Vegetables

kirstyreanne

I'm ashamed to say that I don't really like vegetables. I only enjoy peas, sweetcorn, potatoes, baby carrots, and butternut squash. I don't mind carrots mixed with butter or french beans. I can also force down cauliflower mashed with butter.

I'd really like to up my intake of vegetables so could anybody please recommend any that are not really strong for me to try.

beadysam

Have you tried swede well cooked and mashed with butter? Also do you like raw veg at all? What about fruit? You could do with getting your vitamins from somewhere so if you like fruit but arent keen on veg - go with fruit! Don't beat yourself up over it - you DO need the vits but you don't have to like veg...
SAM xx

Jay-Jay_4

I ate no vegetables apart from sweetcorn and potatoes until about 5 and a half years ago!

The big change for me was when I weaned my eldest (almost 6 now lol). I used to taste her pureed vegatables to check the temperature and over a few months discovered that I could eat one tiny broccoli floret without thinking that it was vile. I have to steam my veg until it's really soft....can't do crunchy!

I gradually progressed to a couple of broccoli florets, a small portion of cauliflower cheese and a spoonful of mashed carrot and swede. I found that by giving myself just a taste, with butter, salt and pepper, I could eat small amounts of whatever veg I tried. I can just about manage sliced carrots (maybe 10 slices) and a mouthful of cabbage but it's taken a long time.

I'm keen for my children to see me eating veg so I put it on my plate and make myself eat a little bit......it's getting easier

I still envy people who can eat a pile of veg or a salad sandwich (still can't imagine eating a leaf sandwich )

Just keep trying things and don't think that restaurant veg is anything to go my, in my experience it's usually dry and tasteless. Buy some organic veg and practice cooking it until you find a texture that you like.

Edited to say: I made cauliflower with a strong cheese sauce at first, then cut down on how strong the cheese was as I got used to the taste of the cauli.

Anne_Marie_2

Try mashing veg up with potatoes, things like boiled swede or carrots, really tasty. What about roasting some vegetables, start off with roast tomatoes (ok technically a fruit), sprinkle with bit oregano or basil and drizzle with bit of olive oil, then bake in medium oven for about 30 mins or so - the taste is so good, grate a wee bit of cheese over the top if you have to, and have that as side dish or with crusty bread. You could then go on to try other veg roasted - sliced courgetttes, peppers (go for red, green or orange which are sweeter than green), mushrooms, onions. Roasting brings out the flavour and sweetness of the veg, and they are lovely and soft.
As Beadysam said, don't beat yourself up too much, especially if you do eat fruit.

squeaky

I mostly absolutely smothered every new veg I tried in gravy or sauce and then gradually over time removed the amount of smothering I did.

As someone said - if you like fruit - eat fruit.

There were lots of hints on hiding vegetables in another thread recently, such as in soups and minced into casseroles and so on. I'll see if I can find it for you.


Edit: The thread I had in mind is Here

Ted_Hutchinson

You might find inspiration from the information from

The World's Healthiest Foods: A-Z .

I suggest you think about crossover savory/sweet foods such as avocado and sweet potato both of which can be used for desserts and main courses.

Sweet potato can be baked or boiled and used in salads when cold.

Avocado when added to any salad, either fruit or veg, will increase the amount of beta carotene (from tomatoes/carrots/sweet potato/cantaloupe) absorbed so not only does it taste excellent it also does you good.

nickinoo

spinach is a good one, I buy the frozen stuff & add a few pieces when cooking as we are veggie & it ups our iron intake.

Even a pizza can be covered in veg, I use onion, sweetcorn, peppers, mushrooms & courgettes amongst other things.

How about a veggie curry or chilli? Stir fries are great too.

kirstyreanne

Many thanks for all your suggestions. I'm geared up to trying new things at the moment. My main problem with both fruit & veg is that I'm fussy about the feel of things in my mouth rather than the actual taste of them so I think I'll try and hide well cooked veg - maybe mashed with butter or potato etc..

Thanks again.

Sarahsaver

I am interested by the fact that the veg you favour is all high in natural sugars. Do you crave sugar? Its a real shame you won't try 'strong' flavoured stuff. Supposedly you only have to try something 15 times to re-educate your tastebuds.
There must be an underlying reason for the dislike of the feel of things in your mouth. Sort that out as that is the problem rather than the vegetables. I'm the opposite - the thought of everything with butter mashed up makes me retch!

Jay-Jay_4

kirstyreanne wrote:

My main problem with both fruit & veg is that I'm fussy about the feel of things in my mouth rather than the actual taste of them .

You sound exactly like me!

It's not the taste for me either, it's the texture. I think that's why tasting pureed baby food helped...... especially with broccoli! It's also why I like veg 'over' steamed until it's really soft.

Just an hour ago I had some of my OHs cheese and onion sandwich. I take every trace of the onions off but love the taste they leave behind (it's that yucky crunchy sound/feeling that I hate)

I look at things like peppers on pizza and think "toughy, chewy skin and slimy middles" ....yet I love the taste they leave behind when I've picked them off. Same with mushrooms..."slimy" but can eat a bowl of mushroom soup. :rolleyes:

Egg whites too (same texture as eyeballs )

Do you spend half your life raking through pizzas, sandwiches, casseroles etc... picking out akk the bits you can't eat?

the_big_lebowski

How about try mixing your veg with meat? Like bacon wrapped asparagus, or chicken tortillas with lots of onion and pepper, or chilli stuffed peppers. Large mushrooms, jacket potatoes and tomatoes all stuff really well, if you scoop them out and mix with bacon or cheese or the like.
Personally, i love a chicken and avocado salad.