Buzz
Vegetables are a vital part of maintaining a healthy diet, but for many of us, getting enough greens can be a real challenge—especially if we never learned to appreciate them in the first place. I used to be a vegetable hater myself, so I totally understand. But trust me, it’s possible to learn to like vegetables, even if you loathed them as a child.
If you're picturing a spread of the same bland, unappealing vegetable dishes you turned your nose up at as a child, take a breath. There are two key things to remember. First, there are a lot more vegetable dishes out there than the ones you’ve already tried, and some of them might just suit your tastes.
Secondly, our tastes really do evolve over time. We all go through a phase of being picky eaters as kids, but then we start expanding our taste buds as teenagers and adults. Plus, we tend to become less sensitive to bitter flavors as we age. That’s great news if you found Brussels sprouts or broccoli too bitter when you were younger. I rediscovered many vegetables in my twenties, and by the time I hit my thirties, I found myself eating almost everything I once hated—even black licorice.
So here are a few suggestions to help you take the plunge.
Add something flavorful
If you're deciding to eat more vegetables for their health benefits, don't stress about making them 'healthy' at first. The fact that you're eating vegetables at all is the healthy part. So, go ahead and pile on the butter!
This doesn’t mean you have to smother your vegetables in butter forever, but it's a great way to start enjoying them. You can always experiment with 'healthier' recipes later. In a Reddit thread titled What recipe made you change your mind about a vegetable you didn’t like?, many of the responses involved simply covering vegetables in butter:
Getting drunk and frying mushrooms in butter...
Grate the zucchini lengthwise, then fry it with butter and chopped bacon.
Pan-fry cauliflower or Brussels sprouts with a generous amount of butter, garlic, and salt. It’s also delicious.
Asparagus pan-fried with butter and garlic is another great option.
Now I can't even remember why I ever disliked beets—especially when I roast them alongside sweet potatoes and carrots with olive oil and rosemary garlic butter!
If any of this sounds tempting, go for it. Butter, garlic, herbs, and bacon are all fantastic choices. Salt enhances everything, and it even helps tone down bitter flavors. Maybe all you need is to dunk any vegetable in a pool of butter and see what happens.
Or pick any other flavor you enjoy. Cheese works wonders: Sprinkle parmesan over your cauliflower, goat cheese on your beets, or go ahead and smother a bag of mixed veggies in queso. A certain individual, who shall remain nameless and whom I am definitely not married to, once supposedly enjoyed (!) dipping broccoli in vanilla frosting. Now, please try to forget that I just mentioned that, and let's move on.
Try a different texture
If you’ve only ever had mushy broccoli, try blanching it. This method softens the bitterness while brightening the color. Blanched broccoli, asparagus, and other green veggies are perfect for a crudité platter (or, as real Pennsylvanians call it, a veggie tray—but I digress), and it gives you the chance to dip them in ranch, hummus, or any other dip you enjoy.
Maybe you prefer your vegetables cooked a bit more. If your experience with green beans has only been the soft canned variety, try steaming fresh green beans until they’re just tender but still have a satisfying crunch.
As a general tip, try experimenting with the opposite texture from what you’ve been used to. Mytour food writer Allie Chanthorn Reinmann shares that she never really liked eggplant until she tried a Chinese stewed eggplant dish in a rich garlic sauce (catering to her preference for softer textures), and it completely changed her perspective.
Explore new vegetables
You don't have to revisit the vegetables you’ve disliked in the past. Head to the grocery store or farmer’s market and start fresh. Maybe you've never tried rabe, celeriac, or spaghetti squash. Now’s the perfect time to give them a shot!
Try different dishes, especially if you can sample them buffet-style. If you didn’t grow up eating much Indian food, for instance, you might find that an Indian restaurant's buffet offers new flavors without the baggage of old experiences.
Another tip: Steal a bite. 'Whenever I went out to dinner with friends, I would ask to try a veggie from their plates,' writes former veggie-hater Steve Kamb from Nerd Fitness. Restaurant dishes are usually delicious, and taking just one forkful is a low-risk way to try something new. If you don’t enjoy that borrowed bite of sweet potato, simply wash it down with a sip of your drink and return to your safe meal.
Make a chopped salad
If salads have always seemed unappealing to you, now is the time to dive in. A great salad dressing can make almost any vegetable taste delicious, and you can customize the ingredients to include things you already enjoy, like bacon and eggs, which are key components of a classic Cobb salad.
Our senior food editor, Claire Lower, suggests chopping your salads into smaller pieces for easier eating. 'I always use kitchen shears to chop the salad into tiny bits,' she explains. This way, you can easily fork a mix of ingredients instead of struggling with large lettuce leaves or oversized veggie pieces.
Add a touch of acid
Another tip from Claire: Try drizzling a little vinegar or squeezing lemon juice over any vegetable. 'It brightens up the dish and balances out the stronger, heavier vegetable flavors,' she explains. This is why salad dressings have acid, but you can also add a squeeze of lemon to cooked vegetables. Asparagus and other green veggies really shine with this addition.
Experiment with a sweet vegetable
If you don't enjoy bitter or savory tastes, try something sweeter. Vegetables like carrots, sweet potatoes, beets, winter squash, and corn naturally have sweetness. You can combine their sweet flavor with other tastes by adding butter and salt to corn, for example.
Alternatively, you can fully embrace the sweetness. A baked sweet potato is tasty with just butter, but it becomes exceptional when topped with brown sugar and cinnamon. Roasting carrots and parsnips together and drizzling them with honey (perhaps with a touch of cayenne) adds a flavorful finish.
For an easy and flavorful option, try roasting them with garlic salt.
Roasting is an excellent method for both sweet and savory vegetables. It’s one of the simplest ways to cook them, requiring only minimal preparation time and basic pantry ingredients.
We have a guide here, but essentially, all you need to do is place your chopped vegetables on a tray, drizzle with oil, and season generously with garlic salt or any other spices you like. Bake them until the insides are tender and the outside is crispy, and you'll probably end up enjoying them.
