Looking for ways to eat more vegetables? These 5 Vegetable Side Dish Ideas are what you want. With simple ingredients & methods, you can choose to make one every day!
As vegetables are an integral part of a vegetarian family like ours, it’s quite a challenge to come up with vegetable dishes that everyone enjoys.
Back in 2004, when we decided to leave meat behind, to make sure the vegetable dishes I cooked turned out delicious, I used to make them with lots of seasonings. It turned out that I couldn’t really taste the real taste of the vegetables, and we didn’t truly enjoy eating them that way.
When our daughter started to eat solid foods. She enjoyed everything I fed her–which was plain-cooked without any seasoning. I was surprised she would eat them plain, but realized that plain vegetables are actually sweet and taste good!
Ever since, I changed the way I cooked vegetables. I cook them very close to the way I fed my daughter but season them a little bit more. We all enjoy the real taste of each vegetable very much and that way of cooking makes my life easier.
Even though I eat vegetables in other ways such as soup etc. too, I make sure to cook one of these Vegetable Side Dish Ideas along with anything we eat everyday.
Ready to eat a bowl of vegetables for dinner? Let me show you how!
Note: I am going to show you 5 different kinds of vegetables. Use the ingredients and instructions below as guidelines and adjust the amount you want to cook accordingly, taste and adjust the flavor to your own liking.
Broccoli Dish
Ingredients:
- Broccoli
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Ground black pepper
Instruction:
- Wash and cut the broccoli florets into bite size pieces.
- Bring some water to a boil and steam the broccoli for exactly 5 minutes. Transfer them to a mixing bowl without rinsing. They will continue to cook while cooling down.
- When they are cool, add some olive oil on, salt and ground black pepper. Gently toss to mix all the ingredients and serve.
cut them into bite size pieces
after steaming for 5 minutes
Kale Dish
Ingredients:
- Kale
- Garlic
- Coconut oil
- Salt
- Lemon
Instructions:
- Wash the kale, remove the stems and cut them into bite sizes. Note: Removing the stems makes the kale more appealing to eat as the stems are very hard to eat when you cook the kale this way.
- Finely chop a clove or 2 of garlic.
- Heat the oil on medium and fry the garlic until golden brown. Add the kale and saute until it wilts, and sprinkle on some salt, saute well and turn the heat off.
- Squeeze some lemon juice in saute again so all the kale can get both salt and lemon juice, and serve.
Cauliflower Dish
Ingredients:
- Cauliflower
- Coconut oil
- Salt
Instructions:
- Wash and cut the cauliflower florets.
- Thinly slice each floret. Make sure to slice it the same thickness so they can cook evenly.
- Add some oil and gently mix to make sure it coats all the pieces.
- Transfer them to a baking sheet, make a single layer and sprinkle a little bit of salt.
- Bake at 350 degrees F° for 20 minutes or until they look golden brown, and serve.
coat the pieces with olive oil
make a single layer on a baking sheet
after baking for 20 minutes
Spinach Dish
Ingredients:
- Spinach
- Toasted sesame oil
- Fried garlic
- Soy sauce
- Toasted sesame seeds
Instructions:
- Bring some water to a boil. Put the spinach in and cook for only 30 seconds.
- Quickly dump the cooking water and replace it with cold water.
- Squeeze the water out as much as you can and put the spinach in a mixing bowl. Add fried garlic, toasted sesame oil, and soy sauce.
- Gently mix to make sure all get the sauce. Sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds and serve.
Green Cabbage Dish
Ingredients:
- Green cabbage
- Garlic
- Coconut oil
- Soy sauce
- Sugar
separate each leaf and rinse
cut into bit size pieces without the spines
quick sauté
Instructions:
- Cut the green cabbage, separate each leaf and wash it.
- Remove the spines and cut it into bite size pieces. Note: Removing the cabbage spines make this dish more appealing and easy to eat. You can save the spines for making soup.
- Finely chop the garlic and set it aside.
- Heat some oil on medium heat and fry the garlic until golden brown. Add the cabbage and saute until the pieces wilt.
- Add soy sauce, and sugar. Saute until the sauce covers all the pieces and serve.
Enjoy!
