Just an open question.

Sweet potatoes. Diced. Put in ziplock with very small amount of olive oil, salt and pepper. Put on cookie sheet and place in the oven for 20-25 minutes at 425, flipping halfway through.

local summer tomatoes. peel them and place them in a gratin dish on a bed of fresh basil, drown them in oliver oil and give them some sea salt. start them in a 375-degree oven for 15 to 30 minutes, then turn the heat down to 350 and bake them until they are carmelized, which can take another hour or hour and a half. i learned this in alice waters. she calls it a confit. i store them in the freezer, which is why i have so many gratin dishes, and used up the last one a couple of weeks ago. so now i will just have to wait, probably until july, a nagging disappointment every time i visit the farmers market, which these days i imagine, without having actually been since the weather snapped, is about as welcoming as siberia, with vendors reaching into their chests for meat and customers lugging around more root vegetables and apples than is healthy. (but it did feel good when my feet and hands turned numb the other day waiting for the first bus that was not afraid to negotiate some of the city's icy northwest slopes, only, though, because it had been a while. when the temperature fell into the teens, i used to like to go out and try to outwalk the cold.)

Fennel. Raw; braised w/ chicken stock and finished w/ Parmesan; roasted in the oven slowly until lightly caramelized; in a soup... whatever. Underrated and underused vegetable. Shockingly easy and fun to grow, too. And ornamental in the garden.

Roasted frequently lately:

Beets (red and golden wrapped in foil)
Brussels Sprouts
Cauliflower
Garlic

All of them done simply: ExVirgOO, s&p.

Brussel sprouts, v/ light hand w/ olive oil, salt pepper, sometimes nutmeg or cumin if i'm feeling saucy. Also roasted garlic- just wrap in foil, throw in 425 degree oven for about 45 to an hour. Eggplant, spread with the garlic, plus s&p. YUM. I love roasted veggies...
And yes, I just used "veggies." Deal.

Ditto. I like to slice them up into thin strips and toss with olive oil, fresh garlic, rosemary and s&p - then roast at 425 for about 30-40 minutes, turning once.

I also dig roasted asparagus with sea salt, heirloom tomatoes in the hot summertime with yogurt and espelette (thanks, j), steamed broccoli with lemon juice, and lately, kale cooked up collard greens style with cayenne, lemon juice or vinegar + onions and garlic - served with a side of my vegan hoppin' john (brown rice, black eyed peas, green onions and cherry tomaters).

How could I forget? My wife does broccoli rabe about 50 times a week. Sauteed with lots of fresh coarsely chopped garlic and red pepper flakes. I do enjoy it, but I could use a little more variation in my life. Spice of life, and all that...

Lima beans are my favorite vegetable, but they are not in season very long and are hard to find. Usually I buy them frozen, but the only truly acceptable kind is Birds Eye fordhook. They seem to be increasingly difficult to find. I don't really like dried limas very much.

I boil lima beans in a saucepan until just tender or steam in the microwave. When I can get fresh limas and fresh corn at the same time, I make succotash. Either way, I like to serve them with butter and black pepper.

I know many people don't like limas, and I was amazed that my husband and I were already married before I realized that they were his favorite vegetable too .

I've been on a real greens kick recently - everything from big momma kale to little baby arugula and everything in between. A quick saute to wilt and away you go.

I like to saute some garlic with the greens and sprinkle some balsamic vinegar in when they're finishing up.

Marriage and vegetables can do that to you.

I *love* steamed/lightly sauteed fiddlehead greens with a little salt. There's a creek near my parents' place in Ottawa and every spring my dad and I would go down there and harvest the wild fiddleheads that grew there. I have never seen them in a store. Maybe the farmers market this spring, eh?

Three pea salad - raw sugar snap peas, blanched snow peas, and fresh (shelled) sweet green peas. Tossed with a little sesame oil, mirin, and maybe some pearl onions. A perfect foil to a grilled steak.

Corn on the cob. On the grill or quickly boiled. Pass the floss, please....

I wish summer was here....

I've seen them at Dean & Deluca.

The fern variety that provides choice edible fiddleheads does not grow this far south. However, for the past couple of years, Trader Joe's has been selling Canadian fiddleheads in season. Mind you, they are reasonably priced, but you have to get them when they are just stocked on the shelf or they won't be fresh.

Pea shoots!

Fresh lima beans!!!!! I love them too. I get them at farmers markets, although you are right, not many farmers grow them. Level Green farms sells at several Fairfax County markets and usually have them in August. I splurge then and freeze my own.
Asian eggplant, peppers and heirloom tomatoes from my garden win my vote as well.
This time of the year, all the greens I can cook. One of fave ways: with loads of garlic and white beans.

Green beans with mini dried shrimp and garlic
Green beans or spinach sauteed with garlic
Spinach Korean-style - soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar
Broccoli with oyster sauce

but the best is watercress with oyster sauce

I hadn't thought about that, but investing in a bulk purchase of lima beans when they're in season and freezing them myself sounds like a good idea. Thanks for the tip.

I can't imagine life without onions and other allium family members, so they'd have to come first on my list.

Remember, folks, the time for ramps is not far away.

If we're including tomatoes and produce treated as a vegetable, mushrooms are a close second. Life without oyster, enoki and other very subtle, delicate varieties would be fine. Give me porcini.

Next, red kuri winter squash, though I adore plale yellow sweet potatoes, too.

Asparagus used to be my favorite green vegetable, but I've grown tired of it now that it is available all year round. I still go nuts when the stubby, glossy, red-tipped ones appear at the farmers market. Anyone unimpressed by the Zuni Cafe Cookbook hasn't made the asparagus soup with (onions and) pancetta hours after returning from Mt. Pleasant or Dupont Circle.

Now, I'd have to say artichokes are my favorite green vegetable. Any and every way, though vignarola, a Roman vegetarian stew with artichokes, fava beans, peas, potatoes, olive oil, mint and, yes, onions, is a new favorite with lots of crusty bread and white wine; a plate of prosciutto and olives first. Strawberries (another vegetable) for dessert.

Arugula and spinach are my favorite leafy greens and eggplant my favorite ohhh, white, lavendar, purple or mottled spongy thing to fry, sauté, roast or bake as long it is soaking up other flavors that make it taste better a day or two later.

Normally, I'd say green beans are the most boring and dispensable. Never buy them at the supermarket, or hardly ever. However, the Jades from New Morning (the farm) are wonderfully flavorable and eating a good salade nicoise is a summertime ritual. The biggest indulgence, though, are the haricot verts from Spring Valley Farm that Eli Cook sells for $18 a pound. Stew them in olive oil and garlic forever until they're army green mush. Plenty of salt. Don't even bother with the traditional tomatoes.

Brussels sprouts, roasted with lardons.

Summer tomatoes eaten out of hand. Or if I want to get fancy, sliced and dressed with coarse salt, a drizzle of good olive oil, and a little basil chiffonade.

Roasted spaghetti squash w/ Gruyère and fresh ground pepper

I noticed today that Cooks Illustrated #88 (current issue) advocates 1Tbsp of table salt (==1/2fl oz.==1/16 cup) per gallon of water for blanching/boiling green vegetables, whereas The French Laundry Cookbook advocates 1 cup of table salt per gallon of water. I'm pretty strongly with Dr. Keller on this, but I thought it was notable.

And I seem to remember that Heston Blumenthal says speed of cooking or amount of salt is not a necessary condition for preserving greenness, but I don't remember where or when.