So, after a few years hiatus I’m doing the whole CSA farm share thing again, sharing with my mom who now is feeding three teenagers. So I got the Veggies We Won’t Try On the Kids Just Yet, and me and my boyfriend just had a dinner made up of it.
We had turnips, turnip greens, broccoli, spring onions (the big kind, not scallions) and some stuff we didn’t use yet. I made roasted broccoli with the onions with a lemon garlic thing, roasted turnip fries with parmesan and paprika, and a turnip green casserole where you cook them first and then casserole 'em with cream of celery soup, mayo, eggs, and horseradish.
My boyfriend adored all of it, to my shock. I loved the roasted broccoli, tolerated the turnip green casserole, and didn’t really care for the turnip fries because while I liked the presentation and the general flavor it still had that bitter turnip taste. (Perhaps a soak would take care of that?)
Anyway, obviously my go-to solution for unpopular veggies is the roast. Turns bitter into tasty, right! (And rumor has it that when my mom did the same thing with the rest of the broccoli even my DAD liked it, and he tells waiters with all seriousness that he’s deathly allergic to broccoli. Liar.)
So, how do you do these things up? Not just for me and my boyfriend, who are adults and can appreciate adult tastes, but for the kids? Preferably without a ton of cream and cheese?
Yikes, lol, I have to admit none of that sounds appetizing.
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But I like most vegetables…and I like them steamed, with butter and salt and pepper. Greens (I like kale best, but I’d do turnip greens the same) I cook on low with a ham hock and a big spoon of bacon grease, with lots of red pepper flakes and salt and pepper to taste…
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And for the record, our kids pretty much eat what we make. BUT I would never make anyone eat turnips, haha.
Try “neaps and tatties”, which is basically mashed potatoes with up to half the potato replaced by mashed turnips. Serve any way you’d serve mashed potatoes. Whether or not that includes a “ton of cream and cheese” depends on how you normally serve them.
Generally, the smaller the turnips the less strong in flavor. So you might want to pull them a little “early” rather than waiting until they’re huge.
All of those vegetables can be incorporated into stews or soups.
For greens, I usually stir-fry them. Chicken and chickpeas, some mushrooms (optional), with the greens shredded and added last, cooked just long enough to start to wilt. No reason you couldn’t use other meats.
My 2-year-old, who generally refuses to eat any vegetable that isn’t well-hidden in something else, would eat her weight in kale chips. Basically, you toss torn-up kale leaves in olive oil and salt (I like to add malt vinegar too) and bake them until they’re crispy.
Another good use for turnips: Himmel und Erde, which is basically turnips, potatoes and apples cooked and mashed together. I usually throw in some sour cream when I mash them. It is fabulous with pork chops or roast.
Almost any vegetable is good, as long as you don’t overcook it. Never boil unless you’re making soup or something where you’ll use the water it’s boiled in. Steaming and stir-frying are good options. And by the time kids are teenagers, if they’re still not eating vegetables, it’s because you’re still categorizing vegetables as Something you Won’t Try on the Kids.
I like the combo mashed turnips and mashed potatoes. Also, have you considered having the kids help you prepare the food? Sometimes that helps.
One thing I’ve noticed that helps with my son (who’s pretty finicky in the last year) is putting it in some kind of pastry pocket. So, you take the veggies, chop, then saute them with garlic, olive oil, lemon, a little salt & pepper and some fresh herbs (thyme works well on root vegetables). Add meat if you like - shredding a rotisserie chicken saves on the work - then make a pocket out of puff pastry, like a calzone, and bake it. If you’re concerned about fat content, use whole wheat pizza dough instead.
Or you can make a larger pie out of it - just use a little broth for the veggies and chicken, let it thicken until it’s gravy-like, pour it into a pie crust and top it with a second pie crust, and bake according to directions. I tend toward the pockets myself. My son doesn’t really like “runny” food, so things that can be wrapped up in a pocket work nicely.
