Whether you struggle with picky eaters or are tired of the same boring steamed vegetable regimen, a slice of cheese will instantly upgrade basic cooked veggies. You can incorporate a slice of cheese onto any vegetable you have in mind, using any cooking method. Cheese will melt onto hot veggies, delivering a creamy, savory, and salty upgrade to a wide range of vegetal flavors, not to mention caramelized, toasted, or charred notes. Furthermore, a gooey melted cheese coating is an extravagant textural contrast to fibrous or crispy roast veggies and a luxurious enhancement to tender steamed or boiled veggies.
For steamed or sautéed vegetables, you can place a slice or two of cheese over vegetables after they're finished cooking. You can add the cheese while the vegetables have just reached al dente, covering the pot or saucepan to let the residual steam finish cooking the vegetables while melting the cheese. The same applies to boiled vegetables; once you drain the vegetables, you can place them back in the pot or a covered serving dish, top with cheese, and cover for a few minutes until melted.
For both roasted and grilled vegetables, you'll place cheese over the veggies at the tail end of their cooking processes.
You'll take roasted vegetables out of the oven, add sliced cheese, then return them to the oven for two or three more minutes. For grilled vegetables, you'll add a slice of cheese over the vegetable, then close the grill for two minutes until melted.
Types of cheese are as numerous as the different types of vegetables, providing a wealth of unique flavor pairings to diversify the week's meal plan. You'll need a meltable type of cheese for a successful and mess-free execution; Creamy, soft cheese like ricotta or mascarpone as well as crumbly cheese like feta will either become too liquid or retain their globular shape.
If you want to streamline the cheese preparation, you can buy pre-sliced cheese from the deli section of your local grocery store.
You can also use a thicker slice of cheese for roasted veggies, placing them under the broiler for a minute or two to achieve a bubbly char. Another helpful tip to ensure a mess-free grill and roasting pan is to ensure that the slices of cheese you place on the vegetables aren't wider than the vegetables themselves. Consequently, when the cheese melts, it'll stick to the vegetables instead of the grill grates or baking sheets.
Melting cheese into vegetables is not a novel concept, so you can draw inspiration from global cuisines; for a simpler take on
, you can add a slice of mozzarella to roasted or grilled eggplant rounds, then serve them with a drizzle of marinara or pesto. Instead of making an elaborate , you can place slices of American or cheddar cheese over steamed cauliflower. or broccoli. Moreover, grilled corn or roasted peppers would get a spicy savory upgrade from a slice of Monterey Jack cheese.
