Hey, ladies!
Growing up I never was able to sample alot of different veggies. We pretty much had the typical ones.... broccoli, carrots, potatoes, peas, corn, cabbage, zucchini and the lil yellow summer squash.
I've been trying out new veggies lately. Today I made mashed butternut squash. It was INCREDIBLE. I loved it, but after awhile I felt a bit nauseas and didn't want to eat it anymore. Anyone have the same?
I also baked two sweet potatoes. I haven't tried them yet. I've only eaten sweet potatoes loaded with brown sugar and marshmallows so this is something new.
Awhile back I started eating things like eggplant, fresh green beans, snowpeas, and I even tried brussel sprouts.
So my question is what kindda veggies do you guys eat? Are they the same nes you ate growing up or are you als trying new things?
My mom was pretty good with cooking lots of vegetables as a kid, I had acorn squash and sweet potatoes as a kid (always with tons of butter and brown sugar, though). Butternut squash has never made me feel sick, but it can be kinda stringy. My parents were big artichoke fan, although a lot of people I know consider it exotic and difficult to eat.
New veggies for me
Beets - mom used to buy canned pickled beets, but I had never roasted beets before
Fresh spinach - mom used frozen exclusively
Salads with anything other than iceberg
Swiss chard, kale, bok choy - although my mom did make collard greens
Sugar snap peas - I don't remember these as a kid,but I love them
Edamame - Never even heard of them until I started eating sushi after college
Red, orange, yellow peppers - We ate lots of green pepper, but rarely these. It was probably cost savings on my mom's part, since they are generally so much pricier than the green
Jicama - I had never even heard of this until a visit to Los Angeles 4-5 years ago, love it now
We ate a pretty wide variety of vegetables growing up; we even had a garden and grew all the staples (beans, tomatoes, etc.) along with a few more exotic veggies like eggplant and rhubarb. She even grew lettuce some years, so I had non-iceberg lettuce. But my mom used more canned and frozen veggies than I do and she fried a lot of the fresh veggies. One of her favorite ways to fix zucchini and eggplant was to bread them and fry them in lots of oil. She also made fried green tomatoes.
I also like veggies now that I didn't like as a kid. A couple of examples are butternut squash, sweet potatoes, raw spinach, and raw mushrooms. These were available to me as a kid but I just couldn't eat them (not even if you put brown sugar and marshmallows on the sweet potatoes). Now I love them all; can't imagine how I went all those years without eating them.
Most of the veggies on Glory's list are new to me also and I would add the following:
turnips
brussels sprouts
fennel bulb
fava beans
artichokes
celery root
I have overdone it on winter squash; I know what you mean about feeling a little sick if you eat too much. Although I like winter squash a lot now, I still can't stomach much summer squash and can only eat zucchini if it's disguised as something else (like meatloaf).
I'm always looking for new veggies; I spend a lot of time at the farmers' market.
My mom, the sole preparer of food in the house I grew up in, worked outside the home so much that dinner was something thrown together quickly without planning. So the vegetable rotation growing up was exclusively canned green beans, canned lima beans, canned corn, canned green peas, and canned spinach. Consequently, I thought I HATED vegetables.
I am still in the process of discovering vegetables as an adult, and how to prepare them so they are not the soggy, slimy, squishy pile of sodium I was forced to eat as a kid. I'd never seen sweet potatoes eaten as anything but a platform for marshmallows until I was in grad school. I have just now started experimenting with steaming broccoli. I am getting up my courage to try the kale recipes I saw here at TFC a few weeks ago. It's a whole new world!
Although I have a lot of staples that I serve and eat on a regular basis, there are some veggies that I like a lot, but don't fix often. I suppose it is because my kids don't particularly like them.
Recently I made a butternut squash risotto that was really, really good. I also love acorn squash. A great side is zucchini sauteed with tomatoes and onions. I'm not really fond of summer squash, though.
As a child, I remember planting a bean plant in our yard and when the beans were grown, my mom and I harvested them and fixed them for dinner. I hated them! This summer, I was at our local farmer's market and there were beans EVERYWHERE. I bought a couple pounds and fixed them and now I can't get enough fresh green beans! My kids still prefer canned, though.
I was buying some leeks yesterday and had to help the grocery clerk to find the price--he had no clue what he was ringing up--he thought they were bok choy (okay, close resemblance, but still wrong!)
I have to admit I will never fix Brussels sprouts. Regardless of how they are cooked, they always taste very bitter.
