Health
Habits
Food
Weight 
10 Simple Ways To Eat Less Without Noticing
Better Than Butternut: Roasted Delicata Squash Recipe
How To Make Cauliflower Taste As Good As French Fries: Roasted Curried 
Is Coconut Palm Sugar A Healthy Sugar Substitute?
Shocking: Sugar Content of Common Food Products
Home Court Habits: The Secret to Effortless Weight Control
Healthy Snacking 101: Tips & Ideas For Tasty, Healthy Snacks 
10 Tips to Save Money While Eating Healthy
How To Burn More Calories Without Breaking A Sweat
6 Jedi Mind Tricks That Convince People To Eat Healthy5 Ideal Vegetables For Lazy Cooks
Best Cabbage Ever
I’ve mentioned before that cooking isn’t exactly my favorite pastime. I cook regularly, but more often than not my mission in the kitchen is to get food on the table as simply and quickly as possible. I’m like busy and stuff, ya know?
Over the years I’ve developed several techniques to optimize my time in the kitchen, but lately I’ve come to realize that tips and tricks aren’t the only factors that determine how much work it is to get dinner on the table. It turns out the choice of vegetable, and even the varietal, can play a big role as well.
Whether I’m feeling too busy, too lazy, or a bit of both, these are my go-to veggies to save time and effort in the kitchen.
5 Ideal Vegetables For Lazy Cooks
1. Tuscan kale
Tuscan Kale
Have you ever noticed that cleaning curly kale takes longer than it does to cook the stuff? What’s up with that? Also, those wily, curly leaves are more than a little difficult to wrangle on the cutting board, and the stems are so tough they need to be removed before cooking. Lame sauce.
Instead I usually opt for Tuscan (aka lacinato or dino) kale. The leaves on this variety are flatter and thinner, making them much easier to clean and cut. Although it takes an extra minute or two in the pan before the leaves are completely soft, the thinner stems can usually be left in because the extra cooking time softens them enough to eat.
2. Cabbage
Pretty Cabbages
Cabbage is so underrated. Sweeter and crunchier than lettuce, it tastes delicious both raw and cooked, costs next to nothing and only requires a quick rinse and removal of a few outer leaves before it’s good to go. I like to thinly slice a amount of cabbage (about 1 cup), saute it in olive oil, add a tablespoon of soy sauce, then cook with two beat eggs for a delicious, filling and healthy morning scramble. Yum!
3. Delicata squash
Delicata Squash
I love winter squash, but the most popular, butternut, requires peeling and takes a long time to cook. Delicata on the other hand is easier to carry, clean and doesn’t require peeling. It also cooks faster and tastes better. A fantastic score for lazy cooks. Here’s my favorite way to cook delicata squash.
4. Baby spinach
Baby Spinach
This one is almost too lazy even for me. Want to make a stir fry healthier? Grab a handful of baby spinach and toss it in at the end of the cooking. Want to make your quinoa salad healthier? Grab a handful of baby spinach and toss it in at the end of the cooking. Want the fastest salad ever? Grab two handfuls of baby spinach and toss with olive oil, salt and balsamic vinegar. Add bacon if you want to get fancy.
5. Bell peppers
Sweet Peppers
Bell peppers take the prize for easiest to clean vegetable. After rinsing them scrubbing them off a bit with your fingers, simply cut them in half and remove the seeds and stem with your hands. You can eat them as is, break them up into a salad or even cook them until they’re charred, and they’ll taste delicious in every form. Nothing could be easier.
What are your favorite lazy man’s vegetables?
Oh yes I agree about the baby spinach. I also like baby cabbage (quartered and steamed), baby marrows halved and grilled, and steamed green beans tossed in a little basil pesto. I just wish I liked carrots, but I really, really don’t.
Broccoli! It seems easiest of all, to me! Rinse, cut into steamer, steam, dollop of ghee, and shake of herb, done!
Easy vegs are those that can be eaten raw or shredded and sliced in a food processor or puréed, tomato, lettuce, carrots, cauliflower come to mind…. Not bell peppers, I find them too much work….agree on cabbage and baby spinach….
Anything I can roast! Carrots, brussel sprouts, bell peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, squash… just rinse, chop into bite-sized pieces, spray with olive oil, and roast for 25min while I do other things.
Oh, your cabbage breakfast scramble sounds like a brilliant idea – fast enough for weekdays. I am on the lookout for more veggie-focused breakfasts. I love spinach and, like you, I think it belongs thrown in anywhere. My current favourite easy veg is courgettes – I like them raw or cooked. I got a julienne peeler recently (fancy present) and now I make courgette noodles to go under my chilli, warm salads, and pasta sauces. And I throw thin slices into any cooked veg dish.
Darya: Have you heard of Chaga Mushroom? It is one of the most medicinal, anti-oxidant rich foods and makes a wonderful tea. It grows in abundance here in Canada on Birch Trees. I’d love to send you some (free-of-charge). Do some research and if you’re interested I’ll even pay the nominal shipping charges.
I’m with Pam on broccoli. I get withdrawal symptoms if I haven’t had broccoli for 2 days. And sooo easy to prepare!
For some reason, no matter which farm I buy from my broccoli always seems to be infested with little insects, making it a total pain to clean. I still love it and do it anyway, but it isn’t always easy for me
I don’t think I’ve ever seen insects in my broccoli, but I have found the most amazing stall at our local Farmers Market where broccoli is their forte. When I have to go to any other stall (or even the dreaded supermarket!), still no insects but very bland…I can see why some people think broccoli=boring!
I have seen those dreaded insects packed into my broccoli from time to time, but not usually, fortunately. Gross!