[DisruptiveHair]

We roast them, boil them, sautee them, stir fry them, grill them, steam them, eat them raw....basically any which way. Depends on the vegetable really. I won't eat a boiled courgette but I'll eat one that has been roasted. I don't like corn that has been grilled, but I'll eat it boiled.