A few years ago (January 2011) I wrote a blog goal of trying to get our family to eat more veggies. Not only more quantity, but also more variety. That's been 3 years now. The other night I realized that we're doing well. Maybe not in quantity all the time, but our variety has been expanded.
Back then I started experimenting with cooking styles, realizing that alot of my vegetable aversions were due to them being bland and boring. My aunt introduced me to roasting, and that has been my new go-to method. Another friend introduced me to fish sauce (which doesn't taste at all fishy but adds that wonderful umami flavor that makes the most boring veggies amazing). And we've bought veggies that we never thought we would!
The other night at supper while we sat there at dinner eating some roasted kale, parsnips and fennel bulb, I realized that my goal has been accomplished. 3 long years later! Oh, well. Better now than never, hey?
Here's a few of our favorite ways to eat our "new-to-us" veggies.
Beets- roasted in a pan with the lid on. I peel them first, but you can also peel them after they're cooked. Just put in a oven proof pan with a lid for about an hour at 350-400*F. Done. The smaller you cut them, the quicker they bake (of course!)
Parsnips- peel, slice into fries, and then roasted on a cookie sheet with a drizzle of oil or butter at 350-400 for about 40 min. These are tasty but fibrous (like a carrot), so I cut them up small for the kiddos. This is Greg's new favorite veggie.
Cabbage- cut into a wedge and then slice smaller if desired. Drizzle with oil or butter, and salt, pepper and garlic powder. Or drizzle with fish sauce. Stir occasionally.
Fennel bulb- roast whole bulb with some oil, salt and pepper drizzled over. About 40 min at 350 too.
Kale- drizzle leaves (broken into bite size pieces) with oil and soy sauce and let them dry out. I do these on a cookie sheet (mine is stoneware) on our wood stove and they're oh-so-yummy.
Yams- these aren't new to us, but are one of our favorites for roasting. I peel them and cut them into fries, drizzle them with oil/butter and then sprinkle with cinnamon. I then bake them on my stoneware cookie sheet until soft. Usually 40 min at 350. Stir/flip occasionally. These are the kids favorite.
You can also easily roast any vegetable and the flavor is amazing. Baby carrots can be easily dumped on a pan and roasted just like the yams. Frozen green beans are another easy, go-to for roasting. Just add some butter, minced garlic, salt & pepper and put in the oven for 1/2 hour or so, stirring occasionally. Or my other favorite recipe (is in the Kurtti cookbook page 51) is this:
Autumn Succotash
1- 2 lb. butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1" pieces
2 T. butter
2 T. oil
4 cloves garlic
2 red peppers, seed and coarsely chopped
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
1 c. peas, thawed if frozen
1 c. corn, thawed if frozen
1 T. fresh sage (optional, still good without it)
salt and pepper to taste
Heat oven to 450*F. Place squash, peppers and onions in a 9x13 pan. Drizzle with butter and oil. Roast until squash is tender, 25-30 minutes. Remove from oven, stir in peas and corn, sage, salt and pepper. Put back in oven to warm through at 250*F for about 5 minutes. Enjoy!
You'll notice that all of the vegetables are roasted in oil/butter. Saturated fats help you get your minerals and vitamins out of the vegetables, so be liberal with your butter. Here's a an article that explains it more thoroughly. Have some Butter with your Veggies.
You might also wonder if there's any veggies that we've tried that we haven't liked. Yes, there is. We haven't been able to find a way to tolerably eat radishes (us adults like them, but the kids aren't so fond), daikon (another super-healthy kind of radish), most squash (we eat it occasionally, but it's just not our favorite), spinach (we eat it in salad in the summer and spinach dip, but just haven't been able to get alot into us in any other form). I still have 2/4 kids who are mushroom haters, but I have found a recipe for homemade mushroom soup that everyone likes (if I chop them into miniscule pieces).
Do you have any favorite veggies or recipes you'd like to share?
