So you say you don’t like cucumbers? Ah well. I know exactly how to help this situation.
See? You peel stripes out of the cucumber and then you slice them and then they become adorable stripy zebra cucumbers which will then make cucumbers perfectly irresistible. Mmm-mmm yummy cucumbers.
I personally think stripy zebra cucumbers are more fun to eat than non-stripy, un-zebra cucumbers. (Let’s be clear that I’m calling these stripy {long i} and not strippy {short i} because there’s a difference that I’d rather not go into here.) I think stripy zebra cucumbers look pretty on a plate. That’s why I had to take a picture to show you how fun these are.
But what if you just really, really don’t like cucumbers?
I like cucumbers. Yay, me. But try as I might (and trust me, I really did try – more than thrice), I cannot make myself like jicima. We got two lovely jicima in our Bountiful Basket last week, so even though I don’t like them, I tried making jicima sticks for easier dipping. Also, doesn’t it just sound fun to say, “Yum! We’re going to snack on some jicima sticks!” (In case you’re not sure, the “j” in jicima is pronounced with an “h” sound. It’s not a jicima, it’s a hicima, like hiccup, even though it’s spelled jicima. It’s just that you need to say it right when you exclaim, “Yum! We’re going to snack on some jicima sticks!”)
This is a jicima.
I took a picture of it beside the rose we got at
Asa’s basketball Senior Recognition night because who doesn’t like
jicima and rose together in the same picture, and also because
the rose is in its final hours and I never got a picture.
I talk all this semi-nonsense about zebra cucumbers and jicima sticks to tell you this:
I give you permission to not like every fruit and vegetable in the grocery store, farmer’s market,and garden.
Now if you haven’t tried it, you don’t get to say you don’t like it. But if you’ve really, really tried (and even cut it into zebra stripes or dipping sticks) and you really, really don’t like it – you can just not like it. Guilt free.
So I don’t like jicima. So what? I love and eat close to 50 other fruits and veggies (aka freggies), so I’m probably okay without the important vitamins and minerals obtained from eating jicima. This is a very good thing since I didn’t even know jicima existed until about three months ago.
But what about you? Is your fruit and veggie palate growing?
You need to know that it has taken me years to develop a taste for a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. (What can I say? I liked Pepsi and chocolate chip cookies better.) But as I learned the importance of nourishment, I was open to trying. I tried hard. I forced myself at first to eat vegetables I only thought were “so-so.”
I went from liking and eating only – I kid you not – four vegetables (green beans, carrots, peas, and iceburg lettuce) and one fruit (apples) as a young adult to LOVING dozens of different fruit and veggie varieties. It took time. It took being intentional. I know my palate will still grow. (Who knows? Maybe one day I’ll even like jicima.)
Sooooo, I encourage you to try your least favorite fruits or veggies from time to time as truly, our taste buds do change. But I also know I don’t need to feel bad about not liking every fruit or vegetable out there. Just be sure you continue to make freggies a priority.
Now tell me: What fruit or veggie have you tried multiple times but just can not make yourself like it?
Beets….shudder :(
My husband says beets taste like dirt….I like them. Sometimes you can get a funky can of beets that really does kinda taste like dirt.
Never had fresh though.
Maybe if you try pickled beets, yum. :)
tomatoes. ew. i eat them because i know they’re good for me, but i don’t like them.
also green beans. i can’t even eat them at all. ew.
I have a fresh corn salsa recipe that uses jicama that is delicious. Here it is in case you want to try jicama again.
3 medium ears of corn, kernels cut from cob, about 1 3/4 cup
1 1/4 cups jicama. Peeled, diced
1/2 cup green onions, thinly sliced
1 large red pepper, diced
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded if desired, minced
1 avocado, firm but ripe, diced
2 tablespoons oil (use your preferred oil here)
2 tablespoons of fresh lime juice (juice from 2 limes)
2 tablespoons cilantro, minced
1 teaspoon wine vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
3/4 teaspoon sugar
Put all ingredients in a bowl and toss well to mix. Taste, adjust lime
juice and seasonings, if desired. Can be served immediately. But is best
if refrigerated overnight before using. To serve, stir well, taste and
adjust seasoning. Serve with chips, poultry, pork, fish and shrimp. Makes
4 cups. Per 1/4 cup Cal. 57 (51% fat) Fat 4 g Fiber 2 g No chol Sodium
150 ml Carb 7 g Calcium 4 mg.
