What Veggie Could You Eat Forever?
If you had to choose one veggie to eat exclusively every day for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Share your opinion to enter in a drawing for the cookbook, “Mastering the Art of Southern Vegetables” by Nathalie Dupree and Cynthia Graubart.
The veggie question came to mind as I’ve been taking advantage of this spring’s asparagus sales. It’s a pretty sweet deal when you can find it for 98 cents a pound. Even. $1.98 is pretty good. But after a few weeks of making my favorite asparagus dishes several times a week, for instance —
Sauteed asparagus
Maple-Pecan Crusted Salmon with Roasted Asparagus
and Cream of Asparagus Soup
I started getting “palate fatigue” from asparagus! I guess in past seasons, the price goes up and I stop buying it before I get tired of it.
Since I’ve been on a weight loss program (10 pounds down, yippee!) I’ve been trying to eat more veggies. But is there ANY vegetable that a person could happily eat every day forever, and never get tired of it? Especially if that’s the ONLY veggie you could have? Good question. I notice that I can easily overkill on broccoli, carrots, kale, or even the currently trendy cauliflower. After a few days of the same thing, I’m done with it for awhile.
Maybe tomatoes might be the the best “everyday for the rest of my life” veggie, because they are so sweet and juicy in summer, fresh off the vine. If you get tired of eating them fresh, you can use them as sauce over pasta or pizza. Or you could make oven- or sun-dried tomatoes with their sweet, caramelized flavor.
Another possibility — corn, especially on the cob in the summer. I’ll admit I don’t get as excited about it in the winter, when it’s canned or frozen. But if I had to pick just one veggie, this might be it. Especially if popcorn was included in the deal.
Spinach is great for salads, and even on top of pizza. I use it in my breakfast smoothies, too. But I’ve not a cooked spinach fan. Too many memories of overcooked gray-green globs on the school lunch tray, I guess.
I have a friend who has lost over 150 pounds, and part of his strategy is pizza crust made from pureed cauliflower. I’ve tried using pureed cauliflower in mashed potatoes, causing my house to reek with the odor. I’m not sure why, but it doesn’t smell bad when it’s roasted. Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t think I could go for more than a week eating cauliflower as my only veggie, in a pizza or otherwise.
Ditto for zucchini, even when it’s disguised in brownies, bread, cakes, etc. I like my zucchini simply sauteed. But after a few months of zucchini from my garden, I’m ready to take a break.
But maybe you have a different opinion – which veggie is your fave and why? Could you eat it every day, for forever, without getting tired of it? Tell me why, and you might win this great veggie cookbook by Nathalie Dupree.
I first met TV cooking host Nathalie Dupree — oh, gosh, it’s probably been 10-15 years ago — while attending national food events such as the National Chicken Cooking Contest and the Pillsbury Bake-Off. Her cookbooks have sold over a million copies. She’s done hundreds of appearances on PBS, as well as shows such as “Good Morning America!” and “Today.”
When I was in Charleston, S.C. six or seven years ago, I visited her home with a group of other food writers. It was cool to think of all the many great recipes that had come out of that relatively small kitchen. I covered one of her cooking classes when she came to the Harmons in Salt Lake City two years ago, and got a signed copy of “Mastering the Art of Southern Vegetables, published by Layton-based Gibbs Smith Publishing. ” And now, I’m giving it away. It’s a hard-cover book with beautiful photography. And you don’t have to live in the South to love the recipes!
To enter the drawing for the book, leave me a comment at the end of this blog post about what veggie you could happily eat every day forever, and why. I’ll be doing the drawing on Monday, April 10, so don’t delay!
To see recipes photographed in this blog post:
Maple-Pecan Crusted Salmon with Roasted Asparagus