A vegetable meme

Neil from At My Table has tagged us for a vegetable-themed meme!

1. Is there a vegetable you hated as a child, but came to love as you got older?

Cindy: The mushroom. I didn't want to touch the spongy fungus as a kid, and I wasn't pressured to by my parents. As a teenager I grew to enjoy steak with mushroom gravy and now as a vegetarian in my twenties, I am totally hooked on the earthy, concentrated flavour of cooked mushrooms. I still don't like them raw, though!

Michael: I could probably say mushrooms as well, but I'll mix things up and go with spinach. When I was little, Mum would occasionally try to force us kids to eat boiled up spinach mush with our sausages. I particularly remember sitting at the table one night for hours just picking at my soggy pile of greenery. These days (as Cindy mentions below), it's something we eat all the time. I'd say that Indian food probably got me interested - Palak Paneer and the like.

2. Most underrated vegetable?

Cindy: I think we use a lot more spinach than the average household, particularly baby spinach leaves. As a salad base, sauteed in olive oil as a side, stuffed into burgers and sandwiches, sometimes in spanakopita, a soup or a curry. It's my favourite way to eat my greens.

Michael: I don't really know how to answer this - who rates vegetables? I will say that I'm constantly amazed than anyone would prefer cauliflower to broccoli though. Weirdos.

Cindy: (Um, that's me he's refering to.)

3. Name one favourite summer vegetable dish.

Cindy: Wholemeal crackers spread with Michael's home-made pesto and slices of flavoursome red tomato. But I don't find really good tomatoes as often as I would like.

Michael: Some kind of salad probably - maybe the green bean and radish one that we've been making a fair bit lately.

4. And one for winter?

Cindy: I'm a suburban girl who loves greasy potatoes. In winter we eat multiple roasting trays full of potato chunks, baked with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Michael: Any kind of spicy vegetable curry warms my heart on cold winter nights. It's hard to go past a creamy pumpkin soup either (I've just trawled the archives - how have we not made a pumpkin soup since we moved here?)

5. What vegetables are in your fridge and freezer right now?

Cindy: This I can answer for both of us! Baby spinach leaves, mushrooms, cabbage, and a leftover salad lunchbox of tomato, carrot, lettuce and cucumber. We are poor planners and frequent shoppers, so our fridge rarely contains much more than what we need for our next meal.

6. Is there a vegetable you really like but don't make much yourself?

Cindy: Beetroot. Like many Aussies, I grew up oblivious to all beetroot except the canned stuff on Grandma's table at Sunday lunch (right next to the canned corn kernels *shudder*). But a few years ago I experienced an epiphany in the form of grated fresh beetroot in a wrap. Since then I've also sampled the delicious very Swedish roasted beetroot. Maybe this winter I'll work up the courage to make borscht!

Michael: I've enjoyed radishes in that salad mentioned above, but I think that's the only time we've used them. We're probably not as adventurous as we should be when it comes to strange vegetables.

Cindy: Tag time! I nominate:

Another Outspoken Female from Confessions of a Food Nazi - she has a way with words and with vegetables (read her answers here);
Ellie from Kitchen Wench - she bakes so many delicious treats and I want to make sure she's eating her greens in between (heh);
Mellie from Tummy Rumbles - I'm curious whether her insatiable appetite for the CBD's Asian-themed restaurants will influence her answers (read them here);
and then two Mebourne food bloggers that I've only just discovered in the last month:
Melinda from Melbourne Larder (read her answers here); and
Truffle from What's On My Plate (read her answers here).

Of course everyone else is welcome to join in too! Leave a comment with your answers, or a link to your blog if you choose to write them there.