I love vegetables and you can ask my family, I am not a nice person if I cannot excercise and if I cannot eat my vegetables. I love all kind of vegetables, raw, cooked, steamed, sauteed and fried.

Some vegetables are better steamed. Corn or French green beans for exemple taste better when they are steamed while other are better sauteed ( mushrooms and  onions come to mind).

When you decide to steam vegetables, there are many ways to go at it.

1. you can place the vegetables on a saute pan, add a bit of water, cover the pan with a lid and cook for a few minutes.

2. You can use a double boiler. You place the vegetables into a basket that sits above a pan of water. And when the water boils, it steamed the vegetables. It works but it takes a while for the water to boil and then you have to watch that the vegetables don’t overcook and get soaked with water.

3. You can use the Demarleathome cookware which consists of the round mold and the octogonal silpat.

When using those two items, it makes steamed vegetables an easy and quick job.

All you do is:

1. place the round mold onto a plate

2. Fill the vegetables into the mold.

3. Cover the mold with the octogonal silpat

4. and place the round mold into the oven or the microwave.

What does it do?

As soon as it starts cooking, the round mold and the octogonal silpat adhere to one another and create a seal. The vegetables cook using the water that within themselves. There are great benefits to cooking vegetables this way because

a. by not adding any water, vegetables are cooking using their own water and therefore are not washed off.

b. The natural sugars and vitamins are still trapped and will not wash into added water. Instead they stay in, making vegetables taste much better, and allowing vegetables to keep their vibrant colors.

c. We are not waiting on the water to boil, and we can therefore have steamed vegetables between 90 sec. to 8 minutes.

A. Tender Vegetables

This includes:

• Spinach,
• Kale
• Zucchini
• Summer squash
• Broccoli
• Asparagus
• Tomatoes
• Mushroom
  
• Onion

For ind. Portion              For Half a Bowl                For a Full Bowl:

90 sec.-2 minutes                        2-3 minutes                  5 minutes

B. A bit more Hardy Vegetables

This includes:

• Green beans
• Carrots
• Brussels sprouts
• Sweet potatoes
• Cauliflower
• sweet Potatoes

For ind. Portion              For Half a Bowl                For a Full Bowl:

1.5 minutes                         4-5 minutes                  6-7 minutes

C. Root Vegetables 

This includes:

• potatoes
• squash
• pumpkin
• Beets
• Winter Squash

For ind. Portion              For Half a Bowl                For a Full Bowl:

2 minutes                         5-6 minutes                  8-9 minutes

D. Pasta, Rice: 

• For Pasta, add 1 cup of water for each cup of dry pasta, add a dash of salt  and cook for 13-15 minutes.
• For Rice, add 1 1/2 of water or broth, and cook for 13-15 minutes.

E. Baked Potatoes:

1 potato: 3-4 minutes

2 potatoes: 6-7

3 potatoes: 9-10

4 potatoes: 13 minutes

F. Corn:

1 ear: 2 minutes

2 ears: 3 minutes

3 ears: 4 minutes

4 ears: 5 minutes.

Potato Salad:

For unpeeled, and whole potatoes, it is 12 minutes for a full bowl.

I hope that those few guidelines will help you steam your vegetables the easy way. Those times are subject to changes according to each individuals’microwave.

If you wish to use your round mold and steam using your oven, add 5-8 minutes to the times given above.

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!