Steaming Vegetables

I don't know if it's the sultry heat, the high humidity or a general lack of inspiration, but I have found that I am steaming a lot of my vegetables this summer. To many, myself included, steaming is the "healthy" (read: boring) option for cooking vegetables - no added fat, no added salt, etc.

Steaming is simple. I use a steamer basket that looks a little like a flying saucer. What's nice about this style is I can put it in a saucepan or a skillet, depending on what I'm steaming. I set a little water to simmer in the bottom of the pot and put my vegetables into the basket.
I cover the pot or pan and check it intermittently (every 5 minutes or so - the beets took 15 minutes to get to fork-tender) to see how tender the vegetables have become.

When the vegetables are as tender as you wish, remove them from the steamer. That's it! These pics are of some beets I cooked up the other night. Steaming is cooler than roasting and neater than boiling (see how clear the colors remained after cooking). Plus I cooked all three varieties of beet at the same time without the red ones bleeding all over everything else.

To add more flavor, what I do frequently is saute (in the same pan I used for steaming) the now-cooked vegetables quickly in some oil or butter with a little garlic, onion, herbs, etc. I get a more consistent result by pre-cooking the vegetables and then sauteing than by sauteing them to cook them through.