Favorite vegetable recipes?

[SASM]

With this pg, I CANNOT STAND vegetables! UGH! Actually, I stand corrected...I cannot stand vegetables that I make at home. I usually gravitate towards the veggies (and seafood) at Whole Foods and Wegmans take-out sections. They somehow look and smell sooo good to me there ~ go figure! I just must be lazy and NOT want to make them at home. I have an INSANE amount of cookbooks and refer to www.foodtv.com quite often. Prob is...nothing is quite "doing it" for me at home! :( I have been craving Olive Garden's AYCE Soup, Salad, and Breadsticks lunch BUT the thought of actually eating a salad at home is rivolting. :( Even with the insane variety of dressings (or fresh lemon juice) that I have on hand.

So...Do any of you ladies have any AWESOME vegetable recipes that will inspire me to cook and eat them at home?? PLEASE help me!! Right now the baby is getting more nutrients from the cacao bean than "regular" beans and veggies ~ NOT GOOD!!!

TIA (I hope.)!!

[SnuggleBuggles]

I have a recipe for a corn casserole that I love. Not sure if corn fits your veggie bill though. Let me know if you want me to post it. I just printed a food tv recipe for zucchini gratin but I haven't tried it yet. How about veggie chilli?

I have been drawn to fresh produce this pg and have been munching on grape tomatoes and sugar snap peas. Do those do anything for you? :)

Beth

[SASM]

Hi Beth,

THANK YOU! I would actually LOVE the casserole recipe. My friend gave me a recipe for corn souffle that she raved about but when I made it it was very corn bread-ish and not as vegetable-ish. :) I have been doing corn without a problem and look forward to the fresh stuff!! The gratin sounds interesting, too. I am afraid that the chili would be too much for the GERD (gotta love that).

You know...normally I am a HUGE veggie fanatic and look forward to the fresh vegetables of summer. That's why this is so puzzling to me ~ I like to cook but cannot find vegetable to cook appealing. And they can be soooo easy to prepare, too. :( I would probably do grape tomatos if I could get my hands on them but Bryn and Ian can devour an entire pack of them in one sitting! Last week I was eating snap peas like crazy while I was walking through Whole Foods but they sat in the fridge virtually untouched until yesterday. :( UGH!!!!!!!! Weird!

[trentsmom]

Have you tried roasting any of your veggies? Toss them in some olive oil, sprinkle with kosher salt, put them on a cookie sheet and roast at 400-450 until they look really good - about 15 minutes for asparagus, green beans, maybe longer for other veggies. I'm making asparagus tonight because it's one of the veggies DS likes.

For easy green beans: open a can of beans, put in a pot, add a can of water, add dried onions, a splash of olive oil, a bouillion cube (or its equivalent - preferably low sodium). Boil for about an hour until most of the liquid is gone. If I start cooking dinner too late, I don't add as much water so it gets done quicker.

I also like canned, seasoned mixed greens. I don't think I'll ever cook up my own mess of greens! I add a little vinegar when I heat them up.

Do you like gazpacho? That's any easy way to get veggies. Lots of different versions of that.

If you're interested, I can dig out a recipe for Okra Fritters. I start making those mid-summer once the tomatoes and okra start coming in. It has chopped okra, tomatoes, and onions in a mild curry cornmeal batter. DH doesn't like okra, tomatoes, or onions, but he loves these fritters!

But I hear you about how having someone else do the cooking makes everything taste so much better!

[SASM]

Funny...roasted veggies are usually the first thing that I head to at the take-away bar! :) One thing that I have been able to eat at home is grilled (on the stove top) asparagus, although I am trying not to eat to much of it d/t the smell. Never thought to roast them, though. Ooooo, you just gave me the thought of roasted brussel sprouts! Love 'em but had a bad experience the last time while prepping ~ maybe I'll try it again.

