Doing This One Thing To Your Veggies Actually Makes Them Healthier

If you've been eating bland, boiled broccoli on the regular, brace yourself. I have amazing news.

An April 2015 study conducted out of the University of Granada in Spain found deep-frying your veggies in extra virgin olive oil adds some awesome health benefits, Popular Science reports.

While this method of cooking certainly increases calories and fat content, it also apparently adds phenolic compounds, which have antioxidant properties. In other words, deep-fried vegetables could actually be good for your health.

Skeptical? Researchers tried a number of different cooking methods on several vegetables.

Their vegetables of choice were tomatoes, eggplants, pumpkins and potatoes. Researchers then prepared the vegetables by deep-frying them, sautéing them, boiling them in water and boiling them in a water and olive oil mixture.

In terms of added health benefits, the winners were the vegetables deep-fried in extra virgin olive oil.

While more research needs to be conducted before we all start deep-frying every vegetable in sight, it's good to know fried foods can be somewhat healthy. After all, I'm a huge fan of all things fried, from deep-fried cake batter to deep-fried tequila. (OK fine, that one sounds pretty gross.)

If deep-frying your veggies still doesn't make you want to eat them, don't give up hope! You can also sneak vegetables into a number of delicious foods like muffins, waffles and grilled cheese, to name a few.

Well, I know what I'm making for dinner tonight.

Citations: YES! DEEP-FRYING VEGETABLES MAKES THEM MORE NUTRITIOUS (Popular Science), Phenols and the antioxidant capacity of Mediterranean vegetables prepared with extra virgin olive oil using different domestic cooking techniques (ScienceDirect)