Vegetables "No One" Likes

[enurmi]

I've been thinking a lot lately about vegetables. (Not a sentence I really thought I'd ever utter)

Mainly, I've been thinking about those poor forlorn vegetables that "everyone" dismisses at the grocery.

So that got me thinking about two questions I wanted to ask the eGulleteers:

1) Just who is this elusive "no one"/"everyone"?

2) What vegetables are universally scorned, but liked by you, and how do you prep them?

Here's my list:

Brussels Sprouts-- roasted with sea salt or lightly boiled with fresh parmigiano

Beets-- roasted

Broccoli-- fried in olive oil in a hothot pan, then sort of steamed w/ the lid on

Asparagus-- roasted

Cauliflower-- roasted or pureed

Peas-- fresh english ones, boiled with sea salt and butter

Cabbage-- boiled in milk/cream with butter

Radishes-- fresh or pickled in rice wine vinegar

Zucchini-- fried with parmigiano or baked in anything (zucchini bread, mmm...)

Mushrooms-- sauteed

[srhcb]

poor forlorn vegetables that "everyone" dismisses at the grocery.

←

How about turnips (I've never bought them either)

Or rutabega (good in pastys or boiled dinner)

[SuzySushi]

I've been thinking a lot lately about vegetables. (Not a sentence I really thought I'd ever utter)

Mainly, I've been thinking about those poor forlorn vegetables that "everyone" dismisses at the grocery.

So that got me thinking about two questions I wanted to ask the eGulleteers:

1) Just who is this elusive "no one"/"everyone"?

2) What vegetables are universally scorned, but liked by you, and how do you prep them?

Here's my list:

Brussels Sprouts-- roasted with sea salt or lightly boiled with fresh parmigiano

Beets-- roasted

Broccoli-- fried in olive oil in a hothot pan, then sort of steamed w/ the lid on

Asparagus-- roasted

Cauliflower-- roasted or pureed

Peas-- fresh english ones, boiled with sea salt and butter

Cabbage-- boiled in milk/cream with butter

Radishes-- fresh or pickled in rice wine vinegar

Zucchini-- fried with parmigiano or baked in anything (zucchini bread, mmm...)

Mushrooms-- sauteed

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Who is the "no one"/"everyone" on your list? With the exception of cabbage, which I can take or leave, all those are among my favorite vegetables!

I'd agree with srhcb about most Americans avoiding old-fashioned root vegetables such as turnips, rutabagas, and parsnips for that matter, either because they don't know what to do with them, or because they had bad experiences with them in childhood!

Turnips are popular in French and Japanese dishes, however, and parsnips are great in soups and stews or roasted with carrots. I don't believe I've ever tasted a rutabaga, and it's rare to see them in the markets where I live.

[srhcb]

I don't believe I've ever tasted a rutabaga, and it's rare to see them in the markets where I live.

←

I*'m not surprised, since rutabaga, since are native to colder climates. They migrated from Scandinavian countries to the British Isles into the Northern Midwest states.

My old friend "Martoon", when he was in 4H, grew a rutabaga in his sandbox that weighed over 14 pounds! It easily won the Blue Ribbon at the County Fair that year. In fact, it was so big that Martoon, who was good at math, figured he could have cut his giant rutabaga in two and won both the First and Third Place Ribbons with the pieces.

Cutting it in two would have best been accomplished with a chain saw though, since rutabaga, when they get large, have the consistency of a block of wood.

SB (Growing rutabaga in Hawaii would be like growing pineapple in Minnesota )

[shellfishfiend]

Brussels Sprouts-- roasted or steamed (just discovered these last year)

Beets-- roasted or pickle

Broccoli--raw or steamed

Asparagus-- steamed

Cauliflower-- raw is my favorite way to eat this

Cabbage--boiled or pickled (kimchee or kraut)

Radishes-- pickled or raw if daikon

Mushrooms-- raw, roasted or boiled in seafood seasoning

Okra--I love okra! Boil it. Roast it. Pickle it. Cook it up with tomatoes.

Anytime I see a new fruit or vegetable, I will buy it and try it. Sadly, where I live, there are not often alot of new things to try.

[SuzySushi]

I don't believe I've ever tasted a rutabaga, and it's rare to see them in the markets where I live.

←

My old friend "Martoon", when he was in 4H, grew a rutabaga in his sandbox that weighed over 14 pounds! It easily won the Blue Ribbon at the County Fair that year. In fact, it was so big that Martoon, who was good at math, figured he could have cut his giant rutabaga in two and won both the First and Third Place Ribbons with the pieces.

Cutting it in two would have best been accomplished with a chain saw though, since rutabaga, when they get large, have the consistency of a block of wood.

