Eat Your Veggies

As a little girl in Korea, I ate lots of fresh vegetables, mostly because it was more abundant than meat or fish. The vegetable sides prepared Korean style are crunchy and flavorful, usually quickly blanched in hot water, cooled, then seasoned or sautéed. I remember the shock my young palate went through when I first tasted canned peas: soft and mushy, with a strange flavor that still lingers in my memory. Since my first unpleasant encounter with canned peas as a little girl, I carefully avoided eating and serving canned vegetables since then.

Though fresh vegetables are always preferred, when serving a large crowd on a low budget and a small kitchen staff, frozen vegetables are wonderful option .

Sautéed frozen peas with onions (or shallots if you want to get fancy).

Frozen whole green beans can be sautéed with canola oil on a hot griddle. Have a mixture of salt, pepper, and granulated garlic ready. Season to taste.

Frozen broccoli.

Quick stir frying is the key with all the frozen vegetables (coated with a bit of oil and seasoning). The inside of the veggies will be still cold, which is fine since you will finish heating in the oven.

Frozen broccoli exudes a lot of water. After a quick sauté, put broccoli in a large colander and let water let drain for 5 minutes before putting them in a steam pan.

Sautéed Frozen Vegetable Options

Green Beans

Peas

Broccoli

Optional: diced and sautéed onions or shallots add great flavor!

Equal part of salt, ground pepper, and granulated garlic

Canola oil for sautéing

Special Equipment: 4-burner griddle

Heat griddle high heat, until smoking point. Drizzle canola oil to coat lightly. Put frozen veggie of your choice, sprinkle salt/pepper/granulated garlic mixture to taste. Coat and quickly sauté veggies for 2-3 minutes so the edges of the vegetables are browned. Transfer into a full-size steam pan. Stir vegetables and season with more salt and pepper as needed. Cover with foil until ready to heat.

Preheat oven to 350 deg. F

1 hour before serving, heat the vegetables in oven. Depending on the amount of vegetables in the steam pan, 25-45 minutes until just heated through. Stir half way through cooking time. For colorful vegetable medley as pictured above, add sautéed onions and tri-color peppers at half way point and finish heating.

To serve vegetable medley for 300 (portioned and served)

28 lbs of frozen broccoli

12 lbs of frozen green beans

6 large white onions, julienne

18 tri-color peppers, cored & julienne

To add flavor, I added 2 cups of fresh chopped Thai Basil right before serving

Canola Oil

Equal parts of salt, pepper, granulated garlic (not garlic powder) to taste