What are your favourite side dishes? Tell u... - Healthy Eating
What are your favourite side dishes? Tell us how you make it extra tasty in the comments!
Stir fried with onion and caraway or cumin seed
I don’t eat meals, but for those very special times when I cook for company, I like to make a pasta side dish. Parmesan cheese, sour cream, butter and cream cheese sauce over flat noodles. Yeah, fettuccine. The recipe was given to me by a chef friend from an Italian restaurant. It’s a very rich dish and my cardiologist would divorce me if he knew about it. 🤫
When I voted none/ other there is a recipe that I’ve found recently that can make sprouts a little more interesting. If the sprouts are put into a food processor via the slicer attachment then they become quite thin. Before putting them into a pan, cook some (say 4) slices of smoked bacon cut up in a pan with olive oil. Add some pepper and a very small amount of salts d cook until the bacon is soft.
Add the now sliced sprouts and mix with the sprouts, then add some pre cooked chestnuts, from a vac pac or other pre prepared pack, chop them up as fine or as course as you choose.
Wait until the sprouts have cooked down a bit and then add a small cup of hot water and the sprouts will cook very nicely in a steamed environment with a lid on.
Add the chestnuts and mix throughly maybe adding a bit of butter to your own personal taste.
Place on a serving platter then guests can g by Eli themselves.
People who are vegan or vegetarian can add a flavour of their choice instead of the bacon, maybe with tofu, for example.
Anyway do enjoy this alternative to sprouts cooked traditionally.
Spelling mishap, “g by Eli” means ‘ help themselves’ “mix with the bacon” as the sprouts are already in the pan. Sorry about that.
I had something very similar to this, with parmesan shavings mixed through it too (once it had cooled) - very delicious 
Yummy, sounds delish!
Lovely!
spinach
Cooper27 ,
I picked: Potatoes, Carrots/Parsnips, Cauliflower/Broccoli, Cabbage, Green Beans, Peas and the way I add them to some of my meals are: have either a whole potato with the skin left on, mashed and/or cut into strips and turned into French Fries. Carrots are either prepackaged in a bag of salad or on the side warmed. Cauliflower/broccoli is either on the side or baked into a pizza crust/in a quiche. Cabbage is added to a salad. Green beans are used on the side with fish or meat for a dinner almost once a week. Peas are added sometimes to pasta/macaroni and cheese along with tuna.
This is a great idea for a poll!
It was a fun poll wasn't it Leah! I like all of your ideas.
Thank you, Sue! They always are used also for mix-ins as leftovers.😀👍
Pisto espanol (Spanish ratatouille); chickpeas and spinach
Melted butter over the top makes them all super-delicious. I do love cooked potatoes in any form but I try to avoid them.
Brussel sprouts cut fresh off the stalk and then tossed with olive oil, garlic powder and a little salt. Roast in oven.
Good poll Cooper, I like them all, have a mix of most of them every day in winter, specially carrots and swede mashed together.
My side dishes are usually bigger than the supposedly main part 😂 Meals are mostly veg with meat, eggs, fish or cheese as the accompaniment. Simply steamed or stir fried is my go to with a few herbs and spices or with some added nuts/beans. When we have carrots or celeriac, I usually roast it.
Asparagus
My heart sings at the mention of potatoes as a side dish even though I cant have them as often as I like. Garlic and spiced infused baked/fried potatoes is a chef's kiss. I really used to love salads of any kind with all the bells and whistles of toppings. Another is garlic and butter drenched bruschetta with a topping of olives, sun dried tomatoes, slivers of purple onion and top offed with feta cheese.
One of my favourite ways to cook potatoes is this:
Well oil a glass or ceramic dish with olive oil
Select however many potatoes you want (should be small/new potatoes)
Cut the potatoes in half, and place face down in the dish (must be face down)
Drizzle with a little more oil
Roast in oven at around 180-200C, until the undersides are nice and crispy (don't flip them when cooking)
It's absolutely delicious, I just wish I could find the recipe so I had a photo
Great Cooper27, I find it hard to resist any kind of potato!
I like all veg which are plainly cooked and like the main part of the meal to be the tasty part. I have just discovered I like bread sauce after 60yrs of not trying it
You're asking a vegetarian what veggies they like? Better to ask me what I DON'T like, now that's a hard one... and I have no answer for it.
Ah but you must have a favourite, that you cook in a special way for special occasions?
Not really. I just like my veggies lightly steamed and cooked to perfection, not overcooked. I don't go in for elaborate sauces or recipes for side dishes. I just like the natural taste of the veggies preferably just picked from the garden.
But I do make vegetarian main dishes from all around the world which are full of spice and flavour.
The side dishes are there to support the main event not overshadow it.
I don’t have all these vegetables at once but love them all, the only thing I may add is a small knob of butter to them all. Also a good smothering of cheese sauce on cauliflower if having cauliflower cheese.
I tend to finish them all off with a good dollop of butter, and a sprinkling of pepper.
Salad greens, I'll pick anything green in garden as well as lettuce, chickweed, dandelion, landcress. Cucumber always a nice cold and crunch accompaniment to curries. I've recently discovered mooli, a long white radish. Less fiddly and keeps better. Nice grated with red cabbage and carrot. Was so glad to discover i cd grate cabbage! I usually have various rices, brown, black, white or millet rather than potatoes.
Corn
I'm also a huge fan of macaroni 'pie'. This is a bit of a bad habit acquired when living in the Caribbean where, sometimes it seems that a side of mac pie is almost obligatory. It's much the same as mac and cheese but is made with a thicker bechamel so it sets and can be cut into portions.
Bechamel! Way to go!
Little bit of mix veg on tiny bit of butter , put some mix seasonings on it and stir fry 😋 it.This with potatoes - yummy.
Normally when I eat by myself I don’t have a side dish as such, everything is part of the same meal and tends to go on one plate. When I lived with my parents they’d often invite friends for meals with numerous dishes. One of my favourites to make (and eat!) was potatoes cut into cubes and roast in the oven with garlic and rosemary 😋
I love Brussels sprouts with everything but there’s a great dish with sprouts, peas and spinach in a creamy sauce, it’s really quite a different way to eat sprouts. The sprouts are sliced so fresh ones really are needed but frozen leaf spinach and frozen peas are fine.
Also I love broccoli 🥦 and cabbage.
I add freshly grated nutmeg to all cruciferous vegetables before I steam them.
Onions, mushrooms, garlic
Sweet potatoes, onion rings, mushrooms
All organic if possible especially root crops
The only time I have a side dish is with my Qourn Mince Spaghetti Bolognese I have a little bit of garlic bread with it for special occasions.Another great healthy survey.
I really look forward to it.
