Real adults eat (and enjoy) their vegetables
Healthy fare without resorting to tricks
How many of you have memories of a vegetable (or two or 10) that you couldn’t stand when you were growing up? All of you? That’s what I thought. For me it was beets and lima beans. Couldn’t even look at them much less bring them on a fork to my mouth.
Apparently my distaste was so dramatic that my family made up a song to get me to eat my beets.
No kidding. In fact they still pull that old chestnut out and sing it once in awhile just to tease me.
As parents, we all try many tricks to get our kids to eat their vegetables.
Nearly a decade ago, food and lifestyle guru Sissy Biggers said of the practice of sneaking dreaded foods into recipes: “I think since the cave woman, moms have been grinding, puréeing, folding, layering to get their kids to eat something.”
We’d all like to think that we could get our kids to enjoy veggies just as they are without resorting to deception.
Personally, I think they are simply an acquired taste — one that some people never acquire.
My dad never cared much for them and as President George H.W. Bush famously said, “I do not like broccoli.
“And I haven't liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I’m president of the United States, and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli.”
However, kids are smart. Trying to cajole our kids to eat spinach, I served Stouffer’s spinach soufflé often when they were growing up.
My son said recently that for the longest time when he was little, he thought spinach was that spinach soufflé and not a leafy fresh green.
He wasn’t fooled about its being a vegetable, though and he still doesn’t like spinach.
But peppers — that’s another thing. He loves all kinds of peppers and hot pepper sauces and cooks with them often.
Our other kids also now cook vegetables in all sorts of delicious ways.
One of my daughters packs fresh veggies into her yummy quiches. Another regularly platters an enormous bouquet of roasted veggies — as beautiful as an Old Masters still life. And the other daughter, once the pickiest eater, now artfully adorns her plates with vegetables.
Some adults I know still are adamant about avoiding their least favorite plant foods. One friend, a real prankster, despises peas, so I’ve been known to serve a lovely bowl exclusively for him (really for entertainment).
During a recent visit I made to my sister’s, my darling niece Sadie prepared dinner for a family gathering.
Although she had not intended it to be a vegetarian meal, that’s how it turned out once she had chosen a few of her favorite recipes.
Now I ask, what’s better than when your kids or others in your extended family finally get out on their own and cook for you?
Sadie’s entrée mixed two of my favorite veggies — sweet potatoes and corn — into little cakes, a recipe I couldn’t wait to try when I arrived back home. And armed with a new spiralizer from Christmas, she spiralized cucumbers for a refreshing Greek salad.
(I, too, have a new spiralizer I’d been wanting to try.)
Of late I’ve been having fun experimenting with a Himalayan salt block — mostly with seafood and meats.
I hadn’t tried baking on it yet and then I found an apple onion tart that looked enticing to test out. It turned out great and seems a perfect accompaniment to a veggie-oriented spring gathering.
In making the tart twice, I found that the earthy mineral salt flavor infuses the tart more if you leave it on the block to serve.
Transferring it to a platter, as I did at first, doesn’t allow enough time for the tart to sit and draw up the salt, so the result wasn’t as flavorful as I would have thought.
This is kind of a general rule with the block, that as it sits and cools, the ancient element continues to heighten the dish.
But things can become too salty as well, so it’s good to experiment with the level of saline flavor you prefer for whatever you’re serving.
Add a few fresh berries and melon to your feast and some Pinot Noir or Pinot Gris to complement the dishes and you’re all set.