I always thought I didn't like vegetables. The dreaded frozen "mix" - corn, carrots, and peas, or worse... cauliflower, brocolli, and carrots. (Is there a more pointless vegetable to a child than cauliflower?) Lima beans in any form were a close second.
All of these were staples of my 1970's childhood, along with vaguely brown-tinted 'green beans' from a can that were so soft they were practically pre-digested. I would sit at the dinner table for an hour, alone, picking at piles of cold, bland vegetables, not even thinking of dessert - just thinking that I really did not want to eat what was on my plate.
There are books now that teach parents how to 'hide' veggies in other foods - to disguise them. But as adults, those children won't think they like eating veggies any more than I did. Not even Whole Foods Brownie Bites contain hidden amounts of zucchini puree...
HOW I LEARNED TO LOVE MY VEGGIES
The revelation happened slowly. Travel helped. In the South of France, a real Salade Nicoise contains soft, flavorful butter lettuce leaves, crispy raw or blanched thin green beans, hard boiled eggs, vine-ripe cherry tomatoes, sweet small yellow potatoes, mild tuna belly, and fresh, still-silvery anchovy fillets. This is tossed with a caper-laced red-wine vinegar dressing and served as a meal. Think you don't like anchovies? Here, they provide the salt with added protein - mixed in they are barely distinguishable. The perfect balance of carbs, protein, and fiber - heavy on flavor. The whole is definitely greater than the sum of the parts!
In Germany, 'salad' doesn't necessarily mean 'lettuce'. Shredded carrots and plump raisins in a light sweet dressing is a salad. So is tomatoes diced with white onions in a vinegrette. So is paper-thin slices of English cucumbers (which actually have flavor) tossed with a creamy-dill sauce. So is a tangy multi-bean mix with onions and carrots. So is shredded cabbage tossed with a sweet cream sauce. You get the idea.
And then there was the revelation that is BistroMD - a diet meal-delivery service that gets the top ratings for food quality and flavor. 1/5 to 2/3 of each meal is comprised of vegetables... and it was the final piece of the puzzle. I DO like vegetables after all! I just do not like bland, over-cooked, soggy vegetables.
I think - my opinion - this is why we have such a tortured relationship with vegetables:
1. We got rich. Rich nations eat much more animal protein than poorer ones - outside the developed world, meat is a once-per-week luxury, or only for celebrations. We can afford to eat tons of meat, so we do.
2. We are obsessed with innovation. i.e., we were primed to see TV dinners, processed foods, and fast food as 'good', even while the majority of whole-food-oriented cultures see them as 'fake' foods.
3. We lack a homogeneous native cuisine. Agricultural cultures developed traditional dishes that survive the test of time... typically these are flavorful and combine local ingredients for which the local people have developed a taste.
And maybe most importantly...
4. We forgot how to season our food.
Somewhere along the way, perhaps in our rush to get dinner on the table because we are now predominantly two-income households or singletons working long hours, we forgot that opening a can of peas, or beans, and heating it in a pot is not what it means to eat vegetables. Nor is drowning chemically-treated iceberg lettuce, flavorless hothouse-grown tomatoes, and flavorless short, thick American cucumbers (versus the longer, thinner English cucumbers) in a 1/2 cup of fat-free Ranch dressing.
- Try dicing up some zucchini, heat in a pan for 10 minutes, then toss with some jarred natural tomato-basil pasta sauce for a super-quick side dish, or add more sauce and pour over pasta. Only in modern America is this considered a way to "hide" vegetables in one's food. When did finding complimentary flavors become something secretive?! Weird.
- Dump a can of Kidney beans, a can of Northern White beans, chopped raw French green beans and scallions together in a boll and toss with a dijon vinegrette for an addictively crunchy, yummy dish I challange even the most die-hard carnivore to dislike. You'll be sneaking bites from the fridge of this one - I promise.
- I hated asparagus - until I learned that lemon juice counteracts the bitter flavor... now, I steam asparagus and sprinkle with "Real Lemon" brand crystalized lemon juice over it instead of salt, and I like it quite a bit, thank you! (Or do as the Germans do, and make a velvety cream of asparagus soup with WHITE aspaaragus - grown underground, it lacks the chlorophil that makes the green ones bitter.)
What do all of these ideas have in common? They start with raw veggies, and they end without butter, salt, and pepper as the seasoning. We have got to make the decision that it is worth an extra 15 minutes to get dinner on the table, to buy whole foods and season them, instead of dumping a can in a pot.
