Easy vegetable side dishes

Since I tend to spend a lot of time and effort on the main course, I have little energy or interest left for a vegetable side dish. I'd love to see some ideas for easy, good vegetable side dishes.

I'll start with what I did last night. Slice green beans into bite site pieces. Thin slice 2 cloves garlic. Throw everything into a steamer and steam while main course is cooking. Put into bowl with a splash of soy sauce.

I like brussel sprouts or cauliflower tossed with a olive oil salt and pepper and baked in a hot oven. This is especially easy if you're baking anyway. I find them to be pretty forgiving at most temperatures, but I think they need a hot finish (around 475) to get nice and brown.

I just did a couple of incredibly easy and delicious ones this weekend. First, a fennel grating - fennel sliced lengthwise in a pan with olive oil, parmesan, salt & pepper and baked until tender . . . simple, delicious. Also, brussels sprouts and shallots deep fried (or roasted), then tossed with a little honey & balsamic, salt, pepper and plenty of fresh flat leaf parsley.

If you're looking for salads, I got big thumbs up for one with arugula, sliced persimmons, olive oil, lemon, goat cheese, pine nuts, salt & pepper.

Add in any type of squash as being very easy. I particularly like delicata squash because you can eat the skin without issue.

I think lots of things are tastier when roasted or grilled than when sauteed or steamed - green beans, carrots, squashes, asparagus, kale. Just need some oil/butter, salt or parmesan grated over.

I'm with leek and veghound for easy-peasy. Roasting more than grilling for easy. If I'm not already using the oven though, I normally sautee with a generous amount of evoo, a touch of garlic, some salt, and real butter to finish. If I have a lemon in the fridge, then a few drops too - same with white wine. Maybe it's my simple palate, but I never get sick of that combo, and the 4 year old always eats all of his veggies with no prodding. Ever.

For steaming, my microwave is a fantastic steamer. Usually broccoli or cauliflower, bowl, tiny bit of water, covered. Cauliflower takes a little longer, and I dress them after they are done - evoo, salt, pepper, random dry seasoning. Talk about fast and easy cleanup.

I find steamed vegetables cool off too quickly and become unappealing when made for large scale family holiday dinners. That's why I think cooks turned to casseroles such as the ubiquitous green bean thing which some love and some hate. I think if you are serving for a very small family such as up to four people, steamed or stir fry can work but if you are putting a large quanity of food on the table and have many people, finding an au gratin type vegetable dish that is baked is better. It sometimes can be assembled ahead of time and does not require last minute cooking such as steamed, although it takes space up in the oven. A good one is fresh green beans with bacon, and onion, a little brown sugar and vinegar. These can be put in the crock pot to hold so they won't cool off too quickly. There also are recipes for the green beans to be made without soup.
There is another recipe for fresh cauliflower and broccoli with cheese and also crushed ritz crackers on top. I suppose you could use bread crumbs or pancko too.

It seems there are a lot of votes in for cauliflower. I find that cumin and cauliflower together is a magical combination. Often times I roast some cauliflower with nothing more than cumin, butter, and salt, and it's always delicious.

Three simple staples in our house:

1. Roasted vegetables. Cauliflower, broccoli, and root vegetables are especially good. Toss veg with generous amount of olive oil, salt, and whatever other spices you want. Roast at 425 or so until golden brown. Tons of great sauce options, if you want. Last night we had roasted carrots, Belgian endive, and celery, sprinkled with crushed cardamon and fennel seed, with a simple sauce made from yogurt with a little salt and a touch of habanero sauce.

2. Gratins (with or without bread crumbs and cheese on top). Slice vegetables, put into baking dish, and add a flavorful liquid. Cream is a recent favorite. You can jazz this up in countless ways.

3. Shaved or grated raw vegetable salad. Winter vegetables are especially good.

Question -- both for cooking for Thanksgiving (so I can have ready in advance and just reheat from room temp after turkey is out) and for a potluck-type thing we're going to this weekend, what would be the best way to reheat roasted brussels sprouts? I figured I could do the roasting in advance, and hold off on putting any of the sauce on it until serving, but how to reheat? Is this a typical 350-until-hot job, or can I flash reheat them? I know some things are amenable to flash reheat and some are not, and I'm not sure here.

