Veggie Hater....

sillysally

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#1
So, while I am changing my eating habits, one of my issues is that I REALLY hate vegetables. Like, a lot. The only veggies I like are corn, potatoes, and tomatoes cooked certain ways (I know tomatoes are technically fruits but I'm counting them anyway). I do LOVE Prego chunky garden spaghetti sauce, which claims to have two servings of veggies per serving of sauce, and V8 Fusion, but that's about it.

I know that health wise I should be eating veggies, but honestly I detest the smell of most veggies as they are being cooked, and can't seem to make myself swallow any raw ones I've tried. I will eat fruit, but it's not something I tend to seek out--before I started working on my eating habits I could happily go months without eating a fruit on purpose.

Any tips for hiding veggies in food? Also, if I were to puree them and add them to other foods, what kind of nutrient loss would i be looking at? I already take a prenatal multivitamin (not preggers, Dr. recommends it for all women my age range), a super B complex supplement, and a calcium supplement--are there any other supplements I should be taking to make up for my lack of veggie consumption?

PS--I do like pumpkin, but only if baked into something sweet or mixed with ice cream, so I guess that doesn't really count....
 

Dizzy

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#2
Roast them! Yum. I not fond of carrots, but roasted carrots are delish! You can roast most things.

Also, hide them in smoothies. I HATE cucumber, but recently tried a fruit and veg smoothie with cucumber and spinach in it, and you couldn't taste it at all. Was refreshing and tasty.


It's just a case of mind over matter and changing your palette. I was veg phobic as a child, and love them now. Not every single one, every time, but most most of the time.


I'd make a salad and chop things into it I knew I didn't like, such as radish. I'd make the bits really really small, so you couldn't really tell what it was, then gradually make them bigger till I realised I quite liked them.


Soups are always a good one to do aswell, because you can disguise flavours and textures with spices, herbs and blitzing them!


Be creative! I don't like sprouts, so found a different way to cook them at Xmas (totally unhealthy but that's not the point :p they tasted ace).


Try raw veg with a dip, use tons of dip so it's just a vessel to eat the dip.... And reduce the dip. You basically need to trick yourself into eating them. Rewrite the brain part telling you it's yuck. I'm still not keen on raw veg with dips, even though ill eat the same veg in salad.... It makes no sense.


Mind over matter.
 

Laurelin

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#3
Changing your tastebuds takes some time. I've always been a big veggie eater, my issue was fruit. I did not like most raw fruit. I really had to experiment and try some more unusual ones to find ones I liked and didn't make me nauseous. I found out I like mangos, asian pears, and blueberries. Since then I've really expanded my palette.

Soups are a good one for veggies. I bake a bunch. I also like stir frying them. Broccoli is so yummy no matter how you fix it. I'm getting to where I like weirder veggies like cauliflower and greens. It's taking time.
 

Beanie

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#4
Corn is a grain, also not a veggie. And potatoes are starchy legumes so not the ideal veggie healthwise.

It's tough, I don't really like veggies either. You just have to experiment and try, try again, and finally you will hit on a way to eat it. Cauliflower smells disgusting while it's cooking but it doesn't taste bad. Broccoli I can only eat stirfryed... I don't like it raw or boiled like a lot of people do. Just keep playing with it. I actually really like spinach.
And yep, hiding stuff in smoothies is a great way to get veggies without that full on veggie taste (or texture if you're a texture person.)
 

Kilter

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#5
This might sound harsh, but eat your veggies and quit complaining. :cool:

Really. Just make a point of getting different ones, not potatoes or corn, not processed per say, and eating some with each meal. Make a goal of eating say a half cup with a meal, either on it's own or mixed into something, then 3/4 of a cup, then a whole cup....

Fresh and steamed is usually better than frozen personally, and different types/sources are better than others as well, so keep trying. I will do 2 cups of chopped veggies cooked in broth (costco has soup base in jars that is yummy and better than the powdered stuff) for lunch quite often, sometimes with some meat, sometimes just them. Or a pureed soup like carrot or butternut squash is nice too.

If you really like the jarred pasta sauce use that as a 'base' but add your veggies cut up to that and slowly increase the veggies and decrease the sauce. Keep in mind that sauces often are loaded with sugar which is what you might be liking.

Also try soy sauce, cheese sauces, whatever on them to see, broccoli with a splash of soy sauce and some lemon and a bit of butter.... could eat just that!

You can of course do smoothies and grate them and add them to things, but depending on your health getting a half cup of spinach by eating a half of a pan of brownies may not be great in the long run. Yummy, but yeah.....

And if you're going to have kids it's a good thing to model for them so they learn to eat them too. My son has been known to take a cucumber, cut it in half and walk off eating it like a carrot. He's seven.

I grew up in a home where it was carrots and peas with diced onion on it, salad from a bag and once in a while broccoli and cheese sauce. Not a huge variety but now that we are getting older and having health issues and kids, we mainly buy veggies and fruit, meat, some bread and a few processed food items here and there. I'm personally hoping I'm able to take less medications one of these days because the side effects suck. So eat your veggies.
 

stardogs

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#6
Puree veggies, then start making the puree chunkier so you can habituate to the flavor and textures gradually. My husband puts squash puree in mac and cheese and green veggie puree in our potato pancakes - you can't tell the veggies are even there!
 

Julee

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#7
Juicing and smoothies!

Another thing you can do is take foods that you like and find recipes that switch out some ingredients for veggies. I'm not a huge zucchini fan, but I looove zucchini bread.
 

