ISO simple, tasty, healthful vegetable dishes

I try to cook fairly healthfully, but find cooked vegetable dishes to be challenging. Maybe it's because I am lazy and can't be bothered to "patchker". I mostly serve veg soups, squash and occasionally, cooked carrots. We need more variety and am looking for simple, inexpensive dishes to make.
Thanks

Baked beetroot salad (just scrub the whole beetroots, keep the skin on, wrap in foil and bake till soft)
Sauteed spinach with garlic
Steamed broccoli with fried garlic
Boiled green beans with toasted flaked almond
Sweet and sour celery and carrots
Stir-fried vegetables (courgettes, red/yellow peppers, purple onions, babycorns, snowpeas)
Steamed sugar snap peas
Grated carrot salad
Cooked moroccan carrot salad
Crustless courgette quiche (it's really like frittatta)
Roasted peppers
Ratatouille

Keys for keeping it inexpensive is to know what vegetables are in season.

Posted: Wed, Feb 15 2012, 8:38 pm Post subject:

Mrs bissilli how do you make the sweet and sour celery and carrots?

sweet and sour braised carrots and celery: peel and cut carrots and celery in matchstick sizes. (I use about 3 large stalks of celery and about 5 fat carrots.) Heat 1tbsp oil, sprinkle a pinch of salt and sautee for 10min or so till vegetables start to sweat. Add 1/2 cup water, 2tbsp sugar (add more if you want it sweeter), cook covered for 20-min til vegetables are done. Turn off flame and add juice of 1/2 lemon (more if you want it tart). Can be served at warm or room temp.

This is good served as appetiser, or side dish with chicken. Also good for passover. It will last in the fridge for 3-4days but you can't freeze this.

Which veggies are cheap by you?
Anything roasted properly is super easy and super delicious.
Let us know so we can help.
_________________
Really Awesome Mom!

Posted: Wed, Feb 15 2012, 9:19 pm Post subject:

Thanks!

Active Poster Joined: Nov 06 2011 Posts: 99

Mrs Bissli, can I get the recipe for Cooked moroccan carrot salad? Thanks!

Thank you! As far as cheap vegetbales, it's basics like carrots, pumpkin, zuchinni, beets, kohlrabi, celery, sometimes... not green or leafy ones...
The sweet and sour carrots looks good, and the idea to roast vegetables too. How do you do the roasted beets?

I loooove roasted beets.

I peel them and cut into wedges (Israeli beets are large), toss with olive oil, sprinkle a little kosher salt and wrap in a tight packet of aluminum goil along with a twig of rosemary.

Or cut into cubes along with sweet potatoes, carrots, & red onion, toss w/olive oil and roast at high temp for ~45-75 min until really roasted. When they are done, toss w/ liberal amounts of fresh chopped garlic and dried oregano & basil. Add grated parmesean is you are serving it with milchigs.

Cooked moroccan carrot salad
Ingredients: 4-5 medium to fat carrots, peeled, topped and tailed
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
a handful of corriander (cilantro)
1 tbsp + 1tbsp olive oil
juice from 1/2 lemon (use less if you like it less tart)
a dash of cumin, GENEROUS paprika (about 1/2 teasp), salt, peppers, harissa

Slice carrots to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut in half if the disks are too big. (You want them to cook evenly). Sautee carrots and garlic in 1 tbsp of oil in a pot, sprinkle some salt and let it sweat for 5-10minutes. Add about 1.5cup or so water (water should come out just below covering carrots) and boil for another 10min or so with the lid on. You want cooked carrots but NOT mushy. Drain excess water (don't throw it away--they're good for adding to soup stock or cooking rice).
Chop corriander, mix the rest of ingredients (1tbsp oil, lemon juice, paprika, S&P, harissa) and pour and mix over cooked carrots. Adjust seasoning. This needs to marinate in the dressing for at least 30min-1hr. Best served at room temperature, goes nicely with other mediterranean dips like hummous or with shaksouka/scrambled eggs, or with chicken. You can also stuff this with hummous in a pita for sandwich.

Roasted beets: as I said, I just scrub the whole beats after trimming the beard and the tops, wrap the whole thing in foil and bake in the oven. Check occasionally--it's cooked if you poke a toothpick/skewer and it goes through easily. Let cool and the skin should slip off easily. You can cut into julienne strips or in slices and dress with simple vinaigrette. (chopped salad onion, chopped apples, oranges etc optional). Goes nicely with feta/bulgaria cheese.

Gold Member Joined: Feb 08 2012 Posts: 1042 Location: USA

roasted green beans
roasted broccoli
ratatouille

roast parsnip is excellent. Also, roast (cherry) tomatoes, when in season. (or mix in with other cheaper veggies)

Gold Member Joined: Oct 14 2009 Posts: 1234

cook green beans and garlic and some olive oil in a pan till all is cooked down. add s&p to taste.
green beans almondine
bake asparagus (or green beans or Brussels sprouts if you eat them) with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar till just tender.
roasted mixed veggies with sweet potatoes, carrots, purple onions, green beans, white potatoes with a little s&p and you can also add some balsamic vinegar to that also.
half and bake butternut or acorn squash add a little cinnamon and brown sugar. this works better if you bake them cut side down in a little water till soft and then flip them and bake with the cinnamon/sugar or whatever you want to throw on top.
I'm a lazy veggie side maker so I like things with minimal work and few ingredients.