Isn’t it interesting that Brussels sprouts used to be the vegetable that everyone loved to hate? Grandmothers steamed them in the kitchen and the house smelled terrible, making you detest this nutrient-dense cruciferous vegetable. In recent years, though, Brussels sprouts have risen to popularity. It’s difficult to go to a restaurant and not find some version of Brussels sprouts on the menu. More often than not, they are usually an appetizer dish served with a creamy dressing of sorts.

One factor that deters people from making Brussels sprouts at home is that they never seem to be the same as they are in restaurants. How do you achieve the perfect combination of being perfectly crispy on the outside and soft on the inside? Some people steam or boil them prior to roasting them, which cooks the Brussels and then all you have to do is broil them for optimum char. This is a multi-step process that can be a hassle, which brings us to the beautiful invention that is the air fryer.

Roasting Brussels sprouts in the air fryer is a much faster cook than roasting them in the oven. The same magic from the oven happens in the air fryer as well, in a fraction of the time! Because balsamic vinegar and Brussels sprouts are a match made in heaven, we’ve done our best to create an appetizer or side to remember. They are crispy and have a classic sweet tang that your taste buds will love. If you enjoy this vegan recipe, let us know in the comment section!

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What a great side dish for the upcoming holiday season! These roasted rainbow carrots with maple tahini dressing boast big time flavors!

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We want to make a claim right out of the gate: there is nothing wrong with existing holiday side dishes. We simply want to help you take your side dish game to the next level with these roasted rainbow carrots. Not only do they provide an assortment of colors, but they also provide a new set of flavors that are quite autumnal. With each bite, you get notes of sweetness, nuttiness, tanginess, and aromatic herbs.

Do multi-colored carrots taste different than the orange ones you are familiar with? Some people say that all of the colors taste the same, while others argue against that notion. Typically, yellow carrots have a sweeter flavor with a slightly earthy undertone. White carrots are quite mild, while purple carrots may have a peppery flavor, but they can also be quite sweet. The contrasting flavors makes each bite a unique experience, especially when you have the maple tahini drizzle, fresh parsley, and pomegranate arils on top.

You roast the carrots on their own, seasoning them with sea salt, black pepper, and a little olive oil. Once they are soft and browned, you can remove them from the oven. When it comes time to plate the carrots, drizzle the maple tahini sauce over them, sprinkle with freshly chopped parsley, and optional pomegranate arils. The parsley adds an herbaceous flavor, while the pomegranate complements the sweet carrots with a slightly tart flavor. It is visually stunning and the perfect side dish for your holiday meals.

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Roasted root vegetables can be an incredible side dish. It’s often a colorful medley ingredients, including squash, potatoes, onion, carrots, garlic, turnips, parsnips, or beets. While this soup doesn’t use all of those ingredients, it does use a few winter staples, some of which exhibit impressive antioxidant properties. In fact, three of the ingredients in this soup are excellent sources of beta-carotene!

Although we have a list of ingredients, you can take a little creative liberty with your root veggies. We don’t recommend using beets because they will turn your soup red quickly. The combination of sweet potatoes, butternut squash, carrots, and parsnips is quite tasty and the ingredients complement one another. If you want your soup to be more peppery, swap out the parsnips for some turnips. Just make sure that you always include red onion in the roasting pan, in addition to the onion you’ll sauté for the the soup base.

After the vegetables are nicely charred and fork tender, you’ll need to transfer them to a blender, along with your soup base. Now, if you have an immersion blender, you can pour the roasted vegetables into the large pot with your soup base and blend that way. Choose your own destiny, but make sure to savor the flavors along the way!

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Nutrition labels or facts don’t always give you the whole story. The preparation tends to dictate the nutritional value of a certain food. In the case of vegetables, many nutrients become lost or more available in regards to preparation. Choosing the right method for your vegetables may help you preserve more nutrients, which only benefits your health. 

How do you choose the right cooking method for your vegetables? This comes down to the vegetables that you want to cook, as certain vegetables have more nutrients available after specific preparations. A vegetable that is water-soluble may need a different cooking method than a vegetable that is fat-soluble. Below, we detail the most nutritious ways to prepare your vegetables, according to dietitians. 

Keep It Raw

Raw preparations are very popular for vegetables, especially the ones in the Brassica family. These vegetables include broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, and more. They exhibit potent antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer compounds called glucosinolates. Some vegetables in this family also contain myrosinase, an enzyme that offers protection against bacteria and other harmful organisms. These compounds are released when you chew, chop, or crush them, and cooking actually destroys those beneficial enzymes. If you cook these vegetables, the body struggles to use glucosinolates.

Steaming

If you want to preserve the maximum amount of nutrients in your vegetables, steaming is the best cooking method. According to a 2013 study, steaming is the best way to preserve the most vitamin C in vegetables. When you steam your vegetables, the nutrients are retained to a larger degree because the food doesn’t contain water or other cooking liquids. As a note, steaming is not the same thing as boiling, which we will cover later in this article. 

Sautéing

When you sauté vegetables in a pan, it is best to do so gently over a lower heat. When you cook over a lower flame, you decrease the likelihood of losing some of the water-soluble vitamins in your veggies. Use a flavorful oil or neutral oil with a smoke point of 350º F or above when you sauté vegetables. The best oil for sautéing vegetables is extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil. These oils may increase the bioavailability of certain nutrients, especially fat-soluble vitamins. 

Roasting

Roasting is a dry-heat cooking method that doesn’t require water or oil. If you want your vegetables to retain B vitamins and vitamin C, roasting is your best cooking option. Because you don’t need liquid for roasting, there is no significant water-induced loss. Roasting and baking are common cooking methods for zucchini, carrots, sweet potatoes, onions, bell peppers, squash, and parsnips. 