CHILDREN WHO LIKE VEGGIES BECOME ADULTS WHO LIKE VEGGIES
Speaking of asparagus (or Brussels sprouts, for that matter). A few years ago, I learned that people's tastebuds change over time... infants and young children, for example, taste bitter foods as even more bitter - presumedly a natural protection that would prompt a toddler to spit them out because poisonous plants disproportionately tend to taste bitter. Conventional wisdom - as well as research I've anecdotally heard in recent radio reports (NPR, in particular) - is that you have to introduce a food to a child up to 13 times before you can be certain the child does not like that food. I don't know many American parents who try to get a child to eat a food more than two or three times, let alone thirteen!
Then there's the advent of the "children't menu". Chicken tenders - the scourge of modern society! Frozen to plate in three minutes, and 99.9% of children will eat them without protest. They lack the stigma of fast-food when prepared at home, even if they are loaded with fillers and covered in breading just like popular drive-through options.
I've traveled a lot, and NOWHERE else I've been, in East Asia, South Asia, North Africa, or Continental Europe, do children get catered-to (pun intended) the way American children are, when it comes to food! Picky eaters are a 'first-world problem' to a great extent... and that means we can change things!
Children are given to eat what adults are given, with few exceptions. In France, what Americans consider 'stinky cheese' is eaten by small children. In Belgium, kids eat mussels. In Germany, it's blood sausage. In Thailand, it's crispy whole fish. And in America, children eat... peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, chicken nuggets, and pizza?!
Certainly economics is in play... It is more expensive to buy fresh foods than fast foods or processed foods. And in urban areas, it can be challenging to find a full grocery store, versus a corner market or worse, a 'drug store' chain without any fresh food options.
CHANGING THE END GAME
But this is separate from the question of how to increase our consumption of vegetables on a voluntary basis - i.e., because we actually like them. Vegetables should not be seen as, or used as, punishment. Children and adults in the US are cut from the same genetic cloth as those in Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America. And you don't have to be a self-described hipster-'foodie'-snob to experiment with vegetables - my Goodhousekeeping 1945 cookbook provides plenty of vegetable dishes that are way more appealing than what I grew up eating (sorry Mom!), that use basic pantry staples.
You do have to spend a little more time in the kitchen - but really, it's very little. The dividends will pay off today, and in a decade, and in fifty years, when you and your children are healthier - and more importantly, do not view the largest nutritonal food source on the planet as something to wrinkle up your nose at!
Final thoughts:
1) If you buy a vegetable that you end up not liking... so what? Try something new once a week - butternut squash, leeks, nappa cabbage - as part of a side dish, and if you aren't crazy about it, try it in other dishes.
2) Don't give up trying. Cauliflower is disgusting... unless it's cooked in an Indian curry! Took me thirty years and dozens of tastes of other people's dishes and restaurant food to figure that one out. I hated mushrooms until I was 27. Now I love them. I hated olives till I was in my early 30's, and I still hate big green olives stuffed with pimentos - but Castelvetranos, Nicoise, and Kalamatas? Can't get enough of 'em.
3) Use appetizers to experiment. In a chef-owned restaurant (i.e., not a chain) you can often find unique seasonal veggies on the menu - try ordering the salad with pea shoots and shimeji mushrooms... it's an inexpensive way to try new foods that you may not - or may - like.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Epicurious.com - recipes collected from the best food magazines, providing the widest range i've seen.
Cookinglight.com - fantastic original recipes and classics revamped for health-conciousness.
Recipe.com ------->
Supercook.com----> These 3 sites let you plug a list of ingredients in, and suggests receipes
Recipekey.com---->
One to get you started... 1000+ people have given this roasted veggie side dish top ratings:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/roasted-vegetables/
And finally, that awesomely addictive 3-bean salad (Cooking Light magazine):
1/4 c. cider vinegar
3 Tbsp. grated onion
1 Tbsp. sugar
3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 tsp. minced garlic
1/2 tsp. dry mustard (e.g., Coleman's)
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp. kosher or sea salt (non-iodized)
1 lb. green beans, trimmed (French-style recommended)
1/2 cup minced red onion (i.e., small sized)
1/2 cup chopped fresh flat leaf (Italian) parsley
1/3 cup sliced green onions (scallions)
1 can (~15-16oz) Great Northern beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (~15 oz) kidney beans, rinsed and drained
Combine first 9 ingredients in a small bowl, and blend well with a whisk or fork.
Steam green beans, covered, 5 minutes or till crisp-tender. Drain and rinse with cold water and drain.
Cut beans into 1-inch pieces, and transfer to a large bowl. Add red onion and remaining ingredients to bowl. Add vinegar mixture to bean misture, and toss to coat. Cover and chill 4 hours or more. (Even better the second day... in my experience, keeps well for a week in the fridge, covered.)
Yields 7 one-cup servings.
Calories per serving: 207
Fat: 7g (saturated 1g; monounsaturated 4.8g, polyunsaturated .9g)
Protein: 8.5g
Carbs: 29.7g
Fiber: 9.2g
Sodium 368mg