SB (Growing rutabaga in Hawaii would be like growing pineapple in Minnesota )

←

What a great story!

[Pan]

[...]Here's my list:

Brussels Sprouts-- roasted with sea salt or lightly boiled with fresh parmigiano

Beets-- roasted

Broccoli-- fried in olive oil in a hothot pan, then sort of steamed w/ the lid on

Asparagus-- roasted

Cauliflower-- roasted or pureed

Peas-- fresh english ones, boiled with sea salt and butter

Cabbage-- boiled in milk/cream with butter

Radishes-- fresh or pickled in rice wine vinegar

Zucchini-- fried with parmigiano or baked in anything (zucchini bread, mmm...)

Mushrooms-- sauteed

←

I like brussels sprouts best when they're absolutely KILLED by boiling or when they're broiled really robustly. They are very bitter. I've found that as I've gotten older, though, I've liked them more. I used to absolutely hate them, until my father found that if he overboiled them, they were OK with me.

Broccoli is good simply steamed, but if you want a delicious Italian recipe (I believe this is based on Ada Boni's Talismano della Felicita'), saute plenty of finely sliced onions in extra-virgin olive oil to caramelize, then chopped up broccoli (including the stem, sliced lengthwise and cut widthwise), add a full-bodied red wine (I believe Valpolicella was in the original recipe), then add plenty of freshly-ground pepper, and top with provolone or another good melting cheese of your choice (fior di latte is not as tasty but is OK).

There are all sorts of great ways to cook cauliflower, which is one of my favorite vegetables. I'm not even going to start, except to mention that if you haven't considered cooking it in an Indian style, it's a good idea. Au gratin can be nice, too. Or, again, simply steamed -- if it's good cauliflower, the delicious sweetness will come through.

I like cabbage (especially red cabbage) sauteed with onions, caraway seeds, and slices of a robust apple like Granny Smith. You can add some red wine. Perhaps ludja already mentioned this. Very good traditional Austrian recipe.

Zucchini is delicious sauteed in EVOO with caramelized onions, and you can add tomatoes if you like. It's also good to make a sauce like that (with a greater amount of tomatoes if you so desire) and serve it on pasta.

My favorite mushroom dish is Funghi Trifolati. You slice them up and heat them so they give up their water, then reduce the water to about nothing. Then, add the olive oil and sautee them for a while. Add plenty of lemon juice (lemon zest is also good) and plenty of pepper. Some anchovy paste is a great ingredient, too. And when it's done, have it with your zucchini or broccoli dish and some nice secondo. Make sure to use a couple of containers of mushrooms if you're buying them in the supermarket; they really reduce drastically in size when you cook the water out of them.

[Pan]

Brussels Sprouts-- roasted or steamed (just discovered these last year)

Beets-- roasted or pickle

Broccoli--raw or steamed 

Asparagus-- steamed

Cauliflower-- raw is my favorite way to eat this

Cabbage--boiled or pickled (kimchee or kraut)

Radishes-- pickled or raw if daikon

Mushrooms-- raw, roasted or boiled in seafood seasoning

Okra--I love okra! Boil it. Roast it. Pickle it. Cook it up with tomatoes.[...]

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I like okra, too. There are very strong pro and con opinions about that vegetable here.

I happen to hate raw broccoli and cauliflower, and I much prefer mushrooms cooked, too. It's all down to personal taste. Asparagus is good steamed but also good broiled with some balsamic vinegar!

[phatj]

I like most vegetables raw, and I find that most cooking preparations make them worse.

[Pan]

I like most vegetables raw, and I find that most cooking preparations make them worse.

←

I like the following vegetables raw:

Cucumbers

Lettuce

Really good tomatoes

Really good arugula

Really good radicchio

Really fresh carrots and celery (must not have any spoiled water taste)

And that's really pretty much it.

And all of these vegetables can be cooked very nicely. Probably the only vegetables that I would strongly argue are better not cooked are really high-quality dark or red-leaf lettuce and really good carrots or celery. OK, probably really good arugula, too. Cucumbers are great raw but actually do quite well in Chinese stirfries. Iceberg lettuce and radicchio are both good cooked. The Cantonese make very good braised dishes with iceberg.

[Gruzia]

i'm a big fan of raw zucchini - I don't like the texture when they are cooked.

[BarbaraY]

i'm a big fan of raw zucchini - I don't like the texture when they are cooked.

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Now that just shows how different people can be. I'm exactly opposite. I don't like the texture of raw zucchini but love it sauteed with garlic in a little olive oil. It's a family favorite and we have it at least once a week.

I love almost all vegetables. A lot depends on how they're prepared.

