Make sautéed vegetables taste fantastic with these easy vegan recipes! We share our top tips around making sautéed veggies as well as over a dozen ways for how to serve them best.
Looking for quick, easy and healthy side dishes? Sautéed vegetables can be served alongside almost anything — even in loaded sandwiches or vegan bowls!
But how do you succeed in making them really flavorful, crispy and still tender? This article goes over the most frequently asked questions and takes you through each step of the way so you never have to end up with soggy vegetables again.
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Even if you haven’t been super fond of them yet, when served with some delicious herbed rice as a light vegan dinner or drowned in creamy vegan sauces, sautéed veggies will find their way into your heart.
From seasonal sautéed cherry tomatoes or asparagus to flavorful mushrooms, garlicky greens and maple thyme carrots, we collected over 20 easy and tasty vegan recipes you can make with sautéed vegetables!
Don’t miss out on your printable Mediterranean bowl at the end and find more veggie-forward recipes in our articles about spiralized vegetables and delicious plant-based soups.
Best Recipes for Sautéed Vegetables
Sautéed Vegetable FAQs
Are sautéed vegetables healthy?
Yes, they are really healthy! Eating more vegetables of any kind is good for you, and sautéing them in water, vegetable broth or healthy cooking oil, such as extra-virgin olive oil, is a great way to prepare them.
Sautéing vegetables helps to maintain as many of their nutrients as possible compared to boiling or deep-frying them.
What is the healthiest way to sauté vegetables?
Use either a high-quality cooking oil to help with nutrient absorption from the vegetables or sauté your vegetables in water, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar or vegetable broth if you want a lower-calorie option.
Don’t use very high temperatures and make sure they don’t burn!
How do you sauté vegetables?
Use the largest non-stick skillet that you have to allow for a lot of surface where the vegetables can make direct contact with the pan.
Heat your skillet over medium to medium-high heat to ensure the vegetables are soft on the inside before they burn on the outside!
Cut your vegetables evenly and use the heartier veggies first for the best result — more on that below.
Lastly, stir the veggies in your pan occasionally while sautéeing but also give them a break to help them brown properly.
What vegetables can you sauté?
Apart from lettuce, we can’t really think of a vegetable you cannot sauté! From mixed veggies of any kind to only sautéeing broccoli, bell peppers, onions, asparagus, kale, carrots, mushrooms or green beans, you can heat up anything in a pan.
What vegetables do you sauté first?
Great question! Heartier vegetables like carrots, onions or potatoes need to go in first, followed by cauliflower, broccoli and bell peppers. All of them need around 10 minutes until they are tender!
Add mushrooms, zucchini and asparagus later on — they have a higher water content and don’t need as much sautéing.
The vegetables that need to go into your skillet just before all of the others are done are leafy greens, tomatoes and frozen peas.
Should I boil vegetables before sautéing?
Some vegetables can benefit from pre-boiling or steaming them because that can reduce their overall cooking time. This is true for broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes, carrots, green beans or frozen mixed veg.
All of the other veggies that have a higher water content and cook in 3 minutes or so, like bell peppers, mushrooms or zucchini, don’t need to be steamed first.
How long do you sauté vegetables?
This depends on the vegetable you’re sautéing and how soft or crunchy you want it to be! From around 10 minutes for carrot or cauliflower to 2-3 minutes for leafy greens and frozen peas, there’s a wide range of adequate cooking times.
Just keep an eye on the skillet and decide when they are done — fork-tender but still crisp is what most people go for.
How do you sauté frozen vegetables?
Just add your frozen vegetables straight from the freezer into a skillet and place it on medium-high heat.
Add some water, veggie broth or oil and stir. Cook, uncovered, for 5-10 minutes until they have defrosted, are heated through and as tender as you like them to be.
How long do sautéed vegetables last in the fridge?
Leftover sautéed vegetables can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days usually.
This can depend on the vegetable in question and we recommend using your senses to judge whether your cold sautéed vegetables are still good.
More Easy Vegan Recipes
Get more plant-based meals on the table with these easy and delicious vegan recipe collections!
