So I'm trying to eat healthier but I have a major hurdle. I can't stand the taste of most vegetables. I'm getting better these days (peppers, onions, peas, spinach) but basics like carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower are a problem. Any preparation suggestions to make these or other veggies more palatable?
Okay, trying to take a deep, calming breath, and answer this again after losing all the work I put into this ask, so if I am a little short in my answers, unfortunately it’s because I’m doing all the work over again and am frustrated.
Now, above all else, my answer is *shrug*. It is a pillar of my own happiness and health that I do not try to modify picky eaters, but simply to avoid them. This isn’t a personal slight on you, it’s just that I’ve spend plenty of time on the tumbles giving advice to people about a dozen things, as a healthy and reasonably well adjusted human being who gets asked for it, only to be told “I CAN’T because..” or “I have an AVERSion to..” and I just do not care anymore.
So, before I get into this, anyone reading this: Take the advice or leave it. Be picky. I literally do not care. I was asked, I am supplying an answer. What you do with your life is your own, you don’t need to explain things to me. Go in peace.
OKAY! People have this idea that I was somehow sprung fully-formed from the mind of culinary adventure itself, but that isn’t true. While my other was a more than competent cook, and it’s true that my family was poor enough that what was served was what dinner I got to have, my father was intensely boring and so I really did eat much outside of extremely basic meat and potatoes fare. When I was 17, I took it upon myself to be an interesting person, and I loved cooking, so I funneled my energy into having an expansive palate and repertoire. I had never eaten a brussels sprout, a beet, jicama.
Now, the only things I don’t eat are for religious reasons. So anyone can do it.
First things first: You don’t have to like everything you put into your mouth, and the sooner you get on board with that idea, the easier it’ll be.
They say you need to introduce a food ten times before a toddler will even be reasonable about something new, and this increases more and more as someone gets older. Exposure therapy is definitely a thing! I would set aside one day a week when you are adventurous. Where you take on things you like less (also, stop telling yourself it’ll be horrible)
Mixing in is a great way to get used to stuff! Take something you don’t like and mix it into something you do. Put broccoli into chicken pot pie! Half and half mashed cauliflower and mashed potatoes! Peas and carrots are a classic combo! The more you have it, the less terrible it’ll be. You may never LIKE it (I still do not care for green beans) but you may be able to eat it, which is enough. Not every bite of food has to be tenderly kissed by the gods. Sometimes, you can eat for health.
Second things second: You have to prepare shit better!
I have no idea why so many American parents boiled and steamed all the vegetables, but I do know that it is probably one of the worst ways to prepare them. It makes them mushy and it sours the flavor and I mean I suppose it makes them literally hot but at what cost? Steaming CAN be good, but honestly steaming a vegetable takes a better sense of timing than one would assume.
By all-purpose recommendation is always roasting. Roasting brings out the natural sugars, and caramelizes the edges for delightful textures. Obviously I can’t give you a timetable for every single vegetable, but it’s very easy to find online. Some olive oil, some salt and pepper, and boom, in the oven and amazing.
Sauteing and grilling are great too! Pop some butter in a medium-high skillet and swirl those puppies until tender. Brush on some olive oil and give great grill marks.
Third things third: For the love of god, season your vegetables.
It is the strangest thing to me that people utterly ignore the role of seasoning in pleasure. People completely fail to season their salads and then wonder why they are not good. Are you the same people who don’t season chicken? Inquiring minds want to know!
I know I am constantly shoving Penzey’s down your throat, but I have no intention of stopping now. This is the best, easiest way to season a salad:
It is also good on sandwiches, as you might imagine, but I don’t often have people writing in to me asking “How can I eat meat and cheese on bread that I never in my life have any intention of putting vegetables on and in fact will pick them off if they come on my sandwich?” Anyway, i cannot speak highly enough of this stuff, and of making a good salad in general! I have a recipe for homemade croutons on here, add some dried cranberries or fresh strawberries, slice up veggies, don’t just throw lettuce a bowl and expect it to be good.
There are loads of other seasonings as well! Try dill and thyme and basil, see how you feel about different penzey’s mixes like revolution or justice, I often like some of the things McCormick has--they’re not for just meat! But you have to make seasoning and tasing a major part of your vegetable cooking experience.
Try sauces! And not just cheese sauce, but better ones. Equal parts mustard, soy sauce, olive oil, and minced garlic makes a great sauce for green vegetables. Greek yogurt with mint and garlic makes an amazing sauce for squash and such. It’s a quick way to perk up a vegetable, and there are LOADS of recipes on the internet.
That’s basically what I’ve got offhand! Good luck in being a better eater!
