Steamed Fresh Vegetables

 There is just something about Spring and fresh garden vegetables!  Whether you get your vegetables from a garden or the store they are still delicious and a healthy part of the meal for your whole family.  We enjoy our vegetables raw (at meals, in lunches or just for a snack), on the grill (add touch of Italian salad dressing and they taste amazing), baked, or steamed (a perfect compliment to any meal).

The pictures are some of the vegetables we ate recently.  Included in the steamer are cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, green beans, and purple beans.   Some were ones we had from our garden and the rest we got at our local grocery store.  I prefer to steam the vegetables over boiling them because I believe more of the nutrients remain in the vegetables plus they tend to stay more firm (not mushy, which happens if they are boiled too long).

Our steamer has printed on it how long it takes to steam a variety of items.  Since there are several vegetables in this one I just average out the time for the items I put into the steamer and make sure to check it before dinner is served.  Although the purple beans are beautiful they do lose their purple color (they turn green) when cooked.  If you want the purple beans to retain their color you will need to serve them raw (on a salad, raw, or in any other cool dish that calls for green beans).  What is your favorite way to eat fresh vegetables?

Steamed fresh vegetables