Favourite vegetable?

christeb

My current obsessions are jerusalem artichokes and wild garlic.

Love making risottos and frying up the former for salads while the latter gets put into everything from soup to pesto to salads and on eggs. I'll even try it in porridge next week.

Both have some slightly unsavoury side effects, with the former being known to produce gas and the latter doing nothing for your breath. Luckily my OH enjoys wild garlic too!

So, what's yours? And how do you use it?

chinacup

christeb wrote: »

My current obsessions are jerusalem artichokes and wild garlic.

Love making risottos and frying up the former for salads while the latter gets put into everything from soup to pesto to salads and on eggs. I'll even try it in porridge next week.

Both have some slightly unsavoury side effects, with the former being known to produce gas and the latter doing nothing for your breath. Luckily my OH enjoys wild garlic too!

So, what's yours? And how do you use it?

Homely sweet potatoes because they are so versatile! And I've just discovered you can make caramel out of them. Mmmm. So far I've made mash, used them in curries, made crisps out of them, used them as a sweetener for nut butter, made fries, fried them like aubergine, used them in baking and this eve had a lovely sweet potato and carrot mash. Sweet potato every day please!

orchidsrpretty

Mine is the very boring carrot. I eat them raw by the bucketload. I never get sick of them. I love mashed sweet potato and carrot.

quaalude

Spinach.
I eat cooked it every morning with breakfast, raw every lunchtime in my lunch salad, and often with dinner, one way or another.
I also like to eat it right out of the bag, like crisps.
It's just the business.

loveisdivine

Has to be mushrooms. I would live off only mushrooms if I could. I love treating myself to King Bolets when I can find them too Quite expensive, but such an amazing mushroom flavour.

quaalude

loveisdivine wrote: »

Has to be mushrooms. I would live off only mushrooms if I could. I love treating myself to King Bolets when I can find them too Quite expensive, but such an amazing mushroom flavour.

Mushrooms are my second-favourite vegetable. I go through several packs of the Tesco Chestnut Mushroom each week.
Must look out for King Bolets - never had 'em!

loveisdivine

quaalude wrote: »

Mushrooms are my second-favourite vegetable. I go through several packs of the Tesco Chestnut Mushroom each week.
Must look out for King Bolets - never had 'em!

They have them in Fallon and Byrne in Dublin quite often. Infact they have quite a good selection of wild mushrooms and they sell them loose so you can just buy 1 or 2 if you're not sure whether you will like them, so you don't spend loads on a whole packet!

quaalude

loveisdivine wrote: »

They have them in Fallon and Byrne in Dublin quite often. Infact they have quite a good selection of wild mushrooms and they sell them loose so you can just buy 1 or 2 if you're not sure whether you will like them, so you don't spend loads on a whole packet!

Deadly, will check it at the weekend. I like F&B for the odd ingredient, but never really looked at the vegetables.

loveisdivine

quaalude wrote: »

Deadly, will check it at the weekend. I like F&B for the odd ingredient, but never really looked at the vegetables.

Well you are in for a treat. Lovely range of veg. Some of it is pricey, but then some other stuff is actually more reasonable than the supermarket. All depends on what it is.

nervous_twitch

Technically a fruit yes but the humble and versatile tomato, when grown right, is hard to beat. Sundried tomato with basil oil on some crusty bread. Mmm. Other than that I like all the forward veg; chili, garlic, onions etc.

sok2005

Close tie between broccoli and bell peppers for my favourite. Hold on, what about mange tout, it's too tricky to decide.

Can we also put our most hated?

Mine has to be beetroot, it tastes like soil to me.

sweet-rasmus

Others would say beetroot has a delightful earthy flavour; it goes well mixed with chocolate in a cake Or slices of beetroot in a hearty rye bread sandwich is lovely for lunch, with lettuce, mayo, hummous, spring onion and whatever else you want to add in.

I can't decide on my favourite vegetable. There are so many good ones! Fresh spinach steamed is delightful. Or grilled courgette.... NYOM! On toast, in a sandwich, or in a lasagne. But yet, so many people don't like courgette

arf91 wrote:

Homely sweet potatoes because they are so versatile! And I've just discovered you can make caramel out of them.

And tell me more about that! Have you tried making it yet?

Also - I love this thread! Such sexy vegetable talk Thanks christeb!

christeb

Some excellent examples and inspiration here

Does anyone else go to their local farmer's market, buy something they've never bought before and google how to use it when they go home?

Artichoke (the normal one) and sprouting broccoli are 2 recent examples, both delicious!

