What are the best and healthy ways to cook veggies like lettuce, cabbage and other greens?

Question

What are the best things to add for flavor and how do you cook it?

Answer 1

Well I don't cook lettuce, but cabbage, spinach, and other greens I always rinse them really well and then saute them in a pan with some garlic butter, salt and pepper. When they are wilted I take them out and hit them with a bit of lemon juice. Very tasty!

The healthiest way to cook veggies though is to steam them. They do not loose nutrients when they are steamed, well not as many as frying, boiling or other methods.

Answer 2

I just posted about nutrition and cooked vegetables on my site, particularly cruciferous veggies like kale, cabbage, cauliflower and greens. Steaming is a great method for maximizing the phytonutrients in these vegetables, but other methods offer up some great flavors and variety, for example lightly braising red cabbage with blueberries, making kale "chips" as a healthy snack. Many vegetables are healthier for you if they ARE cooked, not raw. You can stop by this post to learn more:

Answer 3

Stir frying leaf veggies is another option.

After washing the vegetables well. Tear them or slice them into bite size pieces if necessary.

Heat 1 tblsp. oil (canola or peanut) and add some crushed garlic & sliced onion. Stir for a few minutes to let them brown a bit. Add the veggies, some salt, pepper, soy sauce (1-2 tsp.) & 1/2 tsp. sesame oil.

You can also add sesame seeds for extra flavor.

For more recipes, look at www.foodtv.com. It's a pretty good site and the recipes are rated by ease and reviewed by users.

Answer 4

Steaming keeps nutrients from getting spoiled. So put the veggies in a strainer on a saucepan with water. Cover the saucepan so that steam cooks the veggies. After they are cooked add olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

Answer 5

I usually prefer my lettuce cold, but I love steamed cabbage with salt, pepper and mustard! I also cook brussel sprouts by halving them and sauting them in a little oil, then adding pancetta or crumbled bacon and blue cheese. Fresh green beans are usually steamed or cooked in chicken broth and sauteed onions and sometimes bacon are added for flavor at the end. I also cook cabbage and potatoes together in chicken broth and then mash together, sort of a colchanon (sp), with butter and sour cream, salt and pepper. Fresh green beans are also good steamed until crisp tender then topped with a lemon zest butter. Simple and tasty. You can saute spinach in olive oil and garlic, add lemon juice and salt and pepper at the end. Good stuff!

Answer 6

Steam for a few minutes (depending on the vegetable) and then put them in ice water to keep them from overcooking. This will keep the nutrients in.

I like to cook cabbages and spinach in a tblsp of olive oil and a mashed clove of garlic. Cook them for 5-10 mins

Answer 7

You can steam them - this is the healthiest way of cooking them.

You can also sautée with some olive oil and lemon juice, this does add some fat, but it is no worse that adding butter or margerine to steamed veggies. The lemon adds flavour without adding salt.

Answer 8

Use all kinds of spices and sautee or even steam or grill. I love grilled zucchini and red peppers. I dont recommend boiling since the nutrients disappear in the water. If you sautee you dont even need to add and oil as long as you have a wok like pan. Good luck

Answer 9

(L)
This time of year can be pretty challenging for people who grow their own, or insist on local veg. Trying to subsist on swedes, cabbages and leeks and little else for months on end can be pretty trying. I'm OK with the swedes potatoes and leeks - you can make mash with plenty of butter or cream and lots of salt and pepper so at least it doesn't taste so damned healthy. Or you can make soup from them and keep it interesting by adding different beans, noodles, dumplings, croutons, or serve it with different kinds of home-made bread (I'm on a big soda bread kick at the moment - more on that in a future post).

But cabbage is a problem. I'm with Hedgie on this one. I'm just not a big fan of cabbage, and I admit I've flung a few of them to the chickens in desperation when my kitchen seems to be taken over by more cabbages than I care to eat. The chickens seem to like them as long as you can figure out how to suspend the cabbages so they don't just get trampled into the mud.

I have found the secret to making cabbage a pleasure is to cut out the tough central veins on each leaf and shred what's left into really fine ribbons - 1/8" or so. It's the mouthful of tough chewy cabbage that gets me down.

Once you've done that there are a few things you can do to make really delicious dishes with cabbage. I like stir frying it - I had a lovely vegetarian stir fry the other day with julienne swede, finely shredded cabbage and leeks cut into sticks rather than rings. I fried some garlic and ginger up with it too. Then I put on plenty of soy sauce and a little sesame oil and served it with noodles. It would have been even better with some soy sauce marinaded chicken but I didn't have any.




Staying with the Chinese theme, if you finely shred savoy cabbage and deep fry it with slivers of garlic, then drain it and serve with lots of sea salt, that's exactly how they make the stuff they call "seaweed" in Chinese restaurants. I don't make this any more because a) I haven't owned a deep fryer in years and b) when I tried it I found it tricky getting the cabbage properly crispy but not burned.

You can stir fry cabbage without going all oriental. I like to fry strips of onion in olive oil until they're soft, then add shredded cabbage and shedloads of black pepper. Don't think "seasoning" think "flavouring", like steak au poivre. It's supposed to smell strongly of aromatic black pepper. With some buttery nutmeg swede mash and some tasty sausages and onion gravy you won't be wishing for summer peas and lettuce, you'll be revelling in delicious winter food.

Or you can steam your shredded cabbage with some fennel seeds. Remove the rind from a lemon and squeeze the juice. Finely shred the rind and cream it into some butter along with the lemon juice, sea salt and a moderate amount of black pepper, them stir the lemon butter into the steamed cabbage. Our veggie family likes this with a vegetable quiche, and perhaps some mashed spuds. But I'm sure it would also accompany chicken or fish very well.

But our family's favourite use for cabbage is the legendary Baked Cabbage with Nuts and Cheese. .........

Answer 10

Steam them or fry them in a little olive oil with garlic and soy sauce....mmmmmmmmmmmm.
Don't over cook them.