You are reading the paid, Steam Oven Insiders member newsletter. Insiders newsletters drop into your inbox on the 15th and 30th of each month. The next issue will be about Steam Oven Sous Vide Basics.
Editor’s note
Hello, my Steam Oven Insiders, and welcome to my missive on steamed vegetables!
I know most of us are probably aware of how to steam a carrot or a stalk of broccoli, but I do get plenty of questions on the topic. So today I’m going to share some steam-oven-specific tips for your vegetables, plus a few cracking ideas about using them in beautiful and tasty ways.
This topic is a great lead-in to a very helpful bonus I have for all of you (I know, I only just ‘bonused’ you my meal planning guide, but I did promise cool extra stuff to my Insiders and I want to deliver!).
I’ve spent years thinking about and months creating this little chart. It’s a printable sheet (two, actually) that you can stick on your fridge, detailing lots of common foods and their translations between traditional cooking methods and combi steam.
Get the Adapting Steam Oven Settings chart from your Insiders Dashboard and print away.
Cooking vegetables features heavily in the chart, but there’s so much else in there too. I am super excited to share it with you first and I think it will hugely increase how comfortable you are converting foods for your steam oven. This printable will be sold as a standalone product in my online shop, but you all get it well ahead of time as part of your Insiders membership.
Enjoy this issue and the chart, and I’ll see you here again in a couple of weeks.
Emily x
I bet when most of you entered the world of steam oven cooking, you already knew how to steam vegetables. Perhaps you love doing so and getting a steam oven was a happy extension of your steamed veg enjoyment. After all, steaming retains nutrients, preserves color and enhances the flavor of a great many vegetables.
I’m not here to give you a ‘why you should steam vegetables’ rundown today. What I want to share are a few key tips I’ve learned about steaming them in your steam oven. Specifically, I’m going to talk about cookware, the arrangement of your veggies for steaming, and seasoning. This article will be useful if you cook every day and want to up your game when it comes to the basics.
This is one of those recipes that’s almost just an idea, but a darn good one. Soft, salty and silky cheese with bright green, still crunchy vegetables, it relies on the balance of textures and flavors more than any fancy techniques. Use different vegetables if you like, just remember to make sure you have some assortment of long and stalky, poddy and poppy to make this the prettiest green veg you’ve seen in a while.
The Season Flip
A couple of lovely steamed vegetable ideas that suit different seasons…
Southern Hemisphere
Steamed-and-Grilled Vegetable and Halloumi Cheese Platter
Spring has sprung here, and I hope it has for you too! This is a go-to when I need a side dish for those backyard barbecues that are finally back on the agenda. It’s sneaky, doubling as a worthy main course for any non-meat eaters. Steam carrots, zucchini and yellow summer squash, then salt and coat with olive oil. Grill sliced halloumi cheese, adding the veg to the grill for a couple of minutes to get a bit of colour. Arrange on a platter with fresh rocket/arugula and finely sliced onion. Squeeze lemon juice over everything and sprinkle with red pepper flakes to serve.
Northern Hemisphere
Tahini Veggie Bowl
Make a big fat bowl of steamed vegetables, perked up with a dressing made from tahini, lemon juice and mustard. You can use whatever’s good at the market or grocery store; I love sweet potato, red peppers, broccoli and kale for a kind of cross-seasonal array of color and texture. Do not skip a smattering of toasted sesame seeds across the top; they’re subtly crunchy and very welcome.
A Thing I'm Loving
There are lots of things I use, eat, read about and enjoy in the kitchen that aren’t specifically related to steam ovens! Perhaps you’d like to know about some of them?
I’m in desperate need of replacing my old Braun immersion blender, and I really want a Bamix. Multifunctional, Swiss made and with a lifetime guarantee on the motor, it’s exactly the kind of kitchen appliance I’m happy to invest in. Bamix is available in most countries and everyone I know who’s bought one has had it for decades. The only thing I’m having trouble with is deciding on a color.
*note: some of the links to A Thing I’m Loving are affiliate links, meaning I make a small commission if you make a purchase from that business. But rest assured I will never, ever share something I don’t personally recommend.
Ask Me Anything (AMA)
Here’s your opportunity to ask me anything you like related to combi steam cooking!
I really encourage you to submit questions, and will do my best to answer as many as possible. Though I may not be able to get to every single question, I will carefully curate ones which are relevant and represent a variety of topics. We all learn from each other, and I often learn new things based on questions from all of you!
If you have an AMA question, please email it to [email protected]. Make sure you include the phrase INSIDERS AMA in the subject line so I can collate and read all your submissions.
I have had a couple of queries about whether prior AMA questions and answers can be collated somewhere on the Insiders website (not just inside the newsletters). It’s a great idea; bear with me while I figure out the best way to format it and make that happen!
This edition’s questions:
From Alison
Q: A question about roast chicken. I noticed that the settings for your Braised Chicken with Soy Sauce recipe is at 400 degree F, 60% humidity. But your Roast Chicken and the Roast Tandoori Chicken calls for a 430 degree F and a 30% humidity. Could you please explain the differences? Nagi of RecipeTin Eats has a recipe for Thai Red Curry Pot Roast Chicken and I’m trying to adjust her recipe to the steam oven. I intend to spatchcock the chicken but was wondering which temperature and humidity setting I should use.
A: Ah, the answer to this one lies in the braising vs roasting! The soy sauce chicken is cooked with more humidity and a lower temperature because in that dish we’re looking for saucy, extremely tender, soft and juicy chicken. The browning of the skin is of slightly less importance than in the two roast chicken dishes you refer to. For those, I up the temperature and dial back the humidity to give a nice balance of faster cooking, juicy meat and crisper skin.
In the case of the RecipeTin Eats recipe you’re converting (which, by the way, looks amazing and is now on my list!), you get to decide. If the skin is the most important thing, go higher and less humid. If it’s all about the meat bump up the steam and turn down the temp. I would definitely recommend that in your conversion for that recipe, you leave out the chicken stock, perhaps replacing it with a little stock powder or a bouillon cube for flavor without excess liquid.
From Annabel
Q: My AMA is…. How to poach eggs in the steam oven? And how to fry eggs… but maybe that is just use the fry pan! Maybe egg rings on a tray could be a thing. For poached I was thinking to use my silicone poach pods in some way. Also with the boiled egg guide (on the main Steam & Bake site), is the 7.5 minutes what you use for breakfast as in toast soldiers to dip in soft boiled egg?
A: I have never tried egg rings on a tray because I think the eggs would leak out under the rings! But I have poached in little ceramic ramekins. That works well but the timing can be variable because of the thickness of the ceramic. As you’ll see from my new cooking chart, I actually recommend the silicone ‘poach pods’ you’ve mentioned. The best ones I’ve found are in fact silicone cupcake liners; they’re flat-based so you can line them up on a tray and crack your eggs into them without them falling over. If you want the more rounded traditional poached egg shape, use your poach pods set into a cupcake pan so they don’t roll around.
As for fried eggs, nothing beats a blazing hot frypan. And for soft boiled eggs, 7 ½ minutes works well for my eggs and my steam oven; you’ll need to experiment a little because I find people’s results vary widely with the timing for boiled eggs!