You’re right, arugula does taste a bit like radishes–a vegetable I like okay, I just rarely buy because it doesn’t go into my recipes. It’s something I like for a relish/snack, and I’m really the only one around here who eats it, so…
But I wouldn’t say no to a big plate of thin-sliced radish, salted, with aioli or balsamic vinaigrette to dip it in. It’s just not something I want to do unless somebody else will eat it with me. Radish is also nice on a cold corned beef sandwich.
I don’t care much for arugula, although my dislike is not as intense as the OP’s.
I think in a salad a small amount finely divided can add an interesting flavor note, which is really the only place I could be said to “like” argula. I guess it’s a bit like pepper - I wouldn’t want to eat it by itself, but added to other things it can be a good thing.
At a recent beer-food pairing, one of the courses was fried frog legs served over lemon risotto, garnished with a piping of arugula purée around the edge of the plate. The arugula purée was a beautiful bright green and added an intense flavor to the dish.
I like celery but, to me, it does have a very distinct and strong taste, and bitter is part of that flavor, no matter what part you eat (I actually find the white part less bitter than the rest. To me, it’s the green part that tastes bitter–maybe chlorophyl, although that’s not really supposed to have much of a flavor. It does somewhat remind me of the bitterness of green peppers.) No comparing the bitterness to that of an IPA – well, I personally wouldn’t scale celery as being more bitter than an average IPA, but I’m not a supertaster.
Yeah, that threw me for a loop. Any beer over 30 IBU is undrinkable as far as I’m concerned but I’ll eat celery until my tongue goes numb.
Heh. I always think of that. Glad to know it’s not just me.
Arugula (or rocket/roquette, as the Europeans call it) as an accent in a salad or other dish is fine, although I draw the line at putting it on pizza. Arugula in a big heap as a salad is terrible and lazy, and restaurants need to stop doing that.
I’m with the OP. Arugula tastes revolting.
Years ago I had a dish at a restaurant, a spicy/peppery shrimp concoction served over quite a lot of arugula(mopped up with grilled naan, what could be bad?). It was excellent, and I was glad I tried it, never having eaten so large a portion of the bitter green before. I managed to make a reasonable facsimile of the entree at home, and have been enjoying it ever since.
The sainted Lidia Bastianich cautioned years ago to enjoy the primo taglio, the first cut of the season, as it was the sweetest and most refined. Successive cuttings of the same plants will be coarser and progressively more bitter. So, wait for Springtime, or grow your own, I guess?
I always hear Martha Stewart saying it.
I love arugula, in fact my garden is full of the stuff. Cilantro too (and yes it is soapy but that’s what’s great about it). But I’m going to side with everyone who can’t stand celery. I think it is easily the most disgusting thing people put in their mouths - not bitter, or peppery, just intensely vile in some obscure way; it simply doesn’t register as edible.
Same here! When a bell pepper is still green, it needs to be left on the plant longer to ripen.
Zombie arugula!
I don’t like arugula as a stand-alone green, but I think it has a peppery/bitter* flavor that can work nicely as part of a salad, or even as part of greens on a sandwich. My wife likes a salad with a raspberry vinaigrette, blue cheese, candied nuts and sometimes dried or fresh fruit. With so many sweet flavors, arugula plays well… but even then I wouldn’t want the greens to be only arugula.
I don’t have anything against green peppers per se, but I definitely like ripe ones better.
If only it were the bitterness! Remember that I first encountered the green when I worked on an organic farm and cut baby greens for schmancy restaurants. I was getting literally the freshest, best arugula in the world. The rotten-meat stink of it was all the stronger for being fresh.
My goal in life is too grow tons and tons of cilantro!!! (saving my seeds as I type)
I am actually eating a bunch of sprouted seedlings that I thinned, on a tortilla with cheese and hot sauce…I pretty much could live on cilantro…
I do hate arugula tho, its stinky fartness…I eat it out of courtesy to whoever served it to me, but thats it… and celery? bitter? haha…its just crunchy slightly salty water sticks, kind of a vehicle to put dip on!!
Arugula is my preferred salad green. Straight up is fine.
My younger brother is the same way about bell peppers. Other chiles and vegetables are fine but he can’t take a single molecule of bell pepper.
I keep seeing people say that arugula is bitter and spicy. I don’t think it is just bitter it is far more than that. It 's just plain foul tasting. I too cannot get the taste out of my mouth when I unexpectedly find it in my salad.
Broccoli? Kale is a leafy green. I could understand if you thought it resembled spinach or cabbage, but broccoli??
As for me, I’ve never met a vegetable I didn’t like, except for the dreaded… <uggh>… beets.