P.S. I think stripy cucumbers taste better too!
Another one for tomatoes. I just can’t like them raw. I do enjoy a variety of cooked tomato dishes. When we have fresh tomatoes from the garden, I will put a slice on my burger to keep trying. I am getting better with things like bruschetta and fresh salsa.
Our family recently learned to like cabbage. I thought it was only for coleslaw, but in the last six months or so we have been eating it cooked. Cabbage is cheap, nutritious, and really stretches a meal. We like a dish called “Egg Roll in a Bowl” which is a one pot meal. Yay! This week I made a split pea soup with cabbage in it. It was not everyone’s favorite, but everyone ate it. I’m enjoying having the leftovers for nice warm lunches.
If you’re enjoying cabbage, try it braised, it’s wonderful:
http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2008/11/worlds-best-braised-cabbage-2.html
That cabbage looks wonderful. I’m totally gonna have to try it!
Beets and fennel………….Blech!
I personally have a hard time eating turnip greens….yuck! I have tried them many , many times. I am getting better at tolerating them but they are still my least favorite veggie.
Have you tried sauteing them in with bacon or in bacon grease and cooking in your favorite broth until tender? We don’t love them, but they’re tolerable this way.
No, I have’t tried them with bacon/bacon grease. I will have to try them again and use bacon. Bacon makes anything taste better! :) Thanks!
First, I want to let you know that I LOVE your new term freggies!
What I don’t like is bananas and Brussels sprouts. I give them a try roughly annually… and just… no. I especially wish I liked bananas, they are so portable and easy and nutrient packed. But they’re just so… banana-y. No thank you.
I love jicama though!
If you like bacon, try brussells sprouts sliced in half (or if you’re patient seperate the tiny leaves from the core) sauteed in bacon grease and simmered in broth/ water until tender. Season generously with salt & pepper.
I started to get a new fruit or veggie every week. Then I fell of the wagon. I know my daughter likes it. This week is beets and a fruit that I cant remember. She never had a beets before. Now I need to find out how to make them.
Have you tried chocolate beet cake? Or a beet smoothie: 1 whole orange, 1 whole pineapple and 1 peeled beet.
Beets. They taste like dirt.
Amen!
Have you tried chocolate beet cake? You just shred the beets and add to your favorite chocolate cake recipe.
Bell peppers. I’ve tried, but just the smell is nauseating…. I have learned to eat mushrooms and pineapple, though, so there is hope!
Your jicama looks sad! It should be smooth on the outside, not dimply.
We love jicama at our house. If you don’t like it raw, try it julienned in salad or as oven baked fries.
When it came, it didn’t look so sad. We got two, and cut into one. The one in the picture above has been sitting too long, getting all shrivelly. :)
Definitely old jicama…. eat it when it is smooth and it will taste better. :)
Tomatoes and mushrooms. They’re good for me. I eat them. But I don’t like them. I love salsa, bruschetta and cooked tomatoes, I just don’t like them as tomatoes. They’re juicy in all the wrong ways. And mushrooms taste too… earthy.
Within the last 2 years I have tried many, many new veggies that I used to hate (or thought I hated)-sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts, chard, mushrooms, collard greens, etc., etc. But I CANNOT learn to love cauliflower and asparagus. Bleh!
I hate mushrooms-the texture and taste both are revolting. Give me a beet any day-I could eat beets every single day. That said, maybe you will disregard what follows if you don’t share my tastes. ;-)
As for Jicama-your picture looks like you got a bad one. They should be fairly smooth, not shrivelly looking. A good one tastes sweet, almost apple-like, to me. If you’re brave enough to try again, I’ve got a recipe on my blog for Jicama slaw that is easy (once you peel the jicama, which I find tedious).
