A perfect feel special mixed vegetable side dish. Green. Fresh. Delicate, this green vegetable medley is super easy to prepare. Let’s take a look.
This recipe comes from the ever reliable Martha Stewart. “Add any spring vegetables to this dish, but make sure to choose fresh and tender ones that will cook in a flash”.
Our New Year’s Eve tradition is to spend a nice quiet evening at home with a big plate of Osso Buco and its friends.
Usually a seafood appetizer, a nice salad with homemade blue cheese dressing, a baked potato with plenty of butter and sour cream and in most years, this Green Vegetable Medley.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Olive oil
- A leek
- Asparagus
- A handful of fresh spinach
- Frozen peas.
But you don’t need a special occasion to serve this easy and elegant green vegetable medley.
Some salt and pepper and you’ve got elegance that took all of fifteen minutes to make. A perfect accompaniment for a steak, any form of chicken breast, or a seafood dinner. … It’s fresh and fab.
Cleaning Leeks: Prized by chefs, leeks carry a milder flavor than their cousins onions and garlic. They also carry grit because their tightly packed leaves easily collect soil. To clean leeks, remove any outer leaqves that have wilted. Slice the leek lengthwise in half, all the way through the root end. Hold the leek under a faucet with the root end up. Rinse the leek under cold running water, lifting and separating the leaves with your fingers to allow the grit to flow down though the top of the leek. Continue rinsing until all the grit is removed. Remove the root end before using.
More Special Occasion Side Dish Recipes
And don’t miss my side dish category. You’ll find lots of great side dish recipes including the most popular on my site for Broccoli Cheez Whiz Rice Casserole.
Green Vegetable Medley
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 bunch thin asparagus ends trimmed if tough
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 small leek dark-green leaves trimmed, sliced into ¼-inch-thick rounds (about 1 cup)
- 1 bunch spinach stems trimmed
- 4 ounces sweet baby peas
- Pinch freshly ground pepper
Instructions
- Heat a 12-inch non-stick skillet over medium high heat until oil is hot. Add asparagus and salt and saute turning frequently until just getting tender, about 5 minutes. Remove asparagus to a plate.
- Return skillet to heat, and melt butter. Add leek, and cook until just tender, about 2 minutes. Add spinach and peas, season with remaining ½ teaspoon salt and the pepper; cover, and cook until spinach is wilted and peas are tender, about 3 minutes. Turn the vegetables out of the skillet over asparagus, and serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
Green Vegetable Medley…It’s what’s for a Side Dish.
Why Trust These Recipes? Lea Ann Brown has lived, worked and played in Colorado for 45 years. She has immersed herself in the Colorado Culinary space, is a Culinary School Graduate and publishes her Colorado food Blog, Cooking On The Ranch.
Abbe @ This is How I Cook says
Sounds like a great new year’s tradition! Green veggies are always so pretty, too! I like the photo you submitted!
Susan says
The vegetable medley sounds like something I’d like very much. I love all of the separately but never though about putting them all together! I think the photo you picked is perfect. I almost looks like a modernistic painting. My only very humble thought is it would look even more impressive cropped to use just the top 1/3 and then cropped on both sides so that the red is flanked by just two fabrics on each side. The red would really pop then! I do love the sock monkey too 🙂
Lea Ann Brown says
Thanks for the crop idea Susan. I thought about that also. Going to go back in and play with that one.
Pat says
I love your photographic challenges, Lea Ann! You have a wonderful eye. Your New Years dinner sounds fabulous. I have not made osso bucco in a long time and that is one of my husband’s favorite meals You veggie side looks delicious. I can’t find many vegetables here that were our favorites in NY, so I’m learning to like new ones and always looking for good ideas.
Thrilled the Broncos won last night! On to the Superbowl!
Lea Ann Brown says
Thanks Pat. What a nice compliment about my photography. Osso Buco is such a wonderful meal. And easy enough that you better treat that hubs. Go Broncos.
Cathy at Wives with Knives says
I’m always looking for ways to add more veggies to my diets. What a yummy combination of flavors. Your photos are wonderful.
Lea Ann Brown says
Thank you Cathy. And so good to hear from you.
Heather says
All my favorite green foods on one plate! I could seriously eat this everyday!
Lea Ann Brown says
Especially those peas!
Vicki Strauss says
I’m participating in the challenge also and I think the photo you submitted is by far the most interesting and unique. Excellent grey/black contrast with the red. Good selection. My submissions have not been strong – so far – but I plan to keep improving…
Lea Ann Brown says
Thank you Vicki. Sending you a personal email to chat about that challenge. Fun stuff.
Larry says
This showed up in my email just as the Patriots were about to go go two to tie the game. I guess I just thought you would be watching the game 🙂
Lea Ann Brown says
You can be guaranteed that at that moment I was no where near a computer and thinking about this food blog. 🙂
Vickie says
The greens look delicious!
I love your “Red” submission. But Monk is pretty cute, too. I’m still thinking about red. I have a couple of ideas. Thanks for your encouragement – this is fun!
Lea Ann Brown says
Thanks Vickie. I think the challenge is fun also. Now I’ve got to get out there and find that black and white – worried about this one.
Amy says
I agree, there is nothing better than a plate of green.
Lea Ann Brown says
I agree!