Ever meet one of those people who hates vegetables?  Or they only like certain vegetables like corn and potatoes?  Or they come back with, “Yeah I had that once and didn’t like it.”, therefore totally dismissing the veggie never to try it again.

I’ve come across many people like this.  Most of them are very hard to convince to try something.  Shaking their head and pushing it away like they’re a toddler.

What I want to tell them is try the veggie again using a different cooking method.  Different cooking methods bring out different tastes in the vegetable.  Roasted cauliflower tastes totally different than steamed cauliflower, which tastes totally different than boiled cauliflower.

The best example I have for this situation is the relationship between me and carrots.  Oh cooked carrots were vile vile things.  Mushy and totally flavorless unless you were lucky enough to get some that tasted like basement.  Mmmm tasty!

But raw carrots I love!  Love them!  So I thought, “Andrea this is ridiculous, you love carrots so there must be a way to enjoy cooked carrots.”  And I worked on it till I found out what I liked.  I love roasted carrots.  I also love carrots that have been roasting with something else, like a chicken or porkchops.

My point being that before you write-off a vegetable completely give it a few chances to woo you.  And yes I’m realistic, I know there are going to be some things that no matter what, are not going to be tasty.  We all have those!  Mine tends to be mushrooms even though they are not technically a veggie but a fungus, they do seem to be included in all veggie things.  Have you noticed that?  I hate mushrooms and even covered in glorious cheese, I find them repulsive.  I don’t mind cooking with them and have no problem picking them out of something because their taste doesn’t affect the overall dish to me.  Unlike olives, for example, which corrupt everything they touch.  Ick.

When I purchase a veggie that I have not had before I tend to go with the roasting method first.  I really like roasted veggies and it’s the safest technique for me to try out.  Unless it’s greens, then I go the soup or noodle dish route.  Doing this  introduces me to the veggie and tells me about it’s taste and texture.  Then once I have that down I can play with the veggie a little bit more figuring out how I like it and how I might not like it.

So many people claim to not like veggies or they have a huge list of veggies they don’t like that it makes me wonder if they’ve really given the veggies a chance?  If you’ve only ever had jellied cooked carrots that your Aunt Peggy makes for every family function, then how do you know what a cooked carrot really tastes like if you’ve never tried it outside of that one dish?  Give veggies a chance!  Expand your palate and try cooking the veggies in different ways.  Maybe you’ll discover a new love!