How to cook vegetables

Eating more vegetables is one of the easiest ways to reduce the number of calories you consume each day and be healthy. They fill you up without fattening you up, so you can enjoy them as often as you want, plus they're packed with vital nutrients.

Try to eat five serves of vegetables and fruit a day. Enjoy eating a rainbow of vegetables as well, filling your plate with reds, oranges, greens, purples, yellows...

Follow the tips below for a variety of ways to prepare and cook your vegetables to keep your meals interesting, as well as colourful. Then try some of our tasty recipes, such as pumpkin couscous, which involves baking slices of pumpkin, or our roasted vegetable and couscous salad.

Washing vegetables

It’s important to wash vegetables to remove traces of dirt or pesticides prior to cooking, serving or eating them. Rinse vegetables under the tap, and then pat them dry with paper towel or a clean tea towel. Use a colander to wash and dry lettuce leaves and herbs.

Baking vegetables

Line a baking tray with baking paper. Cut potatoes, pumpkin and sweet potato into same-sized chunks, so that they cook evenly. Arrange on the tray with wedges of onion and spray with a little olive oil. Bake at 200ºC for 20 minutes, or until tender and lightly browned. Turn the vegetables once during cooking to ensure even colouring.

Baking beetroot

Trim the stalks off the beetroot leaving 1–2cm intact. Wrap each beetroot in foil. Place them on a baking tray and bake at 200ºC for 60–75 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the beetroot penetrates easily. Remove them from the oven and allow to cool. Unwrap the foil and slip the skins off the beetroot using your fingers.

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Washing

Baking vegetables

Blanching

Microwaving

Baking beetroot

Grilling

Blanching

Place broccoli or asparagus in a sieve and place the sieve in a heatproof bowl. Pour boiling water over the vegetables and blanch them for 60–90 seconds. Remove the sieve from the boiling water and plunge the vegetables into iced cold water. This stops the cooking process and helps the vegetables retain their greenness. When blanching snow peas or snap peas, decrease the blanching time to 30–60 seconds.

Grilling

Heat a non-stick electric grill or barbecue over high heat. Cut a pepper into quarters and trim the stalks off some medium-sized mushrooms. Lightly spray with olive oil and grill for 2 minutes each side. When grilling corn, pre-cook the cobs in the microwave for 2 minutes before adding them to the grill.

Microwaving

Add chopped vegetables such as carrots and broccoli to a heatproof bowl. Cover with cling film and microwave for 2–4 minutes or until cooked.