- 35+ Cold Vegan Lunch Ideas
- 40+ Plant-Based Instant Pot Recipes
- 55+ Vegan Meal Prep Recipes
- 35 Easy Vegan Recipes for Beginners
Let us know in the comments if you liked these sautéed vegetables recipes & tips! Give our Mediterranean veggie bowl below a try, rate it and be sure to Pin this article here.
Ingredients
Mediterranean sautéed vegetables
- ½ cup vegetable broth 120 ml
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 eggplant diced
- 1 zucchini diced
- 1 red bell pepper sliced
- 1 yellow bell pepper sliced
- Mixed dry herbs thyme, oregano, rosemary
- Salt to taste
To assemble
- Herbed rice
- Vegan feta
- Hummus
- Cucumber diced
- Olives
- Lemon juice optional
Instructions
- Wash and chop all of your fresh veggies.
- Heat a medium-large non-stick pan over high heat and add the vegetable broth, onion, garlic and eggplant.
- Sauté, stirring occasionally, for around 5 minutes. Add zucchini, bell peppers and dry herbs.
- Sauté the vegetables for another 4 minutes until slightly browned. Add more vegetable broth or water as needed and stir frequently.
- Season with salt to taste, then serve immediately on a plate with herbed rice, vegan feta, cucumber, olives and hummus.
- Drizzle with lemon juice and enjoy!
Notes
- The nutrition information has automatically been calculated for only the sautéed vegetables.
- You can also use olive oil to sauté your vegetables or add a splash of balsamic vinegar.
- For a pretty finish, top your veggie dish with fresh basil leaves!
- Find 20 more ideas to make sautéed vegetables in the article above.
Alena Schowalter is a Certified Vegan Nutritionist who has been a vegetarian since childhood and vegan since 2012. Together with her husband, she founded nutriciously in 2015 and has been guiding thousands of people through different transition stages towards a healthy plant-based diet. She’s received training in the fields of nutrition, music therapy and social work. Alena enjoys discussions around vegan ethics, walks through nature and creating new recipes.
Bring on the veggies! I have always loved vegetables, but my kids can be a bit picky sometimes. However, I kept on offering them and they do eat almost all veggies now with the exception of a few picky days. They actually prefer most veggies simply steamed with nothing on them! And they think raw cut veggies are a great afternoon treat! Yay! Thanks for including my pasta sauce – it’s our go-to, especially when the veggies are fresh from the garden!
Oh that’s really wonderful and offers a lot of hope to other moms, I’m sure! Thank you so much for sharing :) Happy to hear about your kids’ ways of eating veggies. We’re super stoked to share your valuable work on the blog!
Thanks for stopping by and keep in touch,
Alena
I LOVE VEGETABLE ALTHOUGH AM NOT STRICTLY VEGAN BUT AM TRYING TO MAKE IT HALF HALF JUST TO MAKE SURE I EAT A BALANCED DIET
Great that you’re eating lots of veggies! Just including more plants into your diet will be super helpful :)
Thank you for sharing my recipe! I’m honored! :) I can’t wait to check out the rest of these healthy dishes!
You’re so welcome, thanks for producing share-worthy content ;) Happy you stopped by, keep up the great work x
Where are the recipes? I am not able to click on the titles of the recipes or pictures.
Hey Carol,
you can find the link to each recipe in the text below the picture. Sorry if it wasn’t very clear or obvious, we’ll use different ways in the future :)
Hope you like the recipes once you check them out!
Best wishes,
Alena
One of my best friends is oil free and I always struggle to cook veggies for her… This is awesome and looks delicious!!
happy to share these oil-free cooking tips! Hope she likes one of the recipes :)
PS: All our own recipes are oil-free!
Everything looks so delicious. I am looking forward to trying out the recipes in your book. I just got the weight loss ebook!
Thanks for the feedback, Zoe! Hope you’ve been enjoying the weight loss eBooks, especially now that we launched the upgraded version :)
Thank you for recipes, but when I click on #3 I get some advertisement????
awww yes, I just noticed too! That’s probably because Heather is no longer running her blog – I will replace the recipe soon :) hope you enjoyed the other ones!
These are all such great ideas!!