You can also blend mashed root vegetables with cilantro and black beans, add some cumin, chili powder, salt & pepper and make vegetable black bean burritos. Cover them with salsa and, presto!, they’re enchiladas.
Cauliflower is an even easier one to mash into mashed potatoes, plus it helps trim calories off the dish if you’re serving it to weight-conscious adults.
If you are trying just to get some veggies into the kids and/or use up the stuff you got from the CSA, maybe you can try something from Jessica Seinfeld’s “Deceptively Delicious” cookbooks. What she does is make veggie purees and then puts them in to common recipes.
I believe this is a recipe from Cooking Light (magazine).
Ingredients :
1 (1-pound) eggplant, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick slices
3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup dry red wine
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 small zucchini (about 4 ounces)
1 small yellow squash (about 4 ounces)
1 large red bell pepper, quartered lengthwise and seeded
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup (2 ounces) goat cheese
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano
Place eggplant slices in a colander. Sprinkle evenly with 1/2 teaspoon salt; toss well. Let stand 10 minutes. Rinse slices thoroughly; dry with paper towels.
Combine vinegar, wine, and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer until reduced to 1/4 cup (about 8 minutes).
Prepare grill.
Trim ends from the zucchini and yellow squash; slice each lengthwise into 4 (1/4-inch-thick) slices. Flatten pepper pieces with hand. Brush eggplant, zucchini, squash, and pepper pieces with oil; sprinkle with remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and black pepper. Place pepper pieces, skin side down, eggplant, zucchini, and squash on a grill rack; grill 8 minutes or until tender, turning once.
Combine cheese, basil, and oregano.
To assemble stack, place 1 eggplant slice on a plate; top with one-fourth of cheese mixture. Lay one strip of yellow squash and one strip of zucchini side by side. Drizzle with 1 1/2 teaspoons balsamic mixture. Top with one pepper piece. Top with one eggplant slice and drizzle with 1 1/2 teaspoons balsamic mixture. Repeat procedure three times with remaining eggplant, cheese, squash, zucchini, peppers, and balsamic mixture. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.
A world of yum.
Roasted and lightly steamed are the best I’ve seen for kids. Do any of them like putting X thing on everything they eat? When Middle Bluth was early in his teens he hated vegetables until he “discovered” he could put Tabasco on them. He later progressed to dousing everything in sauteed garlic and Lawry’s. I’ve heard of kids feeling the same way about BBQ sauce or ranch dressing (cooked and raw), low fat sour cream, salsa, and on and on.
Pureed broccoli soup is often “cool” because it’s green.
ETA: Ask them when they say they don’t like something, why they don’t like it, and ask them to narrow it down to either 1) texture 2) smell or 3) taste. All 3 can be changed (perhaps they like something more cooked or roasted rather than steamed, smell can be covered up with toppings and taste can be changed in the same ways texture can).
My SO’s little sister (13) swore she haaaaaated vegetables. Well, uh, she mostly hates vegetables boiled the way her mom makes them. She’s agreeable to every-so-lightly steamed vegetables and raw vegetables with Penzey’s chip dip mixed with sour cream.
Our son’s two favorite vegetables are Brussels sprouts and asparagus. I credit Rhiannon8404’s cooking skills, but she’ll tell you all she does is grill/pan fry or roast them. Brussels sprouts in particular benefit, in my opinion, from being tossed with bacon, and cooked in the leftover bacon grease.
My mom boiled all vegetables in massive quantities of water until they were good and dead, which explains why I didn’t like most vegetables until I was an adult and had them prepared ‘properly’.
Well, you could take all of the veg you mentioned for this dinner and dice it finely and mix it with some ground beef, and potatoes, and carrots, some beef stock, various flavorings or spices- cook down and thicken slightly and use it as a filling for pasties (empanadas). They’ll never even know it’s in there- The ol’ Hot Pocket method.
