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

Try cooking them different ways. One of my favorite ways is to roast them, 425 F for 25 to 35 minutes, or until tender. Drizzle with a little olive oil and season if you want to. Try chunks of sweet potatoes, butternut squash, carrots, parsnips, green peppers, onions. Asparagus is also divine roasted. You can also roast brussel sprouts and cauliflower.... pretty much most veggies. When you roast peppers and onions, be sure to leave them in big chunks or they'll burn.

Good luck!

Agreed! Roasting with a little olive oil is great!

Sad! Sorry. I love veggies and it didn't come from the way I was raised.. my mom liked putting butter on all vegetables and boiling them hard... if there were vegetables at all. What I mostly remember was that nasty corn//carrot/green bean/lima bean frozen mixture... hated that stuff. Dad would put in a garden though.. so us kids would go out there and ate everything... not every year though.

I have 2 boys ages 5 and 3 that will decimate broccoli as I bring it into the house. I'll be unpacking the car still and it's like they can smell broccoli through the shopping bag. They grab broccoli and run. All I'll find later and the big stalks. I peel that and save it for soup. I just love that they like veggies so much. I think what has really helped with that is that we put a garden in every year.. the kids help till, plant, water, pull weeds, and pick. Because they helped from the start it makes them more proud of it and they'll eat veggies like crazy. We don't have much junk food around the house though. I buy a box of mac and cheese about once a month. Every once in awhile I'll get a box of ramen noodles (twice a year). Other than that it's all homemade from scratch. I would say processed foods 'taste' better.. but I think you get used to food that is homemade and better for you if the other option isn't even there. My 5 year old cries if we're out to eat and one of us gets a salad and he doesn't... and he really does eat it all. I make Hidden Valley ranch from the dry package.. it's the best tasting dressing imo. For us grown-ups I make it with 3/4 fat free mayo, 1/4 regular mayo. I wouldn't eat salad if I had to eat it was a dressing I didn't like.

Get the other stuff out of the picture.. the good tasting junk-type foods. I have at least 1 and usually 2 vegetables for dinner, 1 starch and meat.. or a dish with some meat in it. More than 1 vegetable option for a meal is a good idea. Potion out your starch and meat so that if that's all you eat you'd leave the table hungry. Will help encourage the desire to fill up with vegetables. Vegetables are so cheap too. Beef is $3.50/# +, chicken breast is at least $2.50/#.. broccoli crown are about $1.40/#, yellow squash about the same... you can really stretch a meal for the money and calories by making at least half as vegetables.

About juicing--I think that's a waste, frankly. One of the most valuable things vegetables contribute is fiber, which helps you stay full.

I loved veggies always, but maybe try a stir fry?

I hate food. (Ironic, isn't it? Considering I packed on the pounds, but I had a serious addiction to venti Starbucks coffees, and I did like *certain* foods... Seriously. Coffee. It's my weakness.) Although, that's seriously overstated there, but it is true that I dislike *most* foods. Before I changed things upside down, my favorite saying was: "I can taste the green!!" And it's true, I could.

I hated every vegetable known to man (just about), except for carrots, potatoes, and all different kinds of beans. If it was green, though? Gross! (except green beans, but I never claimed this made sense!!)

As I changed my eating habits and cut out all the sugar (boy was I spoiling my tastebuds BIG TIME), I noticed that my tastes have changed. A LOT. Over time, I've even developed a taste for SALADs. I seek them out sometimes, even. Gasp! Now, there's a lot of vegetables I just don't like and will never like, but I'm growing more and more into liking the "borderline" ones now. I even tried broccoli and "couldn't taste the green" and "almost" liked it. Almost. Work-in-progress.

Eating healthier has made me want healthier things.

So I'd say, maybe start slow and see what you like and how you like it. I still can't stand lettuce on a sandwich (I'm big on texture and that just grosses me out), but I can eat (most) salads now.

Plus, I started rationalizing trying vegetables with "These are lower calorie. By eating this rubbish, I can eat more STEAK *and* get a coffee after dinner!" I'd eat the things I didn't like first, then the stuff I loved was the "reward". A way to positively reinforce my behavior. Plus, coffee is my ultimate reward if I have the calories for it. COFFEE.

This is what worked for me!

Though it's done nothing for my coffee addiction, but I've cut down my coffees to 10 calories or less!

I don't really like vegetables, but most of 'em I don't hate, either. Like, I tolerate them, kind of? So I hear ya on the struggle.

I make what I call veggie and fruits salads, and basically have it as a side with almost every meal. Chop up a bunch of different veggies which you may not like but can stand to eat and dump them in a giant bowl, add one or two you don't like very much to the mix, add an apple and tomatoes or cucumbers, sometimes I do corn but not as much anymore (high sugar/carbs, but they make things nom!) a bit of salad spices (don,' go overboard, there could be a lot of salt) mix together, split into portions and add the dressing you feel like having just before you eat it (that way you can keep it for a couple days in the fridge).

