Buttered Carrots

What do you think of when you think about adding veg to your meal? Boiled greens and carrots?...That would be most people's answer. No more!

I don't know about you, but personally I find boiled vegetables vastly over-rated; whilst perfectly acceptable, it often simply serves a '5-a-day' purpose. Because of this we don't always get our much needed vitamins because we find eating veg quite tasteless and boring. Boiling veg is also not a great way of getting our vitamins because most of the goodness ends up in the discarded water.

This is where the wonder of buttered carrots comes in - seriously, I could eat them all day and as a consequence, I eat much more veg that I would do otherwise.

Method
Now, I can hear you saying 'but butter is really bad for you'. In large quantities, yes, but all I use is teaspoon's worth per 2 carrots.

1) Chop your carrots into chunks - I like to julienne them
2) Place them in a small saucepan (which you have a tight fitting lid for)
3) Add a teaspoon of butter
4) Add a teaspoon of water
5) Place the lid onto the saucepan. Make sure to leave your leave your lid on; this stops the butter and water evaporating
6) Gently heat for 7-8minutes, shaking the pan occasionally
And you're done

Using this method you eat up all the vitamins that would have otherwise been discarded, and more importantly, you'll love every mouthful

Variations
Add a little honey to make them sweet
Add a tiny amount of Marmite - this doesn't actually make them taste Marmitey, just gives a bit of saltiness and coming from a marmite hater, tastes pretty good actually!
Add a little soy sauce if your having a chinese dish
Add a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar if you want a richer taste

You can cook most vegetables using this method and everyone will ask you how on earth you made them taste so nice! It makes even courgettes taste good ;)

Have you got any other ways of eating your 5-a-day?