No, Seriously: How do you learn to eat vegetables?

Lynn_babcock

Broccoli is by far our most loved vegetable.. boil with some garlic salt. -- Toss with olive oil and bake at 350f with a light sprinkle of salt/garlic salt until edges start to brown. -- Raw plain, or raw with ranch dressing to dip them in.

#2) Green beans - With a little olive oil and garlic salt.. baked in the oven at about 350f until a little crispy at the edges. -- Boil with garlic salt works fine too. -- They are pretty good raw.. good finger food when you're looking for a snack for watching a movie.

#3.) Boiled cabbage -- boil with some garlic salt. -- Cut into strips, toss with olive oil and black pepper and bake at 350f turning occasionally until a little soft, but you're not going for crispy with cabbage.

#4.) Turnip greens - I grow turnips just for the greens.. I cannot stand the actual turnip. Get water up to boil stuff the cut, de-stemmed, leaves in.. pack them down. Add garlic salt and some liquid smoke. Perfection.

#5.) Zucchini or yellow squash -- Skillet cook with either a little olive oil or 0-calorie butter spray (they sweat a lot so you don't need much of either), garlic salt and brown.

#6.) Collard greens -- Cook the same as turnip greens

#7.) Avocado -- Natures mayo. Mash and add a few drops of lemon juice to keep them from turning brown. Keep refrigerated and use quickly.. they go bad fast. High in calories though.. so use sparingly. I have been using avocado instead of mayo.. a lot of times I'll salt it. It's just a lower than mayo and I have to believe it's better for you.

#8.) Bell peppers -- Sautee on a skillet with olive oil and salt. Add to omelets.

#9.) Mushrooms w/onion -- Sautee on a skillet with olive oil and garlic salt.. these are heavenly.

#10.) Snow/snap peas. Kids just eat these raw until they are gone. This is like my kids substitute to chips.

prtvera

My kids hate veggies too. What I do is steam (Broccoli or carrots or cauliflower) blend it and mix with Mashed Potato. For diets we can replace it with blue potato or sweet potato. Add cinnamon and splenda brown sugar with sweet potato or Lite sour cream if using Blue potato.

Another option would be to blend your choice of veggies again only after steaming or boiling to soften them. Mix with weight watchers shredded cheese and garlic and cilantro. Ball them up and simmer them like meatballs. If it doesn't stick use white egg mix. You just want to cook them for about 3 minutes as you keep rolling them around. Serve with Extra Virgin olive oil and salt or just sour cream. My son puts Ketchup on it.

They hate veggies but they like these to recipes. They say its easier to eat when it doesn't look like a veggie. lol

LK0321

Some veggies you can have as desserts. Yes, sweet! I love to take and chop butternut squash into 1/2 inch cubes, pan fry on low in a tsp of olive oil till tender then coat with a tsp of brommel and brown yogurt spread and a tsp of maple syrup, sprinkle with cinnamon and enjoy! or add a little brown sugar.

Also take one bunch of lacinato kale, remove ribs, chop, simmer covered on low in 1/2 in water till tender. Drain water then add in a tbs of brown sugar a tsp of brommel and brown, stir to coat till sugar is disolved. I like to top with toasted sesame seeds that I grind in a mortar and pestle and finely chopped candied ginger. I know this recipe sounds strange but I cooked it several days in a row after I first had it. Seared Ahi goes great with this.

arcticfox04

Butter. Not going to lie about this one. You figure trading the fat for the benefit of vegetables works out better in the end then no veggies.

Graelwyn75

I am simply horrified that any parent would raise their child without any vegetables in their diet.
I find that utterly shocking and sad.
I don't think hiding veggies and making them into juices and smoothies for kids is an ideal solution either, as then they will still grow up with an aversion to eating veggies.
Fortunately, my mother always gave us vegetables, and we never had any issues with eating them.

VelociMama

Thanks for the tips! (And the links!)

I'm definitely going to have to learn how to steam vegetables; it sounds like a lot of y'all roll that way. I'm still learning how to cook & spice more than my stable of, like, eight meals, so now is certainly as good a time as any.

My advice is to just keep trying recipes until you find a way you enjoy them best.

I cook them steamed, sometimes sauteed in a little olive oil with some roasted garlic, sometimes baked, etc. Lots of ways to do things.

Cooks.com and allrecipes.com have some really good ones there if you dig around a bit.

Midnight_Sunshine

How did I learn?

step 1) Mother raised me right.

cbendorf13

I used to be the same way. Textures especially bothered me. I have resorted to juicing or chopping very small bits. I have also decided that I would try any vegetable dish at least once. I have been surprised at how good some dishes can taste and how certain textures when mixed with others don't bother me.

knittnponder

Vegetable subterfuge for most things and make yourself eat a little bit here and there on their own. I love vegetables but my husband is not a fan. Over the years I've snuck them into so many things he has no idea how many he's eaten! But I also present them in dishes where they are the main part or I present them solo. Over time he and the kids grew used to eating them and now even he likes some of them. He's not a veggie lover like I am but he will tolerate the majority and even likes a good salad or peppers and onions in things.

Hide them as much as you can so you can get them in.
Repeated exposure will wear you down over time.

