I Hate Vegetables

[lpellegr]

I have always hated vegetables - to me they just plain taste bad. But I force myself to eat them because they are good for me. I prefer to drown their taste in butter, cheese, sour cream, or some other fattening substance that I do like. My salads are full of meat, cheese, eggs, nuts, and anything interesting to overcome the lettuce and veggies. There are a lot of creative cooks here - what do you suggest for making veggies taste better?

[purple]

I am not a big veggie eater either but I am getting alot better. I find that raw veggies taste better than cooked. For instance I always hated cooked spinach, it made me gag...when I was in the first grade, I stuffed it in my milk carton at school b/c all plates were checked to see if you ate everything I never got caught

So I always thought I hated spinach but the fresh is good as a salad or mixed with other lettuces, some make strawberry spinach salad, etc. I have yet to try it. Make a taco salad or dump chili on it.

Steamed veggies are better than boiled.

I planted a garden so I could start eating better!

The veggies I like are: corn(grain), peas, green beans, lettuce salads, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, green onions, red pepper if its mixed up in something, raw broccoli if its in something, zucchini only in cakes/breads and brownies...

Try a stir fry with mixed veggies in it, you can buy them frozen. Sometimes cooked mixed veggies are better than individual.

Your taste buds will change. Train yourself. Change your thinking.

Dip raw veggies in something then gradually use less dip.

Make a chicken pot pie or stew with mixed veggies. My mom puts Bragg's liquid aminos (soy sauce sub) on all her salads and loves it that way.

Make nachos and put fresh veggies on them.

Start small then add more of the ones you start liking. I still pick out the cauliflower. I hate raw celery but its good cooked in stew/soups.

I now eat the peppers and onions on supreme pizza but still pick off the olives and mushrooms...yuck...they taste like rubber!

I have never tried egg plant and I hate it

[tarnalberry]

You might try figuring out *WHAT* you think is bad about them. My husband isn't a big veggie fan either, but after a long time of working on understanding it (between his knowledge about what things taste like to him and my knowledge about cooking and chemistry of cooking), we figured out that he's a super taster. Raw broccoli is FAR too bitter to even eat, but he can even identify the bitter taste in tomatoes, and it's too much for him! When we compare to produce he'll eat - sweet peppers (not green), carrots, apples... well, it turns out he's also quite sensitive to texture.

Once you know what it is that your tastebuds are opposed to, it's easier to find vegetables, methods of cooking, and spices that will work around that.

[PattyBoots]

I think perhaps you're doing yourself a "mind joke" in saying you "hate vegetables" - veggies is a big, big palate, and perhaps instead of generalizing you should focus on what you dislike. For example - I don't like raw carrots - seems like I chew and chew and chew and then chew some more - but steamed with a little honey and basil - YUM. I don't care for raw zucchini - but lightly steamed with a bit of sesame oil and pepper. Very good. What do you dislike about them - is it just the "eat your veggies" thing? Or is it a class of things? I used to HATE spinach - but now I really like it in a salad and sauteed quickly and added to rice along with spices like cumin and basil. Sometimes it's just the NAME of something - "squash" is really unappealing, but "zucchini" or "crookneck" sounds tasty. A rose by any other name ...

[MySuicidalTurtle]

Try different seasonings. I like garlic, Old Bay, and mixed peppers on my vegetables. I am not a fan of beans but I love the garlic and spinach, bean, and yellow carrot steamers (Green Giant has yummie steamed vegetables that are seasoned). Another thing to do is make stir frys. A little oil in afrying pan with loads of veggies seasoned. Cook until tender and then add some soy sauce and noodles. If you want salads, try different lettuce. Green and Red Leaf are different than Kale (which I do not like). You can then put in tomatoes and pickles or anything. I am not a carrot fan, so I only put in a few and dip them in a fat free dressing. There are heathy dressings to mask flavours we do not like.

Good luck!

[ptkds]

I also hate veggies. I just can't eat them, no matter how they are masked. I will eat carrots if they are in a stew or something, cooked tomatoes are fine. But things like broccoli and spinach are out of the question.

Try the new V8 splash. It has all the veggies you need, and it doesn't taste too bad.

[PattyBoots]

See - the thought of V8 Splash or any of the "veggie" drinks makes me want to barf. No way, Jose. Ick.

[GFinDC]

Raw carrots and peanut butter, or raw celery and peanut butter. There you go cured! Sometimes the carrots do taste better peeled though, if there is lots of dirt on them still.

Veggies are good for you, just eat them! Boy that was easy straightened her right out! :-)

How about stew? You can make stew in a pressure cooker pretty quick. I like to fry frozen veggies in a pan and then stir in an egg. Beat the egg first with a few spices. Put on a lid and let it cook a few minutes after adding the egg.

Brussel sprouts cut in half and then fried with onions is good. Veggies are our friends. It's nice that they let us cook them and eat them though. Them's real good friends!

Sesame tahini is a nice dip if you whip it with lemon juice and olive oil and garlic. It fluffs up and turns white like mayo and stiff like peanut butter, but has a different taste of course. Dip raw veggies or chips in it, or use it on sandwiches etc.

