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It's probably on your weekly grocery list anyway.
I’m no stranger to the delights of crisp, blanched vegetables or how delicious they are when roasted on a sheet pan. But if I'm at home and I want to make green veggies like spinach and asparagus taste like I’m out to dinner at a steakhouse, there’s one ingredient I turn to every time: minced garlic.
Why This Garlic Trick Improves Veggies
Garlic is a simple way to upgrade almost any green vegetable you cook. It adds a punchy, savory flavor that pairs well with earthy, fresh green vegetables, and it also creates an appealing aroma that’s pungent and mildly nutty when cooked. Garlic’s aroma and flavor are from the chemical compound allicin that gets released when garlic is crushed. Mincing garlic produces more allicin than slicing garlic, which is why it's my go-to method.
My preferred way to incorporate garlic with vegetables is to sauté them on the stovetop. First, choose your vegetable. I love to do this with green beans, sugar snap peas, spinach, and asparagus, but it will work with just about any vegetable you’d cook on the stovetop with a little olive oil.
Depending on the veggie, you'll need to adjust cooking time. For example, spinach cooks down in just a minute or two, whereas green beans may take up to ten minutes to fully cook. Prep your vegetables as you typically would. For green beans, that would mean trimming the stems; for asparagus, cut the woody ends of the stalks; for sugar snap peas, remove the woody stem and string from the outside of the shell.
You should also mince or slice your garlic before you begin cooking. You can estimate about three cloves of garlic for one pound of those green vegetables. Add more or less depending on how garlicky you like your food. Drizzle some olive oil into a hot pan and let it heat for a little before adding your vegetables. Season them with salt, and allow the veggies to cook until they develop a spotty brown color on their exterior before adding your garlic.
Add garlic to the pan when you only have a minute or so left of cooking—garlic can burn quickly and become bitter if it’s added too soon. Once the garlic becomes fragrant and golden, your veggies are ready to come off the heat and be served.
Read the original article on Simply Recipes
