Summer's Best Vegetables

While it is hot outside enjoy all the summer vegetable that summer offerings in the radiant array of forms. You could have cold melon soup, corn ice cream or another culinary treat that is beyond belief in goodness!

Walk the produce section and you will find the beautiful colors produced by the hot summer sun: okra, cucumber, squash, corn, eggplant, beans, hot peppers, spinach, melon and more.

Treat yourself. Experience a new twist on an old casserole or warm salad. I can envision new recipes of vegetable sauces and wonderful savory French galettes.

This is the opportune time to conquer cooking times and how to pick a ripe vegetable. Ripeness: here are a couple of helpful hints - you don’t want it to be really hard or really soft, if you smell it and there is no scent, then it is likely not ripe, look for a sturdy texture, with good vivid color. If you choose to do something more straight forward like saute, roast, steam or grill. Consider the following cooking times:

To me, the most simple method, which is quick, and maintains a high level of nutrients is to steam bite sized and washed vegetables. This only involves using a steaming basket and takes less than five minutes in most cases; however, you may double the time with cauliflower and carrots.

For a nice texture, saute your vegetables. The average cook time is going to be 8-10 minutes for greens, mushrooms, asparagus, broccoli, zucchini, cauliflower, carrots, peppers and onions. For roasting vegetables like asparagus, zucchini, broccoli, peppers, eggplant and carrots for about 18 to 22 minutes, with potatoes, squash, beets and the like, taking about double the time. Grilling vegetable can take and bit more time, but the outcome is well worth it. Here you will want the vegetables in larger pieces and you will want to steam or boil the more dense vegetables to soften them before putting them on the grill grates. You can also skewer the vegetable shish kebab style or put them on foil and drizzle them with oil. With the first two methods you will be looking for a nice brown char. You will want to check the tenderness of your asparagus, mushrooms, romaine eggplant, broccoli and bell peppers after 4 to 6 minutes; cauliflower, potatoes, corn and carrots can take 15 minutes to reach desired doneness. Have a happy picnic!

Just remember that most vegetables can be eaten raw, so the level of doneness is by your subjective preference.