Lots of ways to eat Veggies!

[Sheryl Valentine]

Hi Friends,

OMG! My latest Juice concoction is so good!  I used 6 to 8 (can’t remember…uh oh ;) large carrots and 2 large apples, and here’s the best part, a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice!  It tastes fantastic!  

I had an interesting conversation with someone yesterday regarding the various ways to eat vegetables.  Often when it comes to fruits and vegetables people will say that they don’t like, let’s say, Brussels sprouts, or broccoli, or something like that and never eat it.  Most of my life I didn’t like vegetables and I’ve realized that it’s because I was brought up on canned or over-cooked veggies.  Yuck!  About the only vegetable I did like was canned corn.

Over the last several years I have discovered that vegetables taste completely different based on preparation.  A few years ago, even before I discovered the raw food movement, I somehow got into eating broccoli, cauliflower and colored bell peppers raw and discovered that they tasted great! I love them with fresh Brushetta from Trader Joes, and I often mix them in with Persian cucumbers.

            If you’ve been avoiding certain veggies because you don’t like them, try them a new way. Here are some discoveries I’ve made regarding veggies:

Celery and carrots: I do not like these veggies raw or cooked, but I LOVE them juiced!

Bell Peppers: The red, yellow and orange taste wonderful raw and can be used in salads or as a sort of bread for tuna or other things.  I like yellow and orange peppers cooked, but red ones are best raw or roasted, and green ones of course, are better cooked.

Broccoli and Cauliflower: I like both raw. If cooked they taste best very lightly steamed, but this isn’t my favorite way to eat them.  Recently I discovered roasted cauliflower! Wow!  I put the raw cauliflower (haven’t tried this yet with broccoli), in a large baggie with olive oil, sea salt, pepper and powdered parmesan cheese.  Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 to 30 minutes.  It becomes caramelized and is very yummy.

Asparagus is another veggie that I have never cared for but roasted it’s fantastic.  I sometimes roast the asparagus, red, yellow or orange bell peppers and sweet onions.  These roast in about 15 to 20 minutes and I use the same ingredients as in the cauliflower. Served with a baked potato with skin, it makes for a hearty dinner.

Yesterday a friend asked me if I liked Brussels sprouts, and I said, “No, they have a weird taste.”  She suggested I try them roasted and said that they come out fantastic. She buys a bag of them from Trader Joes and then uses a recipe by “The Barefoot Contessa”, here it is:

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

1999, The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, All Rights Reserved

Prep Time:

10 min

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds Brussels sprouts

3 tablespoons good olive oil

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Cut off the brown ends of the Brussels sprouts and pull off any yellow outer leaves. Mix them in a bowl with the olive oil, salt and pepper. Pour them on a sheet pan and roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. Shake the pan from time to time to brown the sprouts evenly. Sprinkle with more kosher salt ( I like these salty like French fries), and serve immediately.

My friend also recommended buying a bag of cut up butternut squash, also from TJ’s and for the whole bag she puts in a pat of butter and salt and cinnamon and roasts for 45 minutes.  I’ll have to try these 2 recipes.

Potatoes often get a bad rap but when eaten baked and with the skin it is a very healthy food.  I haven’t tried sweet potatoes and yams because traditionally those are foods that I don’t think I like because I don’t like “sweet” foods like that, but it’s time to try them again!

Also I’ve just finished reading The Fresh Energy Cookbook by Natalia Rose and it has some wonderful recipes in it.  One is for roasted beets which sounds like something I really have to try!

That’s all for now.  Enjoy!

[Sheryl Valentine]

ya...we keep marching on ;)

[Mae Jardine]

I enjoyed your article very much, Sheryl.  I'm guessing there are others like me reading your post  that were raised eating mostly boiled vegetables.   Way back when I was a young mother learning to cook for my family, it never entered my mind you could roast vegetables unless they surrounded a meat roast.  I'm still grateful for the influence of a magazine called "Vegetarian Times" that helped educated me in healthy eating.  I do give my parents credit for always cultivating a huge garden each year and all their hard work freezing and home canning their harvest.

[Devona]

Love it!

[Penni]

Hahhahhaaa - I see you already did!! YAY!

[Penni]

This is great!!  I hope you'll post this over at RESET too!