Along with the recipe, you can check out my picture of jicama to see what I mean about how they usually look: http://bluebarnbulletin.blogspot.com/2009/06/jicama-slaw.html If you come across a healthier-looking jicama, I hope you’ll give it one more chance.
Actually, the jicima in the picture has been sitting on my countertop too long. We got two, and they were smooth when we got them. The one that’s left is just getting old and pitiful looking. Poor little jicima. :)
Cantaloupe–I think it smells SO good and try it every year, but I just can’t stand it!!
try it with some salt, it really helps both bring out the flavor and transition it into something a bit more savory :)
I second that! But I have been able to choke it down when blended with a blender full of strawberries , pineapple, oranges and sometimes watermelon I have any needing to be eaten.
I don’t care for fresh tomatoes.
If you try jicama again, try it with lime juice and salt. Tasty!
Typically I love bell peppers and sweet peppers but I am pregnant and they are revolting to me! I have not tried jicima, but I can’t think of any veggies I don’t like. I do not like blackberries though!!
Most store bought blackberries are not ripe enough. Blackberries are tricky. They are sour right up until they are just barely ready to pick, then they get super plump and soft and oh so deliciously sweet, like honey. Makes it hard to get them store bought because of the practice of picking green and letting things ripen in transit.
Good to know. If i ever have a chance at fresh ones I will give them a try!
I say even thrice is not enough times to try to like a veggie! They say it takes kids ten exposures to a new food before they like it. I think we adults, who have had a couple or more decades to become opinionated need a minimum of ten exposures before we can give something new a fair try! Of course I have never tried jicima. I have never seen them locally.
Every year I try new foods including freggies and some old ones that I believe I don’t like. I have come to learn that I like beets, turnip greens, black-eyed peas, okra, parsnips, a variety of winter squash, and more. Just last month I tried some Italian beans in a jar that you eat cold. Can’t remember what they were called, but you pop them out of their skins before eating. Yum! I have even tasted some of those freaky looking fruits in the grocery store. I can’t name them but I love them. Wish they were in my price range. :) One thing I just can’t bring myself to eat is regular ol’ peas.
My Mom always peeled our cucumbers like that! I do, too. It just looks prettier and you don’t have so much peel to eat. :)
Believe it or not peas. Something about the way they kind of pop in your mouth when you chew them. Plus I think they taste like grass. I also, never liked beans. I can tolerate them in things now, but hated beans and cornbread night as a kid. I learned to swallow beans and peas whole so I didn’t have to chew them. Took me about an hour to eat a bowl of beans. LOL. Things I used to not like, but do now. Love broccoli, never liked it as a kid because mom always boiled it. When I learned about steaming that made a big difference and now I roast it with olive oil and garlic, Yum! I also love brussel sprouts roasted or stir fried. The secret is to get small ones, the bigger they get, the more bitter they are.
Watermelon – oh, it looks so good and refreshing, but, no thanks. I still take the time to cut it up for my family, though.
Parsnips; they’ve got a weird aftertaste. Does anyone have any good recipes for them, or shall I just leave them off the menu? :)
I got some from my veggie co-op and used them to make muffins. I also used them sliced like carrots and added them to our beef stew that had carrots and potatoes too.
Carrots. I really do not like them. I eat small amounts of them often, but I do not enjoy them. I do use them as an example to the kids on how to eat things we don’t like. Carrot cake is acceptable as the carrot flavor gets lost with all that tasty frosting on top.
I don’t enjoy carrots either. The rest of the family sure does.
Rutabagas.
I’m also not the biggest fan of the more bitter varieties of mustard greens, but I don’t mind them in soups or stews with other things. But rutabagas are the only vegetable I’ve found that I truly cannot eat. *Shudder*
I’ve never met a veggie I didn’t like. Yet. We eat a LARGE variety, but there are perhaps a few we haven’t tried.
Suggest some to me, and I’ll try them and see if there are any I don’t like! :)
I did not grow up around a lot of different fruits and veggies, but the one I could not stand then and still can not is peppers. I have gotten a little better and can stand extremely mild peppers in salsa and the like. I cannot even stand the smell of them. And unlike peas and lima beans that I really do not like but can tolerate mixed into dishes, I can still taste peppers mixed into almost anything and the taste is very hard to ignore.
