Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with food and vegetables

Help Me Make My Salads Less Lame

jason's_planet — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:34:17 -0800

How do I make my salads less lame? Hello. My name is Jason and my salads are painfully dull. Every day, usually with dinner, I throw together some spinach, a tomato and half of an avocado.

Ho-fucking-hum.

I attribute my utter lack of salad inspiration to my utilitarian view of the dish -- that they're just vitamin pills that you eat with a fork. But I know that there's more to making salads than that, that they can be bona fide examples of culinary artistry as well.

So what are some good salad recipes -- or salad-making principles -- that would help me get out of this rut? Bonus points for salads that draw upon a wide range of vegetables, as I've heard that such variety is not only pleasing to the palate but also great for one's health.

Many thanks in advance.

Produce poems?

bubukaba — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:27:26 -0800

I'm looking for poems about food, especially fruits and vegetables. Anything from the lowest doggerel to the highest verse.

I know about this thread from last year, but I'm hoping for a broader selection (I don't care if it's not in the public domain) and a more specific focus (fruits and veggies).

But I love snap peas :(

downing street memo — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:06:48 -0800

Recently, after eating raw sugar snap peas, I've been getting tender spots on my lips and my throat gets dry and slightly sore. It goes away after a half hour or so. What is this? An allergy?

Please help me learn to eat right!

dancestoblue — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:25:09 -0800

Food Question(s) -- Avocados / Pinto Beans / Brown Rice / Bananas / Kumquats / Mangoes / Olive Oil / Balsamic Vinegar / Eggs w/r/t organic or not, etc and etc I went to my doctor, he found potatoes and carrots mashed into my hair, he found some beans in my dang nose, he found corn in my ears, etc and etc. He stopped, looked at me, pronounced: "You're not eating right."

Anyways, I've been doing this whole Ashtanga deal and it's changed my life in any number of ways, one of the most notable being my diet IE I cannot eat garbage any more, if/when I DO eat garbage I suffer on the mat the next day, big time. Plus I don't WANT to eat garbage anymore - ice cream, candy bars, fried foods, etc and etc - whatever it was that I was feeding with that stuff is now being fed on the mat, which is actually sortof a miracle, if you were to ask me. Which of course you did not, but still.

So I'm buying all these good foods and eating them, peasant food essentially, rice and beans etc and etc, organic spinach and kale and carrots etc and etc, good guy eggs from chickens that actually have a life, blah blah blah. In no particular order, here are the questions about these foods that I have for you all:

Pinto beans and brown rice: I pay extra -- considerably extra -- to buy organic, mostly from Whole Foods (Whole Paychecks). I'm assuming that this is money well spent, as neither beans nor rice (ESP rice) have much protection against the garbage that farmