Healthy Ways to Prepare Spring Produce

In my last post, we talked about how to enjoy eating fresh and delicious spring produce throughout the year. This week, we will talk about a variety of healthy cooking techniques to prepare that fresh and delicious spring produce.

Steaming
Enjoy that fresh and crisp taste of Spring vegetables by steaming them! By steaming your vegetables, you are making sure those important vitamins and minerals remain intact and that you are getting the most nutritional value out of each and every bite. Steaming your vegetables does not necessarily equal bland and tasteless vegetables either. By simply adding a light buttery vinaigrette to the vegetables just before serving, can add that perfect touch to a variety of Spring vegetables, such as asparagus, carrots and even zucchini. A sprinkle of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper can add just that extra zip to the vegetables as well. Steaming only takes just a few minutes, so preparing a quick and healthy side dish takes no time at all. Another plus to steaming is there is no need for fancy kitchen gear either! You can use a colander or even just a plain saucepan with a few teaspoons of added water and viola . . . delicious steamed Spring produce. Serve steamed vegetables along side wild rice and fish for an elegant, speedy and healthy meal.

Roasting
Roasting vegetables truly brings out the colors and flavors of vegetables, especially with fresh Spring produce. The vegetables have a hearty taste to them and the flavor can be enhanced with just a few herbs such as chives, parsley and even rosemary. Just like steaming, roasting vegetables takes hardly any time at all. Just evenly chop up a medley of your favorite Spring vegetables, sprinkle a few tablespoons of olive oil and balsamic vinegar and have them roast on a lined cookie sheet or roasting pan. It is the high heat, which is essential for the vegetables to caramelize, so a typically temperature to roast vegetables would be about 500 degrees and a typical roasting time would be about 20 minutes. Vegetables which taste absolutely divine when roasted are: onions, potatoes, tomatoes, squash, asparagus, carrots and even radishes. Mix and match your favorites to create that one-of-a-kind dish. Roasted vegetables are that perfect addition to a hot bowl of pasta, add a little bit of freshly grated parmesan cheese and you have a healthy and hearty meal in minutes!

Ann Martin is a freelance writer for Dinnerware Center, which offers an assortment of dinnerware and flatware sets. Noritake and Noritake colorwave sets are exceptionally made and quite popular. Ann is also a writer for cooking and home organization websites. When Ann is not writing, she enjoys cooking for family and friends.

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