Cooked Vegetable Side Salads

Vegetables not normally consumed raw make wonderful complex salads, provided they are properly cooked before they are combined with the other salad ingredients. In most cases, vegetables should be lightly cooked, tending toward the al dente side of doneness. However, to be palatable with such light cooking, the vegetables must be tender and fresh before they are cooked. Take care to preserve or heighten the natural colors as well as flavor and texture when cooking.