Most of my veggies these days are incorporated into salads. That way I can get the kids to eat them without their knowing what it is! Chop it up and it disappears in all the lettuce. And speaking of lettuce, my mom was an iceberg or forget it type of cook. My kids prefer Romaine (thankfully) but will eat any leaf if it is in salad.
Yum, veggies! I too grew up with lots of canned/frozen veggies, but now I do fresh when I can. We grow a garden and what frozen veggies I have are ones I froze myself. We grow broccoli, cauliflower, peas, sugar snap peas, green beans, cabbage (green and red), zucchini, lettuce (usually romaine and buttercrunch), and tomatos. I totally love winter squashes, but we don't have a long enough growing season. Our grocery stores usually have a great selection for a couple months in the fall, and I try all the varieties.
I love fresh green beans, but frozen or canned - yuck! Same with asparagus, which I can't grow, but buy when it's in season even though it's pricey.
Allison, have you tried brussel sprouts roasted? Rolled in a little olive oil, sprinkled with spices, and slow roasted they become almost sweet - honest!
Allison, have you tried brussel sprouts roasted? Rolled in a little olive oil, sprinkled with spices, and slow roasted they become almost sweet - honest!
Pat, okay, next time I see them at the Farmers Market, I'll buy some and try roasting them. If they're bitter.....well, I'll be looking for you!! LOL
I LOVE plain sweet potatoes! Last year, I took one to work with some microwaveable soup every day for lunch for 2 or 3 months! I would just pop the sweet potato in the microwave for 7-9 minutes, slice it open, and eat it with a spoon. Delicious!!! On the other hand, I never ate them with butter and sugar, even as a kid, so I can't compare plain sweet potatoes to the sugared ones. I just think they are absolutely perfectly sweet and delicious on their own!
I like most veggies, but have to say, the brussel sprout thing really eludes me. I have tried all sorts of preparations, and they never cease to nauseate me. It's kind of a running joke with a good friend of mine - she always makes me try new preparations of them (and I do at least try them), but still no sale. She hosted a surprise b-day party for me, and served a huge batch of b-sprouts - at least some of the guests enjoyed them. (Fortunately, there were other food offerings as well).
What I do like to eat - anything that's not a brussel sprout and that's in season - lately, I've been eating a lot of squash (acorn, spaghetti, butternut), turnips, parsnips, sweet potatoes, etc.
I grew up in a very frugal, agricultural family. I think we grew every vegetable that would grow in Indiana. Turnips, rutabagas, odd lettuces, eggplants, squashes, and all the common ones. I then had to help can or freeze the produce. I LONGED to be NORMAL and have green beans and corn from a can, LOL. Now that I am an adult I do like a variety of vegetables but as a kid I disliked them. Go figure.
We always ate a very wide variety of veggies. I find now that I just cook them differently (more simply). My latest fave is parsnips. They look like white carrots. I cut them in large pieces (about 1-1/2" long) and roast them with a little salt, pepper, and the tiniest bit of olive oil. Even my DH loves them.
Allison, meant to tell you that if you cut the :evil: brussel sprouts in half vertically before you roast them, they'll cook faster. Saw some nice ones in the store today, and thought of you!
My mouth was watering just reading your post. I love all squashes, but butternut is my ALL TIME FAV! Hated it as a kid, but about 2 years ago I started eating it again and it's fantastic. If you buy the organically grown variety, you can even eat the skins which are chocked full of nutrients. I dice mine up into 1/2 inch chunks and sauté it with onion, garlic and olive oil. OH MY. It's so good and it gets caramelized as it cooks. VERY GOOD!
As a kid, we only ever had canned peas, canned corn and canned green beans, all cooked to a sodden heap. The only fresh veggie Mom ever cooked was broccoli and she boiled that til it was so limp you practically had to use a spoon to eat it! Like someone mentioned above, I thought I hated vegetables because of that. Now, I don't think there's a veggie that I don't like. Maybe beets but I'm going to try roasting them as Glory suggested above to see if I like them that way. My favorites are asparagus, brussel sprouts, broccoli, fresh wilted spinach, roasted parsnips, turnips and cauliflower. Mmmm...I'm getting hungry now!
When I was growing up, our veggies consisted of canned veggies, green beans, peas, carrots... or frozen veggies, broccoli, cauliflower. Every once in a while it was fresh broccoli, brusslesprouts or cauliflower (usually a holiday).
It wasn't until I hit my 30's that I started to taste other veggies. I just love squash (summer & winter)... Acorn being one of my favorites and then butternut.
In the past low carb dieting has taught me to be more creative with veggies, like cauliflower... Mock mashed taters, mock fried rice, mock potato salad.. who knew !!!!
Butternut Squash and new veggies
who knew !!!!