Correct Way to Sautee Vegetables in a Pan

          Sautéing is a cooking process that is a type of frying. Vegetable sautéing is a great way to prepare vegetables for anything from a side dish during dinner or to use in a fajita. Review these sautéing steps to become a cooking sleuth and impress your friends at your next dinner party.

Step 1

Review and choose the proper vegetables for sautéing. Good sautéing vegetables are vegetables that are crisp and do not contain much water. Examples of great sautéing foods include green peppers, carrots, broccoli, and onions. Vegetables that are bad for sautéing are those high in water content such as tomatoes and cucumbers.

Step 2

Put a non stick sauté pan on the stove under medium to high heat. A stir fry style pan or flat square nonstick pan will work as well. Put a small amount of olive oil on the pan. Do not saturate the pan with oil. In other words do not cover the entire pan with oil. Unlike in stir frying sautéing uses much less cooking oil.

Step 3

Wait until the sauté oil is nice and hot after about a few minutes of warming up. You want the oil to be heated before you put the vegetables in so that they do not prematurely absorb a lot of oil. If the vegetables are in the pan while the oil is warming they will absorb more of the sauté oil.

Step 4

Slowly slide the chopped or sliced vegetables into the sauté pan so that they do not splash oil. Let the vegetables brown on one side for a little while before turning them over. Then brown them on the other side.

Step 5

Total sautéing time should be less than ten minutes. Instead of flipping over the vegetables with a fork or spatula you can flip them using the pan by moving the pan back and forth quickly so that the sauté vegetables lift in the air slightly. You would need a sauté pan with curved edges to perform this move properly. However it is not necessary.

Step 6

Shut the burner and lay the cooked vegetables on a plate. If there is a little oil remaining you may drain the oil away first. Add your sautéed vegetables to your favorite dish or mix with rice pilaf for a great side item and enjoy!