Changing the cooking method of a single vegetable is an easy way to transform it into seemly different dishes and bring out different flavors.

Think about how many different ways you can cook a potato. Mashed, boiled, roasted, fried…. Each of these techniques changes the potato and makes it into something different (and still delicious!). Those techniques work on a variety of vegetables, but a few other methods to change up your veggies include:

Blanching: Boil the vegetable for just a few seconds then shock in a bowl of ice water. This retains the bright color of the vegetable, retains more nutrients than boiling to fully cooked, and produces a more tender bite than raw. Blanch carrots or green beans before freezing to prevent them from turning to mush after thawing. Lightly scoring the bottom of tomatoes or peaches before blanching makes peeling these plants easier.

Stir-frying or sauteeing: both methods rely on heating a small amount of oil in a hot skillet and quickly cooking pieces of vegetables or meat. Squash, onions, mushrooms, and pea pods all work great in this method. Cooked vegetables can be eaten plain or added to rice, noodles, or a salad.

Grilling: it’s getting to the time of year when more of our cooking is done outside, on the grill. Save some space for vegetables and cook them along with (or as) your main course. Slice larger vegetables like zucchini, eggplant, and cabbage into slabs, lightly oil, and place directly on the grill. Put smaller vegetables like mushrooms, tomatoes, and onions on a skewer or wrap them in foil to prevent them from falling through the grate. Cold, leftover grilled vegetables are great in grain bowls or salads

*Bonus method* 

Don’t cook the vegetables at all! Some vegetables are commonly served raw (carrots, celery), but other vegetables like cabbage, kohlrabi, and fennel can also be eaten without cooking. Shredding or shaving hard vegetables is an easy way to eat some of these hard vegetables without cooking. Add these to salads or slaws for extra flavor and texture.

Which of these methods are you going to try?