Stop buying frozen, steam-in-bag vegetables from the grocery store. Save money and time by buying fresh vegetables and steaming them with a microwave and a little cling wrap.

Steaming May Preserve Nutrients Steaming is a cooking method that uses hot steam from simmering or boiling water to cook food. When you continuously boil water, the water vaporizes into steam.

And in the summer, steamed vegetable salads make great use of an abundance of buttery zucchini, sweet corn, tender carrots, peas, green beans, Japanese turnips, and more.

Tips on selecting vegetables for steaming and how to properly steam.

It’s actually a great way to cook vegetables, including asparagus—and it’s by far the fastest technique. As it creates plenty of steam, microwaved vegetables are tender and moist.

A handy infographic that breaks down the best ways to cook winter vegetables.

And if you want to do your own microwave vegetables or meals from leftovers, there are special microwave bags available from Glad (Simply Cooking) and Ziplock (Zip'n Steam).

Microwaving frozen vegetables will almost always guarantee sad, soggy results; the only exception to this rule is frozen veggies packaged in a microwaveable steam bag.

People know vegetables, beans and lentils are good for you. But some are afraid to cook them at home, because they don’t turn out as well as in restaurants. Follow these tips.

However, there are many vegetables that do benefit from the Instant Pot’s applied pressure, particularly tougher specimens like potatoes, carrots, and squash. (See this chart for cooking times ...