Tank
30-04-2008, 12:12 PM
Roasting vegetables reduces the bitter flavors by adding a savory caramelized flavor. Learning to roast vegetables really renewed my own interest and got me to enjoy eating them -- and not just because I should. To roast any vegetable (except those you don't normally cook, like cucumbers) toss the cut up pieces with good oil and seasonings -- sea salt ground pepper, and garlic. See full instructions below.
Cooking vegetables with meats or meat broths also reduces the bitter flavors and tends to really bring out some of their sweetness. So load up your soups or stews with lots of chopped vegetables. Or just finely chop vegetables and add them to ground meats, like meatloaf, burgers, and even chili.
Mask the taste or hide the vegetable. For instance, use some butter, salt and pepper on steamed vegetables. For raw vegetables, try the healthiest dip you can find. My yogurt-tahini dressing in the April 15 issue of THB is a great vegetable dip. You can also finely chop or puree vegetables and add them to sauces, like spaghetti sauce. Even mashed potatoes can hide cooked cauliflower and turnips. Honest you don't even know they are there!
Use small amounts of stronger tasting vegetables in your dishes and then slowly increase your consumption. Your taste buds are similar to your sense of smell. Just as you can get used to odors that you smell all the time, your taste buds over time notice the objectionable tastes less and less. So, keep trying them and start with small tastes. For instance, if you only like iceberg head lettuce, start adding small bites of darker green lettuces into your salad. Once your taste buds don't notice the flavor of the darker lettuces any more, increase the amount.
Cooking vegetables with meats or meat broths also reduces the bitter flavors and tends to really bring out some of their sweetness. So load up your soups or stews with lots of chopped vegetables. Or just finely chop vegetables and add them to ground meats, like meatloaf, burgers, and even chili.
Mask the taste or hide the vegetable. For instance, use some butter, salt and pepper on steamed vegetables. For raw vegetables, try the healthiest dip you can find. My yogurt-tahini dressing in the April 15 issue of THB is a great vegetable dip. You can also finely chop or puree vegetables and add them to sauces, like spaghetti sauce. Even mashed potatoes can hide cooked cauliflower and turnips. Honest you don't even know they are there!
Use small amounts of stronger tasting vegetables in your dishes and then slowly increase your consumption. Your taste buds are similar to your sense of smell. Just as you can get used to odors that you smell all the time, your taste buds over time notice the objectionable tastes less and less. So, keep trying them and start with small tastes. For instance, if you only like iceberg head lettuce, start adding small bites of darker green lettuces into your salad. Once your taste buds don't notice the flavor of the darker lettuces any more, increase the amount.