I'm surprised to see asparagus appear on the lists. I think it is one of the best vegetables there are. Had some last evening with our dinner.

[SheenaGreena]

I like all veggies - cooked and raw.

I like a lot of "mountain" and "spring" vegetables that are native to korea and prepared very very simply and served at room temperature. Unfortunately I have no clue what their names are, but I will assure that all are delicious.

I can only remember fern bracken and bell flower root

sweet potatos taste surprisingly good raw, anyone else agree?

[sazji]

Brussels Sprouts-- roasted, steamed then sauteed in olive oil with fresh lemon

Beets-- don't like 'em.

Broccoli-- any way. steamed, stir fried with oyster sauce, you name it.

Asparagus-- steamed and dressed with butter or olive oil and lemon. also soup

Cauliflower-- indian style, also deep fried and served with lemon tahini sauce

Peas-- boiled/steamed with butter.

Cabbage-- steamed and served as a warm salad with lemon, olive oil, red pepper, cumin, salt, pepper, mint.

Radishes-- fresh

Zucchini-- slice thin, fry till browned, add garlic, urfa pepper, tomato, parsley, cook till tomato is slightly soft, then pour over beaten eggs, and a handful of feta cheese. Cover and cook at lowest possible heat till just firm.

Mushrooms-- sauteed in butter, in sauces

[GordonCooks]

Personally, I like all the ones you list as passed over.

[tino27]

poor forlorn vegetables that "everyone" dismisses at the grocery.

←

How about turnips (I've never bought them either)

Or rutabega (good in pastys or boiled dinner)

←

Turnips -- I do a 1:1 ratio (by weight) of turnips and boiling potatoes to make my "mashed potatoes". I also use chicken stock in place of the milk, and throw in a little butter and fresh chives. It's quite delicious. Even my roommate, who isn't a very adventurous eater, really loves it, too.

[phatj]

I like the following vegetables raw:

Cucumbers

Lettuce

Really good tomatoes

Really good arugula

Really good radicchio

Really fresh carrots and celery (must not have any spoiled water taste)

And that's really pretty much it.

And all of these vegetables can be cooked very nicely. Probably the only vegetables that I would strongly argue are better not cooked are really high-quality dark or red-leaf lettuce and really good carrots or celery. OK, probably really good arugula, too. Cucumbers are great raw but actually do quite well in Chinese stirfries. Iceberg lettuce and radicchio are both good cooked. The Cantonese make very good braised dishes with iceberg.

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My problem with cooked vegetables in general is texture. I like the crispness of fresh veggies -- the crisper the better. In most cases, I don't find that the flavor is improved enough by cooking to make up for the mushier texture.

Of those you listed, I do like tomatoes, carrots and celery cooked. In the case of tomatoes, it's because they're normally fairly soft in texture when raw, and plus their flavor becomes transcendent with certain cooking preparations. Carrots and celery have enough structure that they can stand up to quite a bit of cooking and still have some toothiness.

[handmc]

Sadly jerusalem artichokes stop me cold. Father used to grow them in our garden when I was a kid and they grew like crazy. Try as I might I could not force them down.

Oh and Kolh Rabi, we grew great ones but the taste always made me gag.

I like growing them it always frustrated me that I did like them. My mom was a great cook and we tried them all sorts of ways.

Hmmmm, its been 15 years maybe its time to try them again...

[LindsayAnn]

Sadly jerusalem artichokes stop me cold. Father used to grow them in our garden when I was a kid and they grew like crazy. Try as I might I could not force them down.

Oh and Kolh Rabi, we grew great ones but the taste always made me gag.

I like growing them it always frustrated me that I did like them. My mom was a great cook and we tried them all sorts of ways.

Hmmmm, its been 15 years maybe its time to try them again...

←

Are artichokes jerusalem artichokes then? I dont know if that's the kind I buy, but I buy artichokes (whole, fresh) and cook them in water (either boil them...but usually not I dont want to take the time so I cut off the stem and place the choke in dish with just a half inch of water or so...place saran wrap over dish, and microwave for about 12 mins...a lil longer if its a huge artichoke.) Melt butter in a dish, pull off leaf by leaf dip in butter - yum.

The best part is the heart, get out all the nasty fuzzy stuff, and then you dip the heart in the butter, liberally.

How can you not like artichokes! AHHH I am not a huge veg. lover - but artichokes are to die for.....

I love it when restaurants have stuffed chokes (again, the whoke lovely thing stuffed liberally with bread crumbs, parmessan cheese and other fillers......delish - these are so rarely on restaurant menues due to the pain of cooking and eating! They take a lil work, both ends (to prepare and to enjoy)

But, then again, who said the good stuff in life was easy?