I'd LOVE the fritter recipe. Sounds interesting! Thanks for the green beans recipe. I am Italian and make greens and beans all the time, that is when I am not having an aversion to veggies. I did not know that there was a canned variety! :)

Gazpacho is normally a HUGE favorite of mine in the summer. A few weeks ago I tried to make my usual recipe in an expedited manner by blitzing most of the veggies in the food processor instead of dicing everything by hand. My pregnancy palate was sooooo unhappy with me. :( DH thought it was fine but the flavor and texture just didn't taste right d/t the chopping. DO you have a favorite flavorful gazpacho recipe that is not as labor intensive. The only vegetable that I didn't mind dicing by hand were the cucumbers ~ super easy! :)

THANK YOU!

[trentsmom]

I've never liked brussels sprouts, but I've always kept trying them just in case I change my mind. That said, roasted brussels sprouts sound good. There was an article in the paper this past winter with recipes. Hmmmm.

Here are the recipes. If you don't have a V-slicer, I would highly recommend getting one. http://tinyurl.com/39b9dv My mom first bought one of these in the late 70s in Germany. We've been using them ever since.

Okra Fritters

2 cups thinly sliced okra
1 cup cubed tomato
1 cup minced onion
1 teaspoon salt
pepper to taste
1 teaspoon curry
2 beaten eggs
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup flour

Mix all ingredients together. Stir hard. Fry in shallow oil until golden brown on both sides. Lightly salt when they come out.


Gazpacho

OK, it's obvious this recipe came before lots of tomato products were available! But this is what I had the first time I had gazpacho many, many years ago.

1 can tomato soup
1 can water
1 quart Clamato juice
glip-glip of oil
1/2 cup chopped cucumber
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1 can tomatoes or fresh
salt
good bit of hot sauce
couple shakes of W'shire sauce
pepper

Mix everything together.

[SASM]

Thank you so much for the recipes, Chantel! I was very inspired by the recipes that you and Beth posted so I found a Zucchini Gratin recipe from www.foodtv.com and I also printed up a tomato soup recipe to try that night. I have been eating the zucchini ever since! I was soooo inspired by your mention of the gazpacho BUT haven't quite had it in me to do all of the chopping yet. Your recipe sounds interesting ~ I've never had gazpacho with clamato and celery before! :) I am looking forward to trying your fritters! I do not have any okra recipes in my collection so it'll be fun to try! SOunds good! THANK YOU!

[alleyoop]

How about a Butternut Squash Soup? All the good stuff, easy and takes out the veg consistency? I was the same way with my first pregnancy... even thinking about salad made me sick!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_29694,00.html?rsrc=search

[SASM]

Heather,

Thank you for the link! I totally forgot about BN Squash soup! I think that I might have even made this recipe in the past ~ I love Paula Deen. All of the butter & cream in her recipes can be QUITE scary but I've been able to work around it (hee-hee!). :) I am printing it out and am thinking that it'll be on the menu for tomorrow. I THINK that I can even eat it cold. :)

[SnuggleBuggles]

Here is the Corn Cheese Bake recipe from the cookbook "More with Less"

Oven to 350
Combine and mix well:
2c cooked corn, drained
2/3c milk
2 eggs, beaten
1/2t salt
dash pepper
1c shredded cheese (4oz) [I usually use a swiss or some variety but I bet most would taste good]
2T minced onion (optional)
2T minced green pepper (optional)

Pour into a greased 1.5qt casserole. Top with:
1/2c cracker crumbs
2T melted [butter] margarine
[I usually use Panko bread crumbs and no butter for my topping]

Bake 40-45 minutes.


How about a veggie soup? Corn chowder, cream of potato, cream of carrot, garden vegetable (my current pregnancy craving :))...?

Beth

[alleyoop]

I think you could eat it cold! I made this a couple days ago and it was a hit. BTW, I added a clove of garlic when it was boiling and substituted 1/4c half and half for the cream. All in all, this recipe is darn healthy! I also added a touch of rubbed sage (maybe 1/4tsp). I hope you like it! I also have a great recipe for zuchinni soup. DO you want it?