AdmVinyl wrote:Question -- both for cooking for Thanksgiving (so I can have ready in advance and just reheat from room temp after turkey is out) and for a potluck-type thing we're going to this weekend, what would be the best way to reheat roasted brussels sprouts? I figured I could do the roasting in advance, and hold off on putting any of the sauce on it until serving, but how to reheat? Is this a typical 350-until-hot job, or can I flash reheat them? I know some things are amenable to flash reheat and some are not, and I'm not sure here.

I'm not sure if reheating would save you all that much time - I usually roast brussel sprouts at 400-450 for 15-20 minutes, and I'd guess it would take 10 minutes to reheat them. Trimming and prepping them the night before certainly saves time, and I do that a lot even for regular week day meals.

I love brussel sprouts, but the fact that I have to trim takes them out of the really easy category for me (not hard, just kind of time consuming compared to trimming asparagus or slicing).

veghound wrote:I like brussel sprouts or cauliflower tossed with a olive oil salt and pepper and baked in a hot oven. This is especially easy if you're baking anyway. I find them to be pretty forgiving at most temperatures, but I think they need a hot finish (around 475) to get nice and brown.

I put those on a Chicago Metallic pan and they brown up nicely at 375 to 400. Make sure to turn/toss every 10 minutes or so.

Last night, we chopped up a rutabaga and a large parsnip into 1" cubes and steamed them 'til they were soft. Then we mashed them with a hand potato masher, along with some butter, salt and pepper. Looks like mashed potatoes, but has a much more interesting flavor.

I almost always grill or roast vegetables. My typical oven set up is to put a cast iron pan in our top (broiler) oven and set it to 450 or 500. I then coat the vegetables in EVOO and S+P and just throw them in the pan when it's up to temp. This gives them a good char/sear right away, and then I turn down the oven if it's a thicker vegetable. I then throw the herbs and spices on at appropriate times.

Tonight I did broccoli rabe this way. I threw on the broccoli for 5 minutes, then flipped it and tossed on chopped garlic and shallots and splashed balsamic over it all. I just shut off the oven after flipping, and left it in for another 10 minutes while I cooked some chicken on the stove top. I tossed some grated Parmesan and toasted walnuts a bit before serving (long enough to melt the parm). I also used chili flakes instead of black pepper. I do asparagus the same way. For something like carrots I'll use butter instead of EVOO and after a 5 minute sear I'll turn the oven to 275 for 10-15 minutes and throw fresh thyme and a bit of goat cheese on it. I never really have a full blown plan, but that's my basic technique. Recently I've been really big on doing carrots, radishes, and fennel together like this.

I think you can roast vegetables and then put them in a baking dish and maybe keep them warm or warm them a up a bit at the last minute if you have not cooked them too much. I always look for a way to avoid cooking vegetables at the last minute as there is so much to get on the table with thanksgiving dinner I don't like last minute cooking.

Attrill wrote:

AdmVinyl wrote:Question -- both for cooking for Thanksgiving (so I can have ready in advance and just reheat from room temp after turkey is out) and for a potluck-type thing we're going to this weekend, what would be the best way to reheat roasted brussels sprouts? I figured I could do the roasting in advance, and hold off on putting any of the sauce on it until serving, but how to reheat? Is this a typical 350-until-hot job, or can I flash reheat them? I know some things are amenable to flash reheat and some are not, and I'm not sure here.

I'm not sure if reheating would save you all that much time - I usually roast brussel sprouts at 400-450 for 15-20 minutes, and I'd guess it would take 10 minutes to reheat them. Trimming and prepping them the night before certainly saves time, and I do that a lot even for regular week day meals.

I love brussel sprouts, but the fact that I have to trim takes them out of the really easy category for me (not hard, just kind of time consuming compared to trimming asparagus or slicing).

For the potluck, my main issue is whether I'll have much access to the oven. Maybe I'll just cook them at the very last minute before we go over there and try to keep them warm.

I like to do things that don't compete for oven space. A wild rice salad with a dice of celery, celeriac, jicama and pomegranate with an orange-sherry vinegar-black walnut + canola oil dressing is refreshing. Yesterday's New York Times had a recipe for a grated brussels sprout salad with lemon that looks great. I also have a recipe for mashed potatoes that you can do ahead- include a couple of turnips when you boil and mash the potatoes, as well as a large block of cream cheese. These reheat easily in the microwave.