Microwaving

This may seem like an odd preparation method, but dietitians say that microwaving is a nutritious way to cook vegetables. Microwaving does, however, result in lower vitamin C levels in the food, but this is no fault of the microwave. Vitamin C breaks down under heat, of which microwaves produce a great deal. Microwaving doesn’t destroy as many nutrients as other cooking methods because it is a fast way to cook food. 

Boiling

Fat-free and fast, boiling is a method of cooking vegetables, but it ranks lower than other methods in regards to nutrient retention. Boiling is actually one of the worst cooking methods if you want your vegetables to retain water-soluble nutrients. If you consume the water or liquid in which you cook your vegetables, you may increase your nutrient intake. Boiling results in the greatest loss of vitamin C, according to a 2018 study. This is because water-soluble vitamins are often lost in water-based cooking methods.

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There’s nothing like a flavorful dip that keeps you coming back for more. Whether you dive celery sticks into a creamy hummus or chips into a spicy salsa, you can’t go wrong with a great dip. That’s exactly how we feel about this roasted garlic white bean dip, which is brimming with powerful flavor combinations. The great part is that this dip only contains five ingredients, and it requires five minutes of your time.

We cannot tell a lie…this recipe does involve more than five minutes of your time. You have to roast the garlic separately, but once you finish that step, the actually blending of the bean dip only takes five minutes. The reason that you use roasted garlic in place of fresh garlic cloves is because roasted garlic gives the dip a buttery texture with incredible depth of flavor. Roasting helps to mellow the intense garlicky flavor and even though it takes about 40 minutes to roast the whole head, it’s well worth the time.

For the beans, we encourage you to use white butter beans or cannellini beans. You can soak them overnight if you use dried beans, or you can used canned varieties. If you opt for canned beans, look for brands without too many additives and choose the ones that are salt-free. These beans blend easily with creamy, caramelized garlic cloves. Add lemon juice, olive oil, and sea salt to the equation and you have yourself an dynamite dip!

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Broccolini is a cute vegetable that packs a powerful, nutritional punch. It comes in little adorable bunches that seem more approachable and appetizing than regular broccoli. Nothing against broccoli, but broccolini is simply better. It belongs to the brassica family and is very closely related to cabbage and Brussels sprouts. It’s not the same as broccoli, though, so get that though out of your head.

The great thing about broccolini is that it requires very little prep. Simply trim off the bottom ends, discard some of the loose leaves, and you are ready to cook! For this recipe, it’s all about simplicity. Because you will be roasting the broccolini, please make sure that you spread them out on a baking sheet. You don’t want to clump them together, because they need room to cook evenly. Crowding the pan is never a good idea, no matter what you cook. You want the items to roast evenly, and crowding them together creates uneven cooking. If you have a grill and would prefer to char them in a grill basket, you can do that as well. The cooking time may vary depending on grill heat.

All you need for this recipe is olive oil, sea salt, and two bunches of broccolini. If you’re feeling zesty, add two cloves of garlic and the juice from half a lemon to the roasting pan. That’ll really create some nice flavors! Lemon, garlic, and olive oil are like the holy trinity of flavors!

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When you finish the cleanse and transition back to your regular diet, you don’t have to stop eating fruits and vegetables. In fact, we encourage you to regularly consume a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. Obviously, you can cook foods, and root vegetables are some of the best vegetables to cook. Turn to root vegetables if you need a complementary side dish or savory appetizer. We are not talking about potatoes; rather, this recipe highlights the sweet earthiness of beets and carrots.

Carrots and beets go together like green eggs and ham; they’re just made for each other, and their color combination is too beautiful not to admire. People are often scared of beets because they have a rich earthiness, but that changes in this recipe. Adding honey to the root vegetables part of the way through the roasting process offers a wonderful complementary sweetness. You won’t really taste the honey if you add it to the carrots and beets too early in the roasting process. Make sure to only add it in the last five minutes to taste that pronounced honey flavor. Lastly, the fragrant herbs balance the sweetness of the honey and enhance the inherent flavors of the root vegetables.

A Quick Note: You’ll notice that the image has the carrots and the beets cut into sticks. You’re welcome to prepare them like that if you don’t want to cube them. However you cut them is completely fine, but keep in mind that the thickness of your veggies may affect the roasting time.

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Do you ever feel like your soul is in need of a giant hug? It often just needs nourishment from healthy ingredients and comforting recipes. Every spoonful of this nutty, roasted carrot soup feels like your giving your body and soul a hug. You are truly giving love and nutrients to your body!

When the outdoor temperatures are bone-chilling, you need recipes that warm you up. There may be no better feeling than slurping hot soup on a cold winter night. It somehow puts an end to the chaos of the world and allows you to focus on enjoying deliciousness. That’s what life is all about. When you can stop and truly enjoy your meal, you can be a lot happier. Enjoy this soup as an appetizer or an entree.

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Not only do rainbow carrots make for a stunningly colorful side, but they are also naturally sweet with robust flavor. These carrots don’t require much seasoning because the point of this dish is to highlight their inherent sweetness. This dish does call for some fresh sprigs of thyme, which is an aromatic spices that complements the sweet flavor profile.

If you leave a small amount of the green tops one, this will look like a restaurant quality dish. You want to cook them long enough so that they are perfectly tender and caramelized. They go great as a colorful, healthy Thanksgiving side, but you can enjoy them whenever you like. Just make sure to make a large batch if you make them for Turkey Day because they’ll be gobbled up quickly. That pun was 100% intended.

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