Sautéed vegetables are a little different from other cooked vegetables. Cooked in a small amount of oil over fairly high heat, they have a chance to brown nicely while still cooking through. The result? A delicious vegetable as tender as you like it, with a sweet, partially caramelized exterior.
Sautéing is also a little more involved than some other cooking methods. To properly make sautéed vegetables, you need to stir them almost constantly. The word "sauté" comes from the French word for "jump", and those vegetables really do need to be jumping!
But keeping a careful eye on the vegetables, and knowing the little tips and tricks that make it just right, anyone can sauté vegetables and make a sweet, delicious vegetable dish.
In this article, I'll go over how to make sautéed vegetables. First, I'll talk about how to prepare the vegetables for sautéing. Then, I'll talk about how to sauté them.
Preparation Work
When you're making sautéed vegetables, the way you prepare them before cooking them is important. If you want them to cook through and brown properly, there are a few things you need to do.
Wash The Vegetables
You should always wash vegetables before eating them, to get off any dirt, chemicals or microorganism that might still be on them. Some vegetables can be scrubbed, but others are more delicate and should just be immersed in water or cleaned under running water. Lukewarm water is best for washing vegetables, because it helps lift off dirt and particles better than cold water.
Once the vegetables are washed, they need to be dried. Like roasting, sautéing is a dry heat cooking method. If you sauté wet vegetables, they won't have as intense a flavor, or get that nicely browned exterior. So dry the vegetables as best you can!
Cut Up The Vegetables
How you cut up the vegetables is important for sautéed vegetables. Unlike roasting, where the heat just radiates through whatever you're cooking, sautéing relies on conduction – first, the outside of the vegetables comes into contact with the heat and gets warm, and then the heat is transferred inwards.
That means that the outside cooks much faster than the inside when you're sautéing, so you need to cut your veggies into small enough pieces.
Here's what you need to keep in mind when cutting up your veggies for sautéed vegetables.
Do Not Refrigerate!
The last thing you need to take care of when preparing your vegetables is to make sure that they're at room temperature before sautéing them. If you add cold vegetables to your hot skillet, they'll cool the skillet down, and it'll be a lot harder to get the veggies to sear nicely.
Pick The Right Pan
Okay, so this isn't really preparing the vegetables, but the pan you pick can affect the results you get. Here's what you should look for in a sauté pan.
How To Sauté Vegetables
Once the vegetables are washed, cut up, and dried, they're ready to be sautéed. In this section, I'll go over what you need to do to make your sautéed vegetables.
Here's what you do.
- 1Heat some oil in a large, shallow pan over medium to high heat.
-> You don't need a lot of oil. You just want enough to barely coat the pan, so that the vegetables won't stick.
-> If you prefer, you can use clarified butter, or a mixture of butter and oil, for flavor. The pan will be to hot for just butter on its own, though.
-> The high heat is necessary to sear the vegetables and get that nice, caramelized flavor. - 2Add the vegetables to the hot pan.
- 3Stir the vegetables frequently until they're nicely browned and cooked through. Give them a good shake or stir every so often to keep them from sticking and to help them cook evenly.
-> You can do this by moving the pan back and forth quickly, making the vegetables jump. It does tend to cool down the pan though, so set the heat higher, or don't shake too often.
-> You can also just use a wooden spoon or a spatula to stir the vegetables.
-> If it looks like the vegetables are getting too brown, but aren't cooked through yet, turn the heat down a bit. - 4Serve, and enjoy!
Notes
And that's how to make sautéed vegetables. It's super versatile and absolutely delicious. Try out different vegetables, and find out what you like best!
Enjoy!