h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Raw root veg I dont even like carrots raw unless they are grated!

Mind you, a good raw broccolli salad can be made with sunflower seeds and a light dressing of mayo and balsamic mixed together then mixed through the veg/seeds... Yum! Looks weird though, mayo and balsamic goes a funny grey colour!

I do know a lot of vegetarians who eat no more veg than they did/would as meat eaters... They just replace 'meat' with other chunky 'thing' (either meat substitutes or a cheesy pasta dish or something like that)

I think there's a lot of non-interest and education about diet though. Most of my vegetarian friends became veggie against their parent's wishes and were brought up on 'meals minus meat' and so why would they know any different or care? They are still alive therefore they dont feel a need to change habits, people HATE changing their habits!

'Standard' meat and 3 veg must surely have been a once or twice a week thing for most people, rather than a regular evening meal?

Taste seems to be a complicated thing. Its probably partly genetic, I find mine varies quite a lot from time to time (I assume based on what my body thinks it needs, but who knows). Taste obviously changes as you grow up. Its attached to memories, so a bad experience can put you off something (I got food poisoning from undercooked eggs a couple of months ago, and haven't been able to face an egg since). And of course some foods just take a bit of getting used to.

I like almost all vegetables, but not potatoes boiled, mashed or baked (they're ok covered with fat or in a soup or curry). I also really strongly dislike sweetcorn. I have absolutely no idea why.

Because it comes out the same as it goes in?

When I was younger, we had to eat whatever was on our plates- and all of it- whether we liked it or not. My mother had a very limited culinary skill set, so most of what appeared on our plates was very bland, but heavy on onion. As a result, I was exposed to very little, and didn't like most of what I was.

I became vegetarian when I was 15 (21 years ago! ) and since then have learned to like almost all veggies. Beans, kale, squash and sweet potatoes, I've only just developed a liking for within the last five or six years. But otherwise, by my early twenties, I'd tried and liked as many other veggies as possible. And I'm always keen to try something new. Still can't stand radishes or raw broccoli, though.

I do incorporate mock meats like tofu, seitan, Quorn and tempeh into some meals these days; other times I make stews or salad-like dishes. I don't think I eat pasta more often than two or three meals a month. When I was younger and had less money, I didn't eat much mock meat, except tofu- most meals consisted of several veggies, with some pasta, rice, couscous or quinoa.

But I hardly ever cook different veggies in different pots. Since I got my pressure cooker, I'll steam and drain dried legumes before adding to anything else, but otherwise I generally cook vegetable dishes in a single pan. It's only when I'm serving a vegetable as a side dish, or when I'm making rice/pasta/etc, that I use more than one. And I also prefer my veggies to be slightly crisp when they're cooked- except for greens, which I like pretty well cooked.

This is a very interesting thread- I have several vegetarian friends who don't eat a wide variety of vegetables. One of them subsists almost entirely on French fries and spaghetti.

people a generation plus ago cooked veggies in different pots. partly because they cooked them till soft and they take different amounts of time. but also i think because there was so much of it to cook. least in my house and the homes of friends i ate with. you are right, it wasn't meat and 3 veg every night but that was the sort of dinner that formed the core of a family diet.

there is one group of veggies i don't like. pumpkins. i always thought they smelled of teenage boys. or that teenage boys smelled of pumpkin. i have a suspicion that there are plant estrogens in pumpkin that resemble in some way the excessive smell given off by hormone ravaged teens. but that is just a wild guess. either way it puts me off eating the stuff.

I will eat all veg, cooked or raw and love brussle sprouts!
I have no objection to frozen veg as better to eat frozen veg than none at all as no preperation needed. Also, a brussle sprout quickly frozen is better than a weeks old one as sweeter. Parsnips are a much underrated veg, you either love or hate them but their spicey flavour is great to me and roasted crisply go well with meat for Sunday lunch.
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However not all like brussle sprouts. There was a recent reality TV programme that simulated wartime conditions where food was short and had to eat what given. One boy said he didn't like sprouts and was told to just eat one to show willing, he promtley vomitied the rest of his meal over the carpet!

I'm not vegetarian, but I do eat lots of vegetarian food just because it's so nice. I'm trying hard to think of a vegetable I don't like. If spices count (they come from plants, after all) then nutmeg. It just tastes like soap to me.

I think as has been mentioned, overcooking is the culprit for a lot of it. There was a fantastic description by John Steinbeck about how for the British cook, vegetables must be ruled with an iron rod, boiled into submission and shown that no nonsense will be tolerated. Thankfully things have moved on a lot since his time.