Avocadoes make gaucamole easy. They may be a fruit though.

Cantaloupe is good with pepper and salt.

Kale is kind of tough if you don't cook it.

Maybe look up a recipe for spinach roulade and try it sometime.

[Takala]

I eat raw undressed lettuce for breakfast sometimes, so I'm not sure I can help you.

Othertimes I stir fry shredded cabbage or other greens in olive oil because this makes it taste sweeter, then I put a cider vinegar and some artificial sweetener (can't do much sugar anymore) on it to make a sort of hot wilted salad. This is a cultural thing from the one side of the family. I have this for breakfast with eggs, because I function better if I eat vegetables early. It's not that I'm that noble, it's that grain carbs don't last that long with me, even if it's that Elven waybread sort of heavy gluten-free high protein toast I make.

I'll eat almost anything with cider vinegar and sweetener on it.

Or olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Tomatoes and fresh basil. Garlic and basil.

With beans, cumin, vinegar, and chipotle tabasco work well.

With broccoli, I put cinnamon on broccoli salad all the time. Cinnamon is really good on broccoli. I know it sounds weird, but you ought to try it.

Wheat free soy sauce, orange juice, and honey is good on stir fried vegetables or as a salad dressing.

My spouse made a pasta salad yesterday that was sorta ick, but I ate it anyway. I don't even know if I should list what was in it. He put cucumbers and avocado and basil and oregano in it, I'm thinking oh, wow, this isn't working well with rice pasta, it needed a lot more vinegar and salt, but he was trying to be helpful, so I ate it.

I am not, obviously, a supertaster.

[purple]

You can also sneak a veggie like a carrot, into a fruit smoothy or use carrot juice in it. I forgot that I like coleslaw but can't stand the smell of cooked cabbage When I was a kid I sprinkled sugar on tomatoes or cucumbers while everyone else did S&P.

You could make carrot or zucchini muffins with pineapple or apples. I hate all squash but pumpkin pie is great!

[Jenny (AZ via TX)]

I don't love veggies either, but, here's how I make them.

I've done this with both asparagus and broccoli and it was yummy.

Cut up veggies to how you like them. For asparagus, I just bend until it breaks.

Put in a pan. Sprinkle with olive oil. Add salt and pepper or whatever spices you like. Bake at 350 degres for about 10 minutes. Take out of oven and add shredded parmesan or asiago on top. You don't need a lot because they both have fairly strong flavors to them. Put back in oven for about 5 minutes.

Hope you like it.

[Michi8]

I have always hated vegetables - to me they just plain taste bad. But I force myself to eat them because they are good for me. I prefer to drown their taste in butter, cheese, sour cream, or some other fattening substance that I do like. My salads are full of meat, cheese, eggs, nuts, and anything interesting to overcome the lettuce and veggies. There are a lot of creative cooks here - what do you suggest for making veggies taste better?

I think stir-frying is a really good, tasty way to prepare veggies. You can experiment with different sauces to suit your tastes. Others mentioned spinach as well. I think baby spinach makes a wonderful salad...add small pieces of broccoli, red peppers, strawberries, dried cranberries and toasted almonds and toss with a sweet poppyseed dressing...yum!

Michelle

(who enjoys lightly steamed veggies more than raw...steaming brings out the sweet, and tones down the bitter.)

[samcarter]

Broccoli Slaw

This will have you loving raw broccoli.

2 heads broccoli, including stems

1/4 cup red onion, minced very finely

1/3 cup dried cranberries

1/4 cup sliced almonds

Dressing:

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

2 T sugar or any sweetener equivalent

1 tsp salt

fresh ground black pepper, to taste

If you have a food processor, this is easy. Chop the broccoli into smallish florets, and take the stems and peel the tough outer layer. Feed them through the food processor with the slicing blade attached. Or you can just slice everything pretty thinly.

Whisk the dressing ingredients together in a large bowl. Toss the broccoli, onion, cranberries, and almonds with the dressing.

Cover and chill overnight---this lets the red onion mellow out so it won't be sharp and overpower the salad.

Also, asparagus is wonderful if you drizzle it with olive oil, sprinkle it with kosher salt, and roast it at 450 degrees for about 10 minutes or till the tips are a bit crispy.

[lpellegr]

Thanks all - it looks like I'm already using most of your tips to trick myself into eating nasssty veggies. I stir-fry, I use oil and vinegar, soy sauce, hide spinach and kale in eggs with cheese, etc. I'm a super-taster and just think most veggies have horrible bitter or "dirty" taste, and those that don't have gross texture (raw tomatoes - gak!). I was so happy when I grew up and didn't have to eat limas or stuffed peppers (taste like ear wax! Don't ask) ever again! It looks like I'm on the right path and just have to keep fooling myself into eating right. But keep passing on the recipes for me and the other vegephobes out there.

[caligirl2001]

You might benefit from a book I use to get some veggies into my very picky son (and husband) It is called The Sneaky Chef. As a grown up, well, you might have to play some mind games with yourself because you will know it is in there, but I would swear that if you do it right, you will not be able to taste it. If I can get some of this past my extremely picky son, you know it is well hidden!

