Veg out
Today on Serious Eats:
Cooking With Kids: Eat Your Veggies
Honestly, my daughter is four now and hardly likes any vegetables, but the key to getting her to eat vegetables when she was younger was using plenty of butter, olive oil, or peanut oil. Not just because this made the vegetables taste better (this was before she developed strong taste preferences) but because fat, well, lubricates. Babies are less likely to gag on well-oiled vegetables.
The same is true of 20-year-olds, apparently.
Be sure to read the comments, where people suggest all kinds of great-tasting vegetable dishes that Iris will probably not eat—but I will.
Comment by matt wright
I feel your pain! Butter, olive oil, or parmesan are the key to making anything taste better for Drake, our kid of 17months.
Veggies are hit and miss. One day he would eat a big plate of green beans, the next day he would flick them off his high chair..
We, like most parents, developed some strategies.. He loves pasta. So we started to give him penne. What is brilliant here is that we have been able to stuff each penne with just about any vegetabale we care to give him, and he chomps it straight down. Good show! It is bloody tedious stuffing little penne, but kinda amusing to see what we can get him to eat!
Another trick for us is to grate a bunch of different vegetables into a basic tomato pasta sauce. That has been a great way to get vegetables into him too.
I have never used so much butter in my cooking, and I blame the tons of extra flavor on Drake.. Thanks mate, lets you are a picky vegetable eater for a while!!!
Posted on May 21, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Comment by heather
i’ve always loved me some veg…when it was my birthday, and i could choose aaaanything for dinner on the whoooole planet…i chose lima beans. seriously.
Posted on May 21, 2008 at 5:37 pm
Comment by mamster
Heather, I would choose pizza, but with numerous toppings including the vegetable ones.
Matt, I’ll bet somewhere out there a chef is reading your comment and thinking, “Hmm…stuffed penne.” She is pulling out her pastry bag and will christen the menu item “baby manicotti.”
Posted on May 22, 2008 at 6:08 am
Comment by Wendy
It was so, so hard to resist recommending The Sneaky Chef and Deceptively Delicious in the comments. I would have done it very earnestly, under a pseudonym.
Posted on May 22, 2008 at 6:08 am
Comment by mamster
I want to write a parody book about hiding Snickers bars in broccoli.
Posted on May 22, 2008 at 6:21 am
Comment by matt wright
The Scots like to hide those in batter..
Posted on May 22, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Comment by Dana
My sisters and I used to fight over who got to finish the salad as kids, and often asked for vegi laden “salad sandwiches” instead of peanut butter and jelly. I guess we were weird.
On the other hand, my husband didn’t eat anything green until he decided to turn vegetarian in college (to maintain cyclist race weight.)
I have had a few too many moments of fear that my kids won’t eat anything interesting because, “daddy doesn’t”, and I’ll be alone in a life full of mac and cheese, pepperoni pizza, nachos, and spaghetti. Oh the horror.
Posted on May 22, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Comment by Molly
My 3 1/2 year old eats almost anything — “NO, I don’t want a cream puff, I want MORE MACKEREL!” Direct quote, last week. But he won’t eat asparagus. Loves mushrooms, kalamata olives, anchovies, lemons. But carrots, sweet potatoes, peas … eh. Personally, I think it’s evolutionary: kids are supposed to grow. Veggies have, on average, 7 calories per serving. Does the celery-loving child make it do adulthood? You do the math.
Posted on May 23, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Comment by mamster
Molly, mackerel is Iris’s favorite fish, period. She would probably choose it over steak.
Posted on May 23, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Comment by vladka
Molly, they can find the balance themselves. When my three-year-old opens the freezer, he’s looking for frozen peas. He seriously loves them. On the other hand, the moment he sees chocolate…:) We all know that. I do consider myself lucky that my child eats fruit and veg. It’s a good start. When he reaches puberty, he’ll probably prefer macdonald’s to mom’s dinner though. Now he eats frozen peas, raw potatoes, and raw pizza dough, what a wonderful child;)
Posted on May 25, 2008 at 12:02 pm