I'm with you on the pumpkin contempt anti. I don't know about teenage boys but the taste of pumpkin is too sweet, the texture is too spongy, the colour is too vibrant, the shape is lurid, the stringy bit is too... stringy and the smell is mysteriously unpleasant. Interestingly though, you can imitate the smell that issues from a newborn's crown with a combination of pumpkin and liquorish. Bizarre.. Anyway it's called a pumpkin: Kin of pump, yuk, and it's actually an indecently oversized berry.

It's not just pumpkin, I object to almost all vegetables and leaves and creepy plants for a variety of reasons.

Ahem.

Some vegetables I don't like because I think I was fed them too hot when I was little. SWL's obstinacy reason for others. The fact that I have or do perceive eating them as unfashionable or wimpy. Mostly it's because they smell unpleasant (cabbage) or are slimy (courgette) or bland (spinach) or too sweet (squash). Carrots get stuck up your nose and corn on the cob gets stuck in your teeth. Beetroots make you wee bright purple and celeriac is visually disturbing. Turnips and their freaky cousins have a confusing duality of taste when cooked and make a horrible squeaking noise against your teeth when raw. etc etc.

I like radish, bean sprouts, water chestnuts, onions, garlic and wasabi.

A general possible reason I could suggest would be metabolic differences.

There's not a vegetable I don't love. But generally it has to be al dente.

I'm very much an omnivore. I do not think in terms of vegetarianism and horror of horrors veganism.

My dentition demonstrates I'm an omnivore. And in this area I conform to my biology.

To me its about cooking nice food, and recipes, full stop. Nothing quirky at all.

But I eat less meat and fish than other omnivores because free range is important to me, which is usually more expensive. I care about animals. And secondly it tastes loads better.

Every year I grow veggies in my garden. This year potatoes, runner beans, and later tomatoes and chilli peppers.

"My dentition demonstrates I'm an omnivore. And in this area I conform to my biology."

Our bodies are equipped to do lots of things we no longer choose to do, though.

I know; it was meant as a joke, cos I'm bisexual.

Just had a thought regarding celery. I don't dislike it - it doesn't taste strongly really, does it? - but it does annoy me how it gets stuck in my teeth, so I don't eat it. Is there a way to prepare it so its not so annoying?

Why am I thinking of David Bowie...?

I thought this thread would be asking why people don't like vegetarians, not actually vegetables.

Skin it, BBITM, works wonders.

Take a sharp knife and run it upright down the back. Stringy things removed!

Can I re-iterate my pet peeve concerning the ubiquitousness of raw red onions these days...

Hated potatoes when I was a child, and it was the texure in my mouth that I couldn't stand. Love them now though.

Lets see, I could happliy live in a world without beetroot. All other veg i can take in some form or other.

Daughter says she hates the texture of brocoli and cauliflower, which taste like trees or leaves.

food is subject to fashion which probably also has an impact. broccoli used to have nice tight fine heads in oz, reflecting its production by mediterranean immigrants. these days it is coarse and loose, since market gardens are more often owned by asian immigants, and used in asian dishes beyond that. the older style broccoli would fall apart and the stems be too chunky for these. onions are very sweet compared to yesteryear, as our capsicums. a lot of the asian greens are bitter unless put into dishes that have correspondingly sweet and sour flavourings to balance....

the metabolism thing is interesting. if a child associates a vegetable with excessive gas or stomach upset, that would be a reason to dislike it in adult life. tho none of my kids have thought to give me this one as an excuse not to eat their veggies. yet.

I don't understand half of what I've read here, about taste genetics and pregnancy etc. Strikes me as neurosis.

My mother was an excellent cook. So I loved eating what she cooked. It was just an ordinary thing to do. Your mum cooks a lovely meal and you eat it.

We have lots of cookery programmes here showing cookery in continental Europe. The French and Italian kids I've seen on programmes just love food as a part of normal life. Vegetables/fish/meat, cooked deliciously.

What's the issue?

Dunno about that. I associate Guinness with excess gas. It never put me off.

What's wrong with red onions though? I prefer white ones myself, but the red ones are ok, too.

But only when they're raw. Cooked red onions are moot?

cooking shows tend not to show footage of people not liking the food. strange but true.

the power of the food stylists in these shows is such that my kids will say something looks nice, sometimes even ask for it, only to refuse it when it is actually given to them.

my assumption that kids not liking vegetables is an internal thing is based on adults not liking vegetables, since adults have total control over their food unless they are seriously poor or in jail. childhood traumas with overcooked food notwithstanding.

blaming the cook for a kid not liking raw broccoli in a salad doesn't make much sense.