Eat Your Vegetables

You know those vegetables that were gross when you were young? Things like cauliflower and beets? Well I have discovered in the past year that I love both. I am a low carb eater which means that I eat lots and lots of vegetables. Variety is important as eating the same thing over and over can ruin any diet...er, way of eating. So I have worked these two new favorites into my life and have been very pleased with what they've added to my meals.

First, beets. I always thought that I didn't like beets. I seem to remember some canned sliced beets on my elementary school lunch tray, but I can honestly say I never tried them. I am guessing that maybe one of my parents doesn't like them and that's why we never had them growing up. I assume that is the reason because my parents are amazing gardeners and my childhood dinner plate was always full of various vegetables, often harvested from the backyard garden or greenhouse that very day. Fast forward to summer 2006 and I am at the Cheesecake Factory with friends and I ordered something called the Market Salad, which much to my dismay, does not seem to be on the menu anymore. It had greens, avocado, red and yellow bell pepper, asparagus, some sort of crumbled cheese (either blue or feta, I can't remember) and beets. I figured I'd just push the beets off to the side and enjoy the rest of my salad. I decided to try one and I couldn't believe my tastebuds, I really liked it! The beets were roasted and served cold. It had a very pleasing texture, smooth but with a bit of bite to it. Not crunch exactly, the closest thing I can think of is maybe cantaloupe, but that's not quite right either. The flavor was very mild, but closer to sweet than savory. Anyway, so started my love affair with beets. Whole Foods is one of my favorite places to eat and often has a cold beet salad in their deli. It has golden and red beets, roasted and cut into large chunks, a few spinach leaves and some cubes of feta all coated in a very light vinaigrette. This became a semi-staple for me during the summer of 2007. I soon realized that it was silly to pay $8.99 a pound for this, when I could easily make it at home. Cooking the beets was intimidating for me at first, I was sure I'd do it all wrong and stain my kitchen and clothing a deep bloody purple in the process. As I do with anything I try to cook for the first time, I googled "roast beets" and found that it was actually suprisingly easy. You just cut off the greens, scrub gently, then wrap the whole thing in foil and put on a baking sheet in the oven at 300+ degrees for 35+ minutes. The baking sheet part is important, as the juices do start to flow as the beet cooks and will inevitably find their way out of the foil. When done, let cool, unwrap and kind of just push the skin off. It's so thin and tender that you can literally just wipe it off with your fingers (though beware of staining!). You now have a nice roasted beet! To recreate Whole Foods' cold salad, I just cut into bite sized pieces, sprinkle with feta and a bit of white balsamic vinegar and voila! Delicious and nutritious. Beets are so different than other vegetables and I bet that if you try them, you will like them. In addition to being roasted and served either warm or cold, I believe they are also often pickled or just shredded while raw and added to salads.

Now, cauliflower. I am a huge fan of cauliflower. I prefer most of my vegetables raw, and raw cauliflower is just delicious to me. I love the texture, crunchy but crumbly at the same time. I often eat it with hummus, though I do enjoy the flavor on its own. I have recently figured out different ways to cook it, because steamed cauliflower is very blah to me. The first way is mashed. Having eaten low carb for many years now, there are lots of low carb substitutes that devotees swear by for some of the old carbby favorites. Mashed cauliflower as a substitute for mashed potatoes is one of the most popular and I never actually tried it until about 2 months ago. I figured there was absolutely no way that it could come close to being a good substitute. Well I was wrong. One night I got inspired to try it as we were having pork chops and I had some cauliflower florets that needed to be used. The method is simple, I just steamed the florets in a covered bowl in the microwave with a splash of water for a few minutes, until very tender. Then I drained the little bit of water, added a little bit of butter, salt, garlic salt and pepper and whipped using our stick blender. They whipped up in 30 seconds and tasted exactly like mashed potatoes! Actually, let me rephrase that, they tasted BETTER than mashed potatoes. There was some sort of extra depth to the flavor that I really liked, though I am having trouble thinking of a way to describe it. Honestly I feel like I could be content never eating mashed potatoes again. Not to mention how much healthier the mashed cauliflower is. Just tonight, I made the Creamy Cheesey Cauliflower Soup recipe from the Cabot Cheese folks in Vermont (who make the best cheddar cheese in the country, in my opinion). It was very good, though I expected it to be thicker and will probably use more cauliflower than I did with the same amount of liquid next time. It actually made me think of clam chowder and I think it would be good with some canned clams and corn in it.

So there you go, if you have always thought you didn't like beets or cauliflower, give one of them a try. I think it's true that tastebuds do mature as we grow up. As adults, we can also have a better appreciation of the nourishment we are gaining from what we eat which makes trying and liking something new and healthy all that more enjoyable.