For a few months now, I've made it a point to try a new vegetable every time I go to the grocery store (so, about once a week. Okay, exactly once a week, on Thursdays, right after spinning and boot camp are done at 9:00... what can I say? I'm a creature of habit.)
Most recently I've tried the following:
Napa cabbage (meh, but I probably didn't cook it properly)
Kohlrabi (meh)
Pattypan squash (not exactly new, but reintroduced after a long hiatus, and yum!)
Collard greens (yum, but they don't count as a vegetable if they're cooked in BACON FAT)
Chinese yard-long beans (also not new, but I've never cooked them myself -- and yum)
Rapini (yuck the first time, yum the second)
Fava beans (yum!)
Fennel (yum!)
Leeks (yum, after a lifetime of loathing)
I like almost all other vegetables with the exception of the poor eggplant, which makes my tongue itch. I adore brussels sprouts.
Last week there was a challenge on another website I visit (and shall remain anonymous, because I'm about to mock them) where members were asked to try a new vegetable that week. I was shocked by the results.
One member tried asparagus, which she had had before, but only in butter and garlic, and this time she had it with balsamic vinegar. She thought it was okay and might try it again.
Another member had broccoli, but this time she added it to her pasta, and normally she just makes it on the side. She really really liked this.
Oh, and a third member had sweet potatoes for the first time and counted that as her new vegetable.
There are actually people in this world who do not eat vegetables as a staple part of their daily diet. There are people who count iceberg lettuce on a hamburger as a veggie serving. Some people never eat anything that once had roots, grew in soil, gathered sunlight and nourishment from the earth, photosynthesized, grew seeds, grew leaves, or was harvested, unless it comes in the form of a loaf of white bread or a potato chip.
The Canada Food Guide recommends five to ten servings of fruit and vegetables per day. One serving is half a cup of fresh, frozen, or canned vegetable or a medium piece of fruit. Even a half of a cup of juice counts as a serving. How can so many people fall so desperately short of these guidelines when it's so easy and tasty to meet them?
I wonder what delights await me in the produce aisle this week! I challenge everyone to do the same: try something new, keep an open mind, and let me know how it went!
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6 comments:
I'm so weird -- I tend to have salads daily, and rarely make cooked veggie side dishes. I really should, so I can try some more of the exotic veggies that hit the produce section.
I am going to start a fruit challenge. I tend to exist with primarily bananas and berries, but I am going to try to mix it up more this month. Whoo!
I grew up in NL on a diet of meat,fish,potatoes, carrots, cabbage and the odd vegetable thrown in here and there. Salads were unheard of in my family and I was rarely exposed to new and exotic fruits. To this day, I strongly dislike vegetables and I actually take the lettuce and tomato of my burger and have never tasted a sweet potato, even though I make them for Luca. I wouldn't know Pattypan squash or Kohlrabi if it hit me in the face. :)
Now that I have a kid and an illness, I'm trying to eat healthy but it is so hard to break old habits and I tend to stick to what I know (carrots, lettuce, potatoe).
I guess I need to start a challenge of my own. Hopefully I'll find stuff I love and expand my menu.
I think it must be a western thing not to try exotic vegetables. I know people who have grown up with steak and potatoes and think carrots are exotic. I grew up eating a lot of different kinds of veggies, especially dark green veggies, and I thought I was always picky about vegetables until I started talking to other people.
Again, apologies on the late posting here. I'm like Raquel though come summer we did have more veggies like peas, beans and corn because it came from the garden. Salads only were served when we had steak. I still have to force myself to eat veggies. I don't mind veggies, but most of the time I just can't be bothered to eat them.
Kohlrabi - how did you prepare it? I prefer it raw, peeled and sliced and with salt. YUMMYYYYYYY :)
I tried rapini a while back and also thought it was yuck, and I've yet to try it again. I think the secret is to blanch it first, but it was so icky I can't bring myself to put it in the cart.
I love broccolini. It's like a cross between asparagus and broccoli. I like to buy the various kinds of bok choy and try them out raw or cooked. I love buying whatever fancy mushrooms are in season and making vegetarian meals with them -- so good.
Belgian endives are yum, especially grilled.
I love trying new veggies! The only big failure I've had, besides the rapini, was fenne -- not the green fluffy tops, but the actual bulbs. Mike made a fennel-and-onion grilled salad and it seriously tasted like charred, crunchy licorice. Really gross.
Treava, burnt licorice does sound gross. I think fennel is the trendy vegetable of the year, though -- I must give it another shot.
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