This is an easy, simple, feel-special mixed vegetable side dish recipe. Green, fresh and delicate, this Spring vegetable medley is ready to serve in about 15 minutes.
What You Can Expect From This Recipe
Hands down, this is my favorite mixed green vegetable side dish. Why? Because it’s so easy and amazing with simple fresh flavors.
This is a side dish combining asparagus, frozen peas, fresh spinach and leeks.
It’s a beautiful way to take advantage of Spring vegetables, but please feel free to serve it year round.
Simply seasoned with a little salt, pepper and butter, the flavor of the fresh vegetables shine when gently cooked.
If you’ve made your decision for the main course, and you’re wondering what to serve as a clean vegetable side dish, this is a recipe I recommend you try. You don’t need a special occasion to serve this easy and elegant green vegetable medley.
This recipe comes from the ever reliable Martha Stewart with her advice: “Add any spring vegetables to this dish, but make sure to choose fresh and tender ones that will cook in a flash”.
Asparagus side dishes are so popular, this recipe showcases those fresh spears. Let’s take a look.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Neutral Oil: Use Avocado oil, vegetable oil or canola oil. We’ll also use butter to sautee the delicate peas and spinach.
- Leek: If you’ve never cooked with leek, you’re in for a treat. A mild sweet vegetable with a hint of onion flavor.
- Asparagus
- Baby Spinach: Fresh please, frozen spinach simply won’t work here.
- Frozen peas. Make it easy, frozen peas work beautifully in this dish.
Step by Step Instructions, It’s Easy!
- Step 1: Cook the tougher vegetables first. Add oil to and heat a 12-inch skillet over medium high heat until oil is hot. Add asparagus, leeks and salt and saute turning frequently until just getting tender, about 5 minutes. Remove asparagus and leeks to a plate
- Step 2: Add the more delicate vegetables: Return skillet to heat, and melt butter. 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.
Return the asparagus and leeks to the pan and it’s ready to serve.
What To Serve It With
Steak and mixed green vegetables, my favorite way to serve this recipe. You can remove the vegetables to a plate, cover and keep warm. In the same pan, quick sear a simply seasoned small Flank Steak, or even a New York Strip. The steak cooks in a matter of minutes, you can then return the vegetables to the pan for a quick warm up. Drizzle the Steak with Mustard Sauce for an outstanding meal.
- When I need to skip the Fries, I’ve served this mixed vegetable side dish with my favorite burger.
- it’s my go-to side dish for Oven Glazed Salmon, but my favorite way to serve it is with Grilled T-bone Steaks. It’s a match made in heaven.
- A perfect accompaniment for any form of chicken breast, or a seafood dinner. … It’s fresh and fab.
Storage
Leftovers: These cooked vegetables store very well in the refrigerator. Just place in an air-tight contained and refrigerate for up to 4 days. Reheat in the microwave. The 50% power feature is your best friend. Use it to gently reheat the vegetables in 30 second increments.
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.
If you liked this recipe, please leave a star ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating in the recipe card below and leave a comment. I always appreciate your feedback and hearing how everything went.
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Green Mixed Vegetable Side Dish
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
- Add oil to and heat a 12-inch skillet over medium high heat until oil is hot. Add asparagus, leeks and salt and saute turning frequently until just getting tender, about 5 minutes. Remove asparagus and leeks to a plate.
- Return skillet to heat, and melt butter. 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.
- Return the asparagus and leeks to the pan. Nestle a seared steak in the center and serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
Green Vegetable Side Dish …It’s what’s for any entree.
Why Trust My Recipes? I am a Culinary School Graduate and a lifelong student of home cooking. I hope to inspire you try to cook as often as you can. I’ve been cooking for 50 years, and my recipes are tried and true tested and tested and then tested again before published. To read more take a look at my About Page.
Sounds like a great new year’s tradition! Green veggies are always so pretty, too! I like the photo you submitted!
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 🙂
Thanks for the crop idea Susan. I thought about that also. Going to go back in and play with that one.
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!
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.
I’m always looking for ways to add more veggies to my diets. What a yummy combination of flavors. Your photos are wonderful.
Thank you Cathy. And so good to hear from you.
All my favorite green foods on one plate! I could seriously eat this everyday!
Especially those peas!
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…
Thank you Vicki. Sending you a personal email to chat about that challenge. Fun stuff.
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 🙂
You can be guaranteed that at that moment I was no where near a computer and thinking about this food blog. 🙂
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!
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.
I agree, there is nothing better than a plate of green.
I agree!