Olivia86

My local farmers market never has anything too exciting
I absolutely love butternut squash roasted with garlic ... yum! And spinach, mushrooms, broccoli, tomatoes & avocado (technically fruits I know!).
Kale crisps made with olive oil, salt, nutritional yeast & sesame seeds are pretty awesome too ... Really I'll take any veggies

Washout

The humble spud for me.....can be just cooked so many ways and tastes good no matter what way its cooked.

give me mashed potatos with baked beans any day of the week

loveisdivine

Oh I love avocado too actually and sweetcorn. I really want to like squash but whenever we have it I'm always disappointed.

Shenshen

It would have to be cauliflower for me.

Anything from cauliflower soup, to cauliflower and cheese to cauliflower in curry... Or even just plain boiled cauliflower with a bit of hollandaise drizzled over the top - absolute heaven!

loveisdivine

Shenshen wrote: »

It would have to be cauliflower for me.

Anything from cauliflower soup, to cauliflower and cheese to cauliflower in curry... Or even just plain boiled cauliflower with a bit of hollandaise drizzled over the top - absolute heaven!

Ive started making cheese sauce by blitzing cooked cauliflower and just adding cheese. Much healthier than a white sauce!

sok2005

The humble onion is definitely taken for granted. There's nothing like the smell of onion and garlic sautéing in a pan as a base to many soups, stews and stir frys!

chinacup

sweet-rasmus wrote: »

Others would say beetroot has a delightful earthy flavour; it goes well mixed with chocolate in a cake Or slices of beetroot in a hearty rye bread sandwich is lovely for lunch, with lettuce, mayo, hummous, spring onion and whatever else you want to add in.

I can't decide on my favourite vegetable. There are so many good ones! Fresh spinach steamed is delightful. Or grilled courgette.... NYOM! On toast, in a sandwich, or in a lasagne. But yet, so many people don't like courgette


And tell me more about that! Have you tried making it yet?

Also - I love this thread! Such sexy vegetable talk Thanks christeb!

You strain the juices from a roast batch through a cheese cloth and reduce in a saucepan http://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/inside-our-kitchen/article/sweet-potato-caramel

I also made a less fancy version accidentally by frying up very small chunks in a saucepan and little bits ended up breaking up and mashing withe the butter to form a sort of caramel! Might try the real version tonight and let you know how I get on!

HelenT

Great question! But impossible to pick just one. Old favourites are onion, mushroom, tomatoes and fresh garden peas (with mint) - without those I don't think I would have survived as a veggie in the west of Ireland 20 + years ago!

Now some of my favourites include Okra, Artichoke, sweet potatoes (well all spuds really), squash and leek .

The only veggie I NEVER buy is courgette. This is probably due to the fact that I used to grow my own veg and completely over did the courgette plants not realising how many blinking courgettes each one produces.

loveisdivine

I think the different varieties of onions are often overlooked. I mean your basic onion is a staple, but there are so many different flavours out there. We use Roscoff onions mostly, the have a slight pink tinge and a delicious flavour, but without the overwhelming power of a standard onion.

thinking about onions also reminds me of the holy trinity! Nothing like the aroma of scallion garlic and ginger frying together

T L S

For me it has to be the potato.

There's are so, so many things that can be done with them and I've yet to meet a potato dish that I don't like!

Second place is currently celeriac. Absolutely delicious; boiled and mashed in with potatoes, made into soup or grated raw and mixed with sour cream and melted Danish Blue cheese to make a kind of coleslaw.

4umbrellas

Parsnips. Roasted parsnip, parsnip soup...
Or when we were kids my mother used to mash carrot and parsnip together with black pepper - yum!

turnikett1

I would say potato but its not a "real" vegetable to me! I think leeks are my favourite vegetable. I fúcking LOVE leeks. Bell peppers and spinach are good too. Portobello mushrooms another top fav... There's too many, I love nearly every vegetable! Except beetroot, yuck.

--LOS--

quaalude wrote: »

Spinach.
I eat cooked it every morning with breakfast, raw every lunchtime in my lunch salad, and often with dinner, one way or another.
I also like to eat it right out of the bag, like crisps.
It's just the business.

Just be aware of spinach inhibiting calcium and iron absorption, especially if you're eating that much of it, kale is a much better alternative.


hmm what do I like......... brocolli especially tender-stem, asparagus, mangetout (all expensive I know), the humble carrot, cooked and raw, kale is one of the best sources of calcium so good for vegans