Sweet potatoes are rich in beta-carotene, an important antioxidant that is not present in regular potatoes. Sweet potatoes can be consumed just like regular potatoes--baked, mashed or as french fries. They present a good way to add more color and nutrition to your favorite side dishes.

Fans of mushrooms or those seeking an alternative to bread buns may love the idea of roasting or grilling large portobello mushrooms into hamburger buns.

Frozen corn on the cob looks like fresh corn on the cob, but doesn't necessarily taste like it. If you overcook it, frozen corn becomes limp, flavorless and watery. Even with careful preparation, it won't have the crisp-tender, bursting with juice quality of freshly picked corn, but it will be a close approximation.

Kabocha squash, also known as Japanese pumpkin or Japanese squash, is a winter squash with a tough, dark-green or bright orange outer covering, depending on the variety. The fine-textured, golden flesh tastes somewhat like pumpkin or sweet potato.

Well-prepared mushrooms are so flavorful and juicy that they can replace meat in side dishes or main courses. They add texture and depth to any meal of the day: Serve them on toast as part of an English breakfast, add them to soups or salads for lunch or stir them into pasta dishes or gravies for dinner.

A baked potato can be part of a nutritious meal when you make healthy topping choices, but you'll have to make some minor adjustments when baking a potato at altitudes 3,000 feet above sea level or higher.

Sweet potatoes are originally from Central and South America, but they are cultivated around the world today for their orange flesh, which is sweet.

Few foods are as versatile as they are nutritious, but the humble sweet potato is one exception. Whether you bake, roast, grill, saute, steam or microwave it, the orange-fleshed root vegetable delivers substantial amounts of vitamins A, C and B-6, potassium, iron and dietary fiber.

Partially cooking or parboiling sweet potatoes can speed up preparation time for roasted or grilled sweet potatoes, sweet potato fries, or sweet potato casseroles. You can parboil sweet potatoes right before baking them, earlier in the day or even the day before you plan to finish your dish.

The deep rust color and sweetly fluffy texture are too scrumptious to be served only during the holiday season. Sweet potatoes contain a large amount of starch, which must be broken down into sugar to bring out the fullness of this tuber’s distinctive flavor.

Eggplant is an abundant, common vegetable in most parts of the United States, but many home chefs don’t know how to season and prepare it.

If you are searching for a healthy and low-carbohydrate pasta alternative, try substituting spaghetti squash in your favorite pasta recipe. This squash gets its name from the long spaghetti-like strands that form when you scrape its cooked flesh with a fork.