Cooking Vegetables

I have always boiled my broccoli, and have a few tricks that make it taste better. First make sure the water is at a rolling boil before you drop the vegetables in. Turn down the heat slightly, but so it still lightly boils with the lid off. test with a fork, when it can pierce the vegetable easily it is done. This keeps the broccoli a deep green color and the flavor is great. I indulge with butter and sea salt. I find that if you add the vegetables before the water boils the color comes out along with the flavor.

All cooking methods are fine. (I know lots of people follow many different dietary practices, so individuals may disagree, but from this plan's perspective, we embrace all cooking methods.) On the oxalate front, boiling can reduce oxalate (varies a lot by food, best to check the spreadsheet), but roasting, grilling, sautéing, steaming don't reduce oxalate. But they are still good methods of cooking - you just need to measure your oxalate accordingly! To measure the oxalate in those foods, just measure while raw, and look at the portion sizes and oxalate levels for raw. On your carrot question, if you cook the carrots IN the soup, you will still get the oxalate. If you cook them separately in boiling water (and discard that water), then add them to the soup, then that will reduce the oxalate.