There are four ways that I add flavor to my vegetable sides: the fats I use to cook the vegetables, seasoning, preparation, and cut of the vegetable.

1.  I change the fats that I cook the vegetables in: olive oil, canola oil, butter, and the chef’s secret — duck fat (so good).

2.  Seasoning: the flavor of a dish changes dramatically with the inclusion of dried herbs, dried spices, fresh herbs, salts, and peppers.  I also add white onion, red onion, shallots, or garlic for different flavor combinations.

3.  I use different preparation methods for cooking the vegetables: grilling, roasting, sautéing, steaming, and stir-frying.

4.  To add visual variety and texture, I change the cut of the vegetables:  shred with a grater, julienne, cube, or slice into coins.

My favorite ways to cook vegetables are to roast them or to steam sauté them. Roasting vegetables really brings out different flavors than just steaming or sautéing.  Since I can cook a bunch at a time, I have leftovers to use throughout the week.

Steam sautéing veggies just means that I sauté them in a little bit of olive oil and butter (the butter adds a great depth of flavor) until they get some color on them. I season the veggies well with salt, and then add a little bit of chicken stock or water to the bottom of the pan. That creates enough steam to finish cooking the veggies perfectly.  As the water or stock begins to evaporate, I add chopped garlic (I don’t add it at the beginning to avoid burning the garlic).

Sometimes to add even more flavor, aside from just sautéing vegetables in straight butter (this works so well with sliced carrots!), I will add toppings to cooked vegetables.  Different toppings can add texture in addition to more flavor.  My favorites are seasoned bread crumbs (a great way to use leftover bread) or crisped bacon or prosciutto.