The book is designed towards picky kids, as a way to sneak healthy things into their foods. My very picky son ( who won't eat fruit or drink juice) has eaten quite a few creations out of this book without knowing. Worth a try anyways! I also give my son and my husband excellent quality organic vitamins to try to make up for the deficit. Obviously nothing is as good as eating the real food, but at least it is a close second!

[JNBunnie1]

I don't think I'm much help here, I'm a super-taster but haven't met a whole lot of food I didn't like. My 'no's': fungus, beets, shellfish. And raw onion. I literally never met any other food I don't like. Oh, canned lima beans are Godawful, but we grew some in our garden when I was a kid and steamed/buttered they're AMAZING. I'll think more on it!

[emcmaster]

Well, I can't really sympathize because I really like vegetables.

Do you like marinara sauce (or as the italians call it, "gravy")? I really like pretty much any steamed veggies topped with marinara. Often I'll steam up a bunch of asparagus, carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, and red bell pepper and mix it with some precooked pasta, top with "gravy" and some shredded mozzarella and pop in the oven for "baked ziti".

Another thing to consider: veggies are virtually calorie-free (not quite, but almost), so their addition at any meal means you'll consume less calories.

I like kale "chips" with ketchup. Google it for a recipe.

We like to grill asparagus and zucchini drizzled with EVOO and S&P in the summer.

I think veggies are phenomenal grilled. Boiled vegetables, not so much.

[tarnalberry]

What I've learned from my husband is this: start with the vegetables you know you like (not just can get down your gullet, but can say "I can find that pleasing") and start with the textures you know you like, and try to get really really creative. Don't worry if you're only eating seven vegetables for now; figure out how to add the 8th one without eating being another chore like cleaning the toilet.

So, my husband hates broccoli, but when he finally tried chinese food (which he avoided until he was in his mid-20's), he tried one of the pieces of broccoli in a dish once. Hey, it's well cooked and drowned in salty, spicy sauce! It's not awful! From there, I learned I could use broccolini (which is slightly different from both broccoli and baby broccoli), and cook it in stir fries and sautees, as long as it got cooked enough, had enough oil to blend the flavors and a spice (usually something spicy, be it chili flakes or garlic) to offset the bitter. (Of course, I'm not saying this particular example will work for you, but it's an example.)

Or, for instance, my husband doesn't really care for beets. (I personally love 'em - oven roasted w/ olive oil and herbs, pickled in vinegar, grated raw with apples and ginger... it's all good!) But when I added them to bulk up a flavorful, heavily seasoned beef stew, and made sure they cooked long enough to not be too firm, he found they were ok - and upon second go, 'they're growing on me'.

The other thing is, he will try new things (and by this, I mean *a bite* of something new), which I try very hard to make 'friendly' for him, when he's in the mood. But, if he's not feeling adventurous, he won't. And that's ok! If he's not feeling adventurous, and he's less likely to be open to a new taste, and less likely to try the same thing again in the future. If he's feeling a little more open, he may not like something, but he might try it again in the future, and may be a little more likely to find it acceptable.

[Wonka]

I must admit, I am a lover of all things vegetable, so you may hate my ideas. I love just about anything roasted.

Preheat oven to 450 F, cut vegies into bite size pieces, toss in olive oil, salt and pepper and roast. For most vegies, 10-15 minutes, flip over and then another 10-15 minutes. My favourite roasted vegetables are: sweet potato, asparagus, parsnips, kohlrabi (roasted these for the first time the other day, very nice, I sprinkled it with parmesan cheese after removing from oven) cauliflower, carrots, eggplant, zucchini, shallots, and kale (tear into bite size pieces, toss in olive oil and seasoning salt, bake at 250 F for 1 hour. They come out crisp and it's like eating a healthy potato chip, Yum!)

[Juliebove]

I love some vegetables and hate others. When it comes to the ones I hate, there's not a thing you could do to them to make them taste good to me. In fact if there is so much as a speck of them in my food, I can't eat it. I am a super taster as well.

I am not a big fan of mushrooms. It's mostly the texture there that gets me. I buy the dried ones at Costco and powder them in my Magic Bullet. This works great in tuna casserole or added to beef and chicken dishes.

We have pasta with tomato sauce at least once a week. To the sauce I will add some chopped onion, chopped red bell pepper and maybe some shredded carrots if I have them.

When I used to make lasagna (can't now due to dairy allergy), I added a layer of zuchinni between the pasta.

I add all sorts of chopped vegetables to meatloaf. Sometimes so much that you can't taste the meat! Hehehe.

Another thing I bought at Costco were chicken patties with roasted vegetables. I don't personally like them at all. I think it's because they contain ground chicken. But husband and daughter love them.

I find for me, most vegetables are very good when eaten raw. For instance, I can eat broccoli raw but can't stand it cooked. Raw cauliflower is okay too. I once had some soup with a lot of cauliflower in it at a Russian restaurant, but mostly I don't like it cooked.

When I roast potatoes, I add plenty of coarsely chopped red onion to the mix. The onion comes out very sweet!

When I cook pinto beans, I add plenty of chopped onion and peppers to them.