New way to cook veggies

[Bethany Lannon]

I may be late to the veggie cooking game here, but I discovered that I can cook my frozen veggies on the stovetop. Made broccoli and cauli last night with clarified butter, garlic and seasonsings. I had known you could roast frozen veggies in the oven, but now that I can do them stovetop, I know I can have great non-steamed veggies in a time crunch. Having options to cook frozen vegetables makes things so much easier at dinner time. Less time spent cutting up broc/cauli, etc, less mess from cutting said broc/cauli (I make big messes when I try to cut up a head of cauli), etc.

Any other creative ways of cooking/preparing vegetables? I love the broc/cauli mix, but I also like some variety, for husband's sake.

[kew]

Can you be more specific about how you stovetop-cook frozen veggies? Covered, uncovered? Low heat, high heat?

Also, how do you roast frozen veg? I've never tried that and I don't know whether a warm oven or hot oven would be better, or whether to expect soft or crispy results.

[Bethany Lannon]

As far as stovetop, I'll heat up the clarified butter (or ghee or coconut oil) with minced garlic. Toss in the veggies and keep it on medium heat. I just kind of eyeball it... I'll cook the veggies uncovered (& stirring occasionally) until they're no longer frozen, then I'll steam them with the lid on for a few minutes at a time, uncovering for a few minutes at a time between the covered/steaming parts. I like to take the lid off also to keep the veggies from getting mushy, and also allow them to brown up a bit. Covering the dish to allow to steam just makes sure that they're cooked all the way through and you don't get any little still-cold bits in the middle of the bigger chunks of veggies.

In the oven, I'll toss them all on a lined cookie sheet, drizzle with EVOO and whatever spices I want, toss them around to coat (make sure you break up any chunks of veggies that are frozen together). I'll bake them at 400 for about 30 minutes, tossing them around about halfway through. I will usually split two 16-oz bags of frozen veggies among two cookie sheets (you can bake them together in the oven if you have the room for both on the same shelf), so that they're not over-crowded, which helps them get that roasted hint of crispiness to them.