[GordonCooks]

Sadly jerusalem artichokes stop me cold. Father used to grow them in our garden when I was a kid and they grew like crazy. Try as I might I could not force them down.

Oh and Kolh Rabi, we grew great ones but the taste always made me gag.

I like growing them it always frustrated me that I did like them. My mom was a great cook and we tried them all sorts of ways.

Hmmmm, its been 15 years maybe its time to try them again...

←

Are artichokes jerusalem artichokes then? I dont know if that's the kind I buy, but I buy artichokes (whole, fresh) and cook them in water (either boil them...but usually not I dont want to take the time so I cut off the stem and place the choke in dish with just a half inch of water or so...place saran wrap over dish, and microwave for about 12 mins...a lil longer if its a huge artichoke.) Melt butter in a dish, pull off leaf by leaf dip in butter - yum.

The best part is the heart, get out all the nasty fuzzy stuff, and then you dip the heart in the butter, liberally.

How can you not like artichokes! AHHH I am not a huge veg. lover - but artichokes are to die for.....

I love it when restaurants have stuffed chokes (again, the whoke lovely thing stuffed liberally with bread crumbs, parmessan cheese and other fillers......delish - these are so rarely on restaurant menues due to the pain of cooking and eating! They take a lil work, both ends (to prepare and to enjoy)

But, then again, who said the good stuff in life was easy?

←

A different bird altogether - also called Sunchokes, the look like a ginger root and have the texture of a parsnip with a very starchy, mushroomy flavor. I use them a lot.

[eipi10]

I've been thinking a lot lately about vegetables. (Not a sentence I really thought I'd ever utter)

Mainly, I've been thinking about those poor forlorn vegetables that "everyone" dismisses at the grocery.

So that got me thinking about two questions I wanted to ask the eGulleteers:

1) Just who is this elusive "no one"/"everyone"?

2) What vegetables are universally scorned, but liked by you, and how do you prep them?

Here's my list:

Brussels Sprouts-- roasted with sea salt or lightly boiled with fresh parmigiano

Beets-- roasted

Broccoli-- fried in olive oil in a hothot pan, then sort of steamed w/ the lid on

Asparagus-- roasted

Cauliflower-- roasted or pureed

Peas-- fresh english ones, boiled with sea salt and butter

Cabbage-- boiled in milk/cream with butter

Radishes-- fresh or pickled in rice wine vinegar

Zucchini-- fried with parmigiano or baked in anything (zucchini bread, mmm...)

Mushrooms-- sauteed

←

Who is the "no one"/"everyone" on your list? With the exception of cabbage, which I can take or leave, all those are among my favorite vegetables!

I'd agree with srhcb about most Americans avoiding old-fashioned root vegetables such as turnips, rutabagas, and parsnips for that matter, either because they don't know what to do with them, or because they had bad experiences with them in childhood!

Turnips are popular in French and Japanese dishes, however, and parsnips are great in soups and stews or roasted with carrots. I don't believe I've ever tasted a rutabaga, and it's rare to see them in the markets where I live.

←

Rutabagas have amazing flavor. We used to eat them weekly where I grew up in rural Florida, mashed with a fork, drizzled in butter, and sprinkled in salt. Mmmm...sometimes you forget some of the benefits of living in a mostly awful place.

[Michaeltheonion]

I think Eggplants are the inly vegetable I have trouble with. I find that it really needs the most manipulatin toi reach anything near delicious. Think about them raw. They have the texture of a sponge. There is virtually no flavour at this point, and the skin is rough. This follows when you rill them. The actual flesh sort of nelts away leaving you with not much and the skin becomes stringy. I find the only way I like them is roasted and then spreadified ( al la bobbaganoush.) Im curious about their seed disersal method. Are they actually eaten by animals in the wild to bring the seeds to as many locations as possible or do they just fll to the ground and grow where they fall. I tend not to eat vegetables that fall into the latter description.

[Pan]

[...]sweet potatos taste surprisingly good raw, anyone else agree?

←

Yuck! But to each his/her own.

[slo_ted]

The two veggies that fit the bill here are okra and brussel sprouts. I love okra any way you want to cook it. It's so hard to find okra here on the central CA coast that I grew a couple of plantsa few years ago and not a single pod made it to the kitchen. I ate the whole crop straight off the bush. Not one single person I know can stand the texture of okra. Brussel sprouts are maybe even more offensive. I like 'em boiled or steamed and salted, but no one in my world can even stand the aroma. When I eat this veggie, I dine alone.

[pigeonpie]

[...]sweet potatos taste surprisingly good raw, anyone else agree?

←

Yuck! But to each his/her own.

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Have you never nibbled a bit while chopping them? They are surprisingly good raw. Though I've never actually set out to eat them raw.