You may never love them but you might grow to enjoy some of them. Experiment with cooking or eating them raw too because it completely changes taste and texture. Everyone in my family will gulp down a big green smoothie as long as they taste fruity so I blend all kinds of greens into those. Soups, pureed and used in breads and muffins, pureed and hidden in soup or finely chopped and hidden in casserole type dishes all work for hiding vegetables.

sharonus

For all the people who said they ate from their garden, that's a really good point. Make sure you are getting nice fresh vegetables, because they taste better. I don't want to get in an organic/non-organic debate here, but in my experience, fresh organic vegetables taste much better than non-organic. Carrots, tomatoes, celery -- they have a lot more flavor if they are organic.

Other people have suggested a lot of recipes, and I'd say you should start browsing Pinterest. Pin any vegetable recipes that look good to you (there's bound to be some!) and then try them out.

Good luck!

ParanSkies

This sounds really stupid... But I actually convinced myself that I liked broccoli. I read an article a few years ago that the brain can be quite "dumb" sometimes and if you tell yourself something over and over again, it is possible to actually start believing it! I decided to try it on a whim because I hated broccoli but I did need to eat some healthy vegetables (I grew up only liking meats and fatty foods). I never expected it to actually work but it did and now I love having broccoli! I still have a strong dislike of some vegetables such as mushrooms and eggplants, but no one ever said you had to like all of them

As some other people have already said, I found vegetables really easy to eat when you cut them into really fine pieces and hide them in with other food as well.

jayche

Force fed them as a child, eventually started liking them

merzback

most people don't get texture issues with foods. I have them too so I get it.

culuriel

Hi Gramarye, I too don't gravitate to veggies. However, lighter, mostly water veggies are fantastic raw, and slightly sweet: cucumbers, sweet peppers in green, yellow, red or orange, tomatoes (yes, I know, they might really be a fruit), celery, carrots, green beans, and all lettuces. You can cut into slices or make a salad. A capful of lemon juice and black pepper is a great dressing substitute with lots of flavor and no cals. Also, fresh herbs from the produce section can make a salad tasty too. Eventually, you can graduate to broccoli (lightly steamed or raw), brussels sprouts, and some of the hardier veggies.

FlaxMilk

If you like them with butter, keep eating them with butter. Just measure it and count the calories. A little fat helps veggies absorb better.

Try roasting veggies like butternut squash and sweet potatoes in just a little coconut oil, cinnamon, and sweetener. It doesn't take much of any of them.

Think about the fancy restaurants in your area. Look up their menus online, see what looks good, and then do some googling to figure out how to make it.

shaynak112

I didn't like veggies for the longest time. But now I do! It's the spices, really. I love steamed veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, and zucchini are some of my favourites) with lots of spices such as: garlic powder, onion powder, cayenee, salt, pepper, paprika.

jennifer_417

Keep trying different kinds of vegetables, cooked in different ways, with different spices, until you find what you like. Really, there are lots and lots of different kinds of vegetables in the world, with different tastes, textures and nutrient values. Look up recipes, there are gazillions on the interwebs, keep experimenting until you find what you like.

EpitomeOfSxy

I suggest just eating them. I hated cottage cheese, didn't like greek yogurt unless it was flavoured. I didn't like a lot of veggies without dip and things to mask the taste. I just forced myself to eat them and after a few weeks your "tastes" will change or you'll acquire a taste for eating them. I think most foods we "don't" like are just psychological for whatever reason. Just do it.... Or at least that is what works for me. It took me ages to be able to eat fish. Lots of failed attempts, then I just told myself to do it for the benefits and not having to eat chicken all the bloody time.

Bilbobradshaw

There is a lot of great advice here on how to make delicious vegetables dishes, but I think the fundamental problem here is that you need to realize eating isn't all about satisfying your pallet--it's about getting nutrients. We're living in this society where we only want to do what we find pleasing (and there is soooo many self gratifying options that makes this drive very easy to fulfill), and we totally forget that sometimes there are important qualities in the world other than those that we prefer.

Yes, a lot of it IS yummy, but you can't just cut out an entire food group because it's displeasing---that's like allowing kids to stay up late all night and eat candy because they'd rather do that then brush their teeth and go to bed. The best way to learn to like vegetables is to change your expectations and conceptions about food.

jessjayjenk

Well, I would usually tell someone to suck it up and eat them, but you sound really serious. You should try putting veggies in mince and casseroles and currys. If you included them in things like pastas and casseroles, those things mask the taste and sometimes even the texture of the veggies. If you don't like them by themselves, cook with them - you might find that veggies even enhance the flavour of your dishes. Try squashes and spinach and onions in mince for pastas. You can even put carrots and butternut in a beef/lamb curry to thicken the sauce. Try making dishes with broccoli at the base of a dish, topped with chicken or beef and soak it to the top with any flavour of soup. Bake that in the oven for a while. I promise if you put your veggies in other things you will find cooking more fun and eating more tasty Hope this helps.

kaseysospacey

I love vegetables. Just do. But there are some I don't like so I don't eat them. I only like cooked carrots so I only eat cooked carrots. I only like cooked cauliflower so I only eat it cooked. I don't like brussels sprouts so I only eat them on thanksgiving when my mom roasts them with bacon (I will eat almost anything with bacon,lol). I love stirfry, I love sliced bell peppers, I love tomatoes and sliced onion in a salad. I LOVE sweeet potatoes any way, particularly roasted and dusted with cinnamon. I love spinach, either the baby variety in a salad or cooked with other veg. in a pan so I eat it a lot (or even scrambled into an egg or two).