When the veggies are nice, they really don’t need much more than a quick cook, a little allium (garlic or onion), and a touch of soy sauce. Sautéing is our favorite quick and casual cooking method. Sautéing, pan-frying, and deep-frying use the same conduction route to cook food – hot oil – but they each differ just in the amount of oil. In a pan over the stove, the goal of sautéing is to achieve a nice golden color on the food without overcooking and compromising the texture. This is achieved with high temperatures. Of the three oil-based cooking methods, sautéing uses the least amount of oil, but be careful not to use too little. There should be enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan. This is critical since the oil is the carrier of the heat from the pan to the food, otherwise the high temperature doesn’t work. The other temperature killer is over-crowding the pan. Between the food itself dropping the temperature of the pan and moisture from the food being trapped and steaming itself, having more than a single layer covering the pan will not get the golden brown and delicious flavor without getting mushy on the way. Here we sauté Summer Squash, but just about any veggie can be sautéed for a simple and satisfying dish.
Serve alongside rice, a steak, or seared tofu.