The trick is to not overdo it with the dressing. If you like balsamic vinegar, that's a good one to try and use. Drop of it and a drop of maple syrup in about a cup and a half of that veggie salad.

When I don't have enough time, I just pick up whatever's fastest to fix (usually spinach and a tomato) and down it before my meal. So I'm over and done with it.

Frozen vegetables are also a decent way to start. I just nukle mine in the microwave for like 4 mins from the frozen state. Sometimes add a bit of spices but most of the time just keep them natural. The taste/texture is a lot milder, so it's easier to get accustomed to it.

Steamed broccoli and carrots are amazing and even if you don't like it for yourself, feed it to your child

I love stirfry's for a good dose of veggies. I don't use oil just season with chilli, garlic, ginger and 1 tsp of tamari sauce. Delicious!

I've always struggled with some Raw veggies (peppers, onions, celery, carrots) but I find that steamed veggies are really good. I can only eat regular carrots cooked, but baby carrots I can do raw and especially steamed. I'll under steam things just to give them a little bit of softness but still maintain their crunch which works for me. I have to agree with doing veggies in different ways though, start off with smoothies .. or try to 'hide' veggies in things. I hear there's a lot of versatility/ability to replace things with cauliflower such as making 'mashed potatoes' with them, or as a replacement as rice in some dishes.

Good luck with your veggies!

I'm not a fan to too many raw vegetables, but roasted vegetables? I love roasted vegetables... Have you tried them that way? Just lightly coat with olive oil and sea salt and throw in the oven. Can do with broccoli and then add some lemon juice at the end. I also love roasted red pepper with goat cheese on top.

For your child-cheddar cheese on top of any steamed veggie work wonders with my boys. Now the will eat veggies raw. All kids like spaghetti, don't they? I have finely chopped zucchini, raw spinach, and even broccoli and added it to the sauce. The blending, then mixing it in stuff is also a great idea. Also, once I cooked cut in half brussel sprouts with a bit of coconut oil and threw in a Tbs of bacon bits. My 11 year old ate mine and I had to make more! I just cooked it in the frying pan til the sprouts were a bright green and still a bit crunchy. Also mix mashed cauliflower in Mac and cheese. Good luck!

Vinegar.. Works a treat with greens.

Vinegar.. Works a treat with greens.

Yes! I read through all the suggestions and was about to add this. Sauté greens and add an acid: vinegar or lemon juice. I was almost 50 before I learned to love cooked greens because I didn't know to do this. For stir fry, how about adding a stir fry sauce if you have the calories and roasting or grilling, as others have said, is another good way to get lots of veggies in.

Experiment! Raw with dip. Grated and added to other foods. Cheese on top. You'll learn to love them.

ETA: Lemon juice is a good addition to lots of vegetables.

One thing I have come to realize is that veggies get borins so quickly. I used to just steam them, as we mostly ate brocolli, asparagus, brussel sprouts, artichokes, and cauliflower. Those are all great but very limiting and boring. I learned to cook veggies in various ways. I check allrecipes.com and transfer the ones that I like to an app for my nook so I can have the recipe there in the kitchen while I cook it. It has worked well for me. A couple of our favs are eggplant parmesean and asparagus parmesean. Sauteed zucchini is pretty good. The amazing thing is is that they are pretty easy to make, well the eggplant is a little more involved but still not difficult to do. It is more of a side dish for when you have a little more time to cook like a day off.

I don't like veggies. I don't like the way they taste, I don't like the texture.

I'm trying to find ways to eat them healthily (read: not cooked to death and soaked in butter), and so far I mostly like spinach. In things. Sometimes. I not only want to eat more healthy food, but I also want to model better eating habits to the child (almost four). I just have no idea now to start.

Just now, I wanted a sandwich. I didn't want the bread, so I tried this lettuce wrap thing. It was tolerable, but it took me ten minutes to even take the first bite.

Well done for wanting to change for the sake of your child, I wish more people were like you. That doesn't sound like just disliking produce, ten minutes sounds bordering on food phobia. If so it would be worth seeking medical support for that. How can you dislike all textures, a cooked mushroom is totally different from a raw bell pepper, roasted carrot totally different to raw carrot for example?

I just kept tasting healthy foods prepared in different ways until I liked or could tolerate a reasonable selection. Still don't eat much of the one texture/ taste I really loathe: cooked squash and (most) cooked root vegetables. I can eat a whole lot more vegetables with some sort of sauce than plain - South Asian curry, cheese, East Asian stir fry, stews/ casseroles, tomato and veg pasta sauce, smoothies, soups, dips, non leafy salads like coleslaw with dressing and so on.

Sounds a bit OCD/ eccentric (and it is!) but it helps me to select what I buy and eat partly based on the colour groups - blue/ purple, red, green, yellow/ orange. I guess it reminds me I am doing it for health and it certainly forces me to eat more dark green stuff. I also looked up the nutrient content of many (partly for my work in lifestyle healthcare) and I just don't bother with foods I don't really like that are not really nutritious such as cucumber.