The one other thing I have found as I have tried many veggies is that texture makes a big difference for me. Many veggies I like raw or cooked but still quite solid (cabbage, brussel sprouts, asparagus, greens) I can not stand if they are overcooked – then they turn too “slimy” for me.
First time I had jicama was in a BBQ chicken salad at CPK–mixed with all the other things, I didn’t much notice (I would like to try the salsa recipe, mamashortcake; that sounds yummy!). I used to not like beets or asparagus, but since I’ve started roasting them (after tossing in olive oil and sprinkling with salt and pepper)–oh, boy! Can’t get enough. Soooo much better that way. Rutabaga was another veggie I did not eat as a child, but my sister makes them like mashed potatoes and they are wonderful (I cannot get them where I live–sigh). I eat lots more Brussels sprouts since learning to thoroughly brown them in butter/olive oil, follow by steaming for a few minutes (in a bit of apple juice, if you have) and then pouring a little Balsamic vinegar over them. Cooking turnip and collard greens with bacon grease makes them taste a lot better, IMO, though maybe bacon grease is a naughty word here! I cannot abide okra (unless it’s fried–hmm) and I’m not crazy over bananas unless they are still a tad green (or really ripe in banana bread!). Sometimes cooking something a different way makes all the difference; blogs and pinterest are so helpful for that. Yours is a favorite, Laura. :)
I don’t like cooked spinach. But I love cooked kale. I’m actually not big on spinach salads or in smoothies, either. But I love kale in smoothies, and kale salads. Go figure. Not all greens are equal!
Well, if you ever get another jicama in your basket, definitely try it with lime juice. Or have it with a fruit salad or fruit dip. To me, the flavor and texture needs something sweet or sour. Dipping into a veggie dip like ranch doesn’t sound good…to me anyway. : )
Beets = dirt
Coconut = suntan lotion
Cilantro = soap (not a veggie, I know, but so vile it’s worth the mention!)
I really can’t handle the texture of coconut either, why is it always crunchy, even in baked goods?? And ironically coconut oil is my only face moisturizer so I smell like the stuff all the time :)
I totally don’t understand how anyone can not like cilantro. I adore it!
I have another cucumber suggestion for you,Laura! Do your peel stripes with…a fork! It takes just a few seconds and the end result is super fun and pretty on a platter :)
Sorry, I, too, am a food nerd.
Eggplant. It’s pretty, shows up in lots of dishes that look yummy but no, I just don’t like it. And I’ve tried it a bunch of different ways.
I just can’t eat peas. As long as I can remember eating peas nearly makes me sick. As it turns out, my husband is allergic to peas. I do make them for my kids though, and they like them. I don’t think they have ever noticed that Mom isn’t eating them.
Cantaloupe and honeydew. They taste cloyingly sweet to me. I especially hate the way their taste contaminates the other fruit in a bowl of fruit salad. When I was growing up, my mom would sometimes make a separate bowl of fruit salad sans cantaloupe just for me.
I’m with you there. Gross to both honeydew and cantaloupe.
I understand we all have different taste buds, but I just wanted to comment that Jicama is usually eaten as a kind of potato in a stew in Central American dishes. It’s cut up in chunks and after being boiled it’s soft with a mild, not quite potato flavor.
The jicima you pictured looks old. Perhaps it wasn’t fresh and that’s why you didn’t like it. Personally, I love it. (But I don’t like celery.)
I am like you except I don’t like or eat lettuce. Cants stand the texture or taste. But in the last years 10 or so I have developed a real like almost love for a lot of vegetables. Always loved lots of fruits. I have some vegetables I like roasted or sautéed in olive I’ll instead of raw. I am adding in more ever once in awhile. Just like a few weeks ago I tried marinated artichoke hearts. Now a new favorite. Keep trying and if you aren’t a vegetable lover it can change for you. And by the way I either like fresh garden cucumbers or the english cucmbers(and I peel all of them all they). I don’t like regular store bought cucumbers. Thanks for all you do Laura.