Fresh vegetable recipes?

Hello, all -

Could you recommend some relatively simple ways to cook fresh veggies, preferably on the stovetop, to accompany a main meat dish? We usually have steaks, lamb chops, cornish hens, or pork roast in the oven when we need to fix a side dish. We've pretty much made salads to accompany these, which has gotten pretty boring. I sometimes saute mushrooms in olive oil with garlic but we'd like some other suggestions for variation. My DH, BillC, makes great roasted asparagus when the oven's not in use but that isn't always the case.

We'll eat any veggie. Your suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

Sandy

Peel 2 rutabegas. Cut into uneven chunks. Place into frying pan with a bit of butter or olive oil, and perhaps a bit of chicken broth/stock, if needed. Season liberally with lemon & pepper seasoning. Saute' in oil until tender, while coarshly mashing some of the smaller chunks (about a 70/30 mix of chunks vs. mashed). Serve immediately.

Cut 1-2 cabbage heads into quarters; removing core. Cut enough aluminum foil to be able to individually wrap each piece. Dot heavily with butter. Sprinke your choice of seasonings on top (I like cajun/creole spice mixture). Bake in oven at around 325 degrees until tender. Better yet, cook over indirect heat on grill. Serve as soon as done. Have plenty of your favorite hot sauce available.

Get 2-3 bundles of fresh collard greens. Spread out a bunch of newspaper on floor. Separate greens & cut into medium large pieces, disgarding lower, tougher stems (smaller stems towards front of leaves OK and are really needed). Take what you have cut & rinse thoroughly (sand, etc.) Place all in large pot with enough water to cover. Place at least 2 ham hocks in with same (alternatively: at least 4-6 tablespoons of rendered bacon or ham grease). Begin cooking on medium heat. Greens will soon begin "shrinking" and thus take up much less room in the pot. Season to taste at this point. Cook until tender. Remove all available meat from ham hocks and add to pot; disgard rest. Serve as soon as ready, making sure you have plenty of sliced Vadialla onions and hot sauce available. The "pot likker" available can be consumed "as is", but is best reserved for some dippin' sauce for your corn pone and/or your freshly-baked corn bread. (See recent Tennessee restaurant review)...

Bacon fat RULES...

Get a bag (or two) of the pre-washed baby spinach leaves. Wash them anyway, as sand can be a problem with spinach. Be sure to dry the spinach well, preferably in a salad spinner. Peel a couple of shallots, and slice them fairly thinly.

Heat your pan (preferably a wok, but any heavy-bottom pan with fairly deep sides will do), and add a couple of tablespoons of Extra-Virgin Olive Oil. When the oil is hot, add your shallots, and stir-fry them for a couple of minutes. Add your spinach, and stir-fry it for about 2 minutes--just until it is starting to wilt. Add a little bit of lemon juice, salt, and pepper, and toss to mix the ingredients. Turn the contents of the pan into your serving bowl, and enjoy! This is really quick and easy, and is very tasty.

Get about 3-4 # of yellow summer squash. Cut into about 1/4th inch slices. Cut 2 medium or 1 large sweet onion(s) into same width. Dump all into frying pan (cast iron, of course) and about 4-5 TBS olive oil. Add seasonings; again here I use lemon/pepper variety. Saute' over medium-high to high heat while stirring constantly. The cooking itself only takes about 10 min. Once squash/onion mixture is tender, cut heat to warm and either serve or let simmer, while still stirring about ever three minutes until ready to serve. The longer you wait, the mushier this dish will get etc. Same also works well in a wok and is a southern variation of "calabacitas".

Chop tomato, bell pepper, onion, zucchini, celery, carrot, and mushrooms. Put in a large skillet or wok that's been preheated to medium heat with about 1/3 a cup of olive oil.

After the above items have cooked down a bit in the oil, add whatever amount of chopped eggplant you want.

Pulp a couple cloves of garlic into above. Salt and pepper to taste. Add ground cumin to taste, just remember it should not overpower.

Cover and cook over medium fire until desired doneness. Beauty part of this dish is you can serve it from al dente to crispy well done, and all points in between. That's how I like it, crispy well done.

Steam some Brussels sprouts, then halve or quarter them, depending on size, and saute them in olive oil with garlic, a pinch of salt and some freshly-ground black pepper. Serve them topped with some grated Parmigiano Reggiano.

Saute julienned zucchini with onions, garlic, salt and pepper.

Slice zucchini and onions, then steam with a sprinkle of Mrs. Dash garlic and Herb blend.

Slice up a pound or so of fresh mushrooms. Slice up 2-3 assorted color bell peppers. Same with 1-2 small sweet onions. To that add 3 jars of marinated artichoke hearts. Add some small chunk cheese (jarlsberg, swiss, cheddar, etc). Sprinkle same with come capers. Add a small container of pre-cooked pasta (your choice but no "meat", please). Mix well. Add a bit of olive oil and some bottled Italian dressing (I use Newman's). Marinate in 'fridge at least over night. Serve the next day. Sprinkle with a bit of cayenne pepper before serving. Delicious!