Saeleofu

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#8
(I know tomatoes are technically fruits but I'm counting them anyway)
And corn and potatoes are starches, so neither of those really counts as a vegetable either.

I have a friend that is much the same way. She started slow, and now can eat a fresh salad made with baby spinach. Try to ignore the smell and eat a tiny bit to get used to it. I LOVE vegetables so I never had the problem.

A lot of people try iceberg lettuce and conclude they don't like salad. Well, when it's iceberg, I don't like it either. Romaine, spinach, kale, chard - so many other, tastier options!

If you absolutely CANNOT get yourself to eat vegetables, then I agree smoothies are a good alternative, so long as you use just enough other stuff to cover up the vegetables, and not put just a tiny bit of vegetables in an otherwise unhealthy smoothie. But really, I think if you start slow and just taste bits of things, you can teach yourself to like them.

I prefer raw vegetables, but some are good cooked.
 

Katem

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#9
My brother also refuses to eat most vegetables. However, since he is never the one cooking dinner, he doesn't get much of a say in what we're having. If the vegetables are just put on his plate, he will usually pick them out. So I've taken to 'hiding' them. Anything with some kind of sauce/liquid works pretty well for us. Stews, soups, stirfrys, pot pies. He hates broccoli, but has eaten it before when it was covered with cheese.

I haven't tried the brownies yet, but the green beans are awesome. Or you could always make some kale chips.
vegetable brownies
green bean fries
 

sillysally

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#10
Corn is a grain, also not a veggie. And potatoes are starchy legumes so not the ideal veggie healthwise.

It's tough, I don't really like veggies either. You just have to experiment and try, try again, and finally you will hit on a way to eat it. Cauliflower smells disgusting while it's cooking but it doesn't taste bad. Broccoli I can only eat stirfryed... I don't like it raw or boiled like a lot of people do. Just keep playing with it. I actually really like spinach.
And yep, hiding stuff in smoothies is a great way to get veggies without that full on veggie taste (or texture if you're a texture person.)
I think the texture really get me a lot of the time. If I come across celery in chili or something it grosses me out because of the texture, not because of the taste. I actually have trouble chewing and swallowing most veggies-I gag. I even get anxious thinking about adding veggies to my meals, even though logically that is totally ridiculous!

If I grow a veggie garden, do those veggies tend to taste better than store bought?
 

Locke

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#12
What type of texture grossed you out? Is it crunchy or mushy or what?

Puréed veggies would probably be your best bet. A butternut squash soup with a strong spice like curry might be a good starter.

Home grown veggies will taste better, but better in the sense that they'll have a "stronger" taste and fragrance. Store bought veggies generally taste milder, which might be better in your case.

Good luck!
 

Dogdragoness

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#13
I cant imagine how it would be to hate veggies, I love them LOL, except peas & asparagus, but I love everything else, some I like better steamed then raw, like brocoli & califlower, but most other veggies esp carrots, I will eat raw. LOL I buy a bag or carrots for my horse & nine times out of ten I will end up eating them before he does LMBO:p
 

Romy

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#14
If I grow a veggie garden, do those veggies tend to taste better than store bought?
They definitely do. My kids hated veggies until we planted a garden together. Then they'd go out and graze on the raw stuff. My daughter found out she loves raw home grown kale. Carrots are amazingly sweet and tender too. Every year I plant brandywine tomatoes because they seriously taste like candy to us. We can't put them in sandwiches or burgers because they're too sweet and it tastes weird.
 

Kimbers

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#15
I personally love my veggies, but I lure my little cousin into eating them by cooking them in special ways. (I love to cook and eat, so it's a special treat for me, too.) Parmesan cheese broccoli, garlic & ginger green beans, and carrots cooked in brown sugar with butter are some of my favorites. May help with the smell issue. As far as texture goes, I've noticed that a lot of people don't cook things quite the texture I like. I like my peas mushier and my carrots crunchier when cooked. Just experiment a bit, but also remember that you may end up needing to suck it up for about a month while you get accustomed to the new tastes and textures.
If the above doesn't help much, I second the soup idea. Butternut squash soup is one of my favorites, but since you like potatoes, you could try making a cream of potato soup with other ground up veggies to replace some of the potatoes. Assuming you have a good blender or food processor, you'll barely even notice them in there.
 

JacksonsMom

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#16
OMG this thread was made for me. I HATE veggies too.

The only way I eat certain veggies is mixed in with soup (I loooveee Maryland Vegetable Crab Soup) and I love carrots that have been cooking in the crockpot all day with a roast. But otherwise, yuck.

I'm going to read through this whole thread. lol.
 
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#19
I used to dislike most veggies as well. Now I force myself to eat raw cauliflower everyday. I fill a container and it has to be gone by the end of the week. I eat others as well with meals, but not as much as I should. I'm getting a lot better. I told myself the minor distaste for veggies now, sure beats how much I'll dislike having cancer some day.

Same with taking shots of fish oil and working out, beats the hell out of heart attack.
 

milos_mommy

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#20
You definitely develop tastes for things, too. If you drastically cut back on starch (corn and potatoes are NOT vegetables), the carbs from veggies will be a lot more enjoyable. Just like if you hate fruit and cut out sugar/sweets, fruit starts to taste pretty good (and the thought of a big slice of cake will turn your stomach).

Do you people who hate veggies not even eat salad? What about greens on a sandwich or burger??
 

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