These Restaurant-Approved Tips Will Elevate Your Vegetables

Cooking good vegetables is an art. Unreasonably decried as boring for years, vegetables are often an afterthought in an entrée, but when they’re done right (or they’re the star of the show), they really shine. Unfortunately, though, recreating the vegetables you find in a restaurant at home is tough. What are those chefs doing back there? Why is this broccoli so much better than when I make it? Do I just suck? 

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No, you don’t suck. You’re just not applying some of those cheffy techniques that make them so good. Thankfully, a recent video on Bon Appétit’s YouTube page gave us a look at a few of the ways restaurants make their vegetables so good, and we, like the good shepherds we are, are bringing them to you. Here are a few techniques you should know.

Salt Baking

In the Bon Appétit video, four-time James Beard nominee chef Hillary Sterling talks the audience through a few of the ways that you can make vegetables feel totally fresh. The first technique she shares is salt-baking them. In the video, she uses equally-sized whole zucchini and eggplant, pierces their skins, and then packs them in a mixture of kosher salt, spices, orange zest, and egg whites, before baking them in the oven. 

This method seasons the vegetables while they cook, imbuing them with a huge amount of flavor and softening them to perfection. While they’re of course salty, they’re not offensively so: The salt just drips right off the outside, leaving you with a flavorful, tender result. 

Oil Poaching

Poaching in water is fine; poaching in oil is better. Well, for certain vegetables, anyway. Sterling poaches artichokes in oil (as well as white wine, some herbs, and a little water to stretch the oil out), keeping them on a low simmer for 20 to 25 minutes until they’re fully cooked. When you poach vegetables in oil, it both tenderizes them and gives them an incredibly full flavor, turning your veggies into something just that bit more luxurious. Sterling also says that you can do this with potatoes and root vegetables.

Sautéed Greens

Most home cooks know how to sauté their food, and maybe you’re already pretty well-versed in sautéeing greens. Sterling, though, shows us how to do it right. There are two things to keep in mind when sautéeing greens, and the first (and maybe the most important) is to build layers of flavor. Sterling starts by cooking garlic cloves in a fair amount of oil to release their allium notes, before tossing in a big old bunch of spinach. She then adds salt, lemon juice, lemon zest, and chili flakes.

The second thing to remember is to keep the heat high. Spinach and other greens release a lot of water as they cook, and low heat will cause them to simmer and stew in their own juices, instead of generating a bit of brownness on the outside and as much flavor as possible. Once you’re finished, serve them as quickly as possible, so they don’t get too soggy.