Roastin' ears (boiled corn-on-the-cob)

Deep fried corn-on-the-cob

Green beans simmered with crumbled bacon and minced onion (or onion flakes)

Sweet potatoes "home fried" (fairly thinly sliced sweet potatoes or yams fried in butter)

Battered fried tomato slices (green or ripe)

Any vegetable (broccoli florets, asparagus, green beans, carrot strips, zucchini slices, celery slices, bell pepper strips, onion slices, etc. or a mixture of them) stir-fried with or without a bottled or homemade oriental stir-fry sauce

Fresh Veggies... Must be nice...

We have fresh veggies with dinner almost every night. We buy whatever is on sale (in summer much of it comes out of the garden)and steam it. Broccoli, squash, carrots, green beans--you name it. Just steam for about ten minutes (sometimes I mix them or throw in sliced onions or chopped garlic). You can drizzle them with olive oil, butter, parm cheese, soy sauce or hot sauce depending on your preference and what else you're serving. Easiest thing in the world to make, delicious, inexpensive, and really good for you.

If you want to get fancy, this is a great recipe for this time of year: cut butternut squash in one-inch rounds and place in an oiled dish. Top the slices with cut one-inch rounds of your favorite cooking apple. Cube about a half stick of butter and cut it with some flour and sugar(14-1/2 cup of each) mixed with cinnamon and nutmeg.(You can drizzle some maple syrup or apple cidar on if you like, too.) Sprinkle with chopped walnuts and bake at around 350 degrees for around 45 minutes. It's really wonderful.

Wow! These are great suggestions. I'm printing them out as they come and we're going to try them all. Some of these sound good enough to be main dishes (especially for January when I'm going to be trying to shed the wretched excess of December.)

Adjudicator- Thanks for the wealth of tasty-sounding suggestions. We thought we'd start with the rutabega (a much neglected vegetable in my opinion) dish, but there none at the market today. We're going with brussels sprouts tonight. The rutabegas are up next.

Thanks, one and all!

Of course, if there are still some suggestions out there, keep 'em coming.

Definately Tennessee fried okra, fried corn, green beans with some hamhock and Tennessee fried cornbread. We do mash potatotes with real butter, salt and pepper.

Paul E. Smith
'Knoxville, TN

Question>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>I have never read the term "real butter". What is real butter? Do you simply mean "butter" as opposed to oleo?

quote:

Originally posted by Greymo

Question>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>I have never read the term "real butter". What is real butter? Do you simply mean "butter" as opposed to oleo?

You got it right. Real butter as opposed to something similar. Sorry you did not understand.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

quote:

Originally posted by Sundancer7

Definately Tennessee fried okra, fried corn, green beans with some hamhock and Tennessee fried cornbread. We do mash potatotes with real butter, salt and pepper.

Paul E. Smith
'Knoxville, TN

Fried corn & mashed tater's. Each deserves their own thread.

I forgot to add onion to the ingredients Sandy. I knew I'd forget something. I edited it in, so reprint if you want to.

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Hoffman

Steam some Brussels sprouts, then halve or quarter them, depending on size, and saute them in olive oil with garlic, a pinch of salt and some freshly-ground black pepper. Serve them topped with some grated Parmigiano Reggiano.

Saute julienned zucchini with onions, garlic, salt and pepper.

Slice zucchini and onions, then steam with a sprinkle of Mrs. Dash garlic and Herb blend.

Note:

For larger sprouts; no need to cut. Always make diagonal "X" with a sharp knife on the root end before cooking.

quote:

Originally posted by Adjudicator

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Hoffman

Steam some Brussels sprouts, then halve or quarter them, depending on size, and saute them in olive oil with garlic, a pinch of salt and some freshly-ground black pepper. Serve them topped with some grated Parmigiano Reggiano.

Saute julienned zucchini with onions, garlic, salt and pepper.

Slice zucchini and onions, then steam with a sprinkle of Mrs. Dash garlic and Herb blend.

Note:

For larger sprouts; no need to cut. Always make diagonal "X" with a sharp knife on the root end before cooking.

It did not occur to me that there was a need to mention the X. When it comes to sauteing the Brussels sprouts I consider it very necessary to either halve or quarter (the larger ones) them. Unless, of course, one prefers not to have the garlic and oil flavor throughout each sprout.

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Hoffman

quote:

Originally posted by Adjudicator

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Hoffman

Steam some Brussels sprouts, then halve or quarter them, depending on size, and saute them in olive oil with garlic, a pinch of salt and some freshly-ground black pepper. Serve them topped with some grated Parmigiano Reggiano.

Saute julienned zucchini with onions, garlic, salt and pepper.

Slice zucchini and onions, then steam with a sprinkle of Mrs. Dash garlic and Herb blend.

Note:

For larger sprouts; no need to cut. Always make diagonal "X" with a sharp knife on the root end before cooking.

It did not occur to me that there was a need to mention the X. When it comes to sauteing the Brussels sprouts I consider it very necessary to either halve or quarter (the larger ones) them. Unless, of course, one prefers not to have the garlic and oil flavor throughout each sprout.

For some reason, Brussel spouts is the one veggie I cant eat now.. Actually, I loved them as a kid, but hate them now as an adult.. If thats what I am?..
But fresh turnip greens, with some bacon and onions.... and a dash of hot pepper vinegar....
Had some the other day at my favorite Maine BBQ spot....
Maine, BBQ, turnip Greens, Winter, Snow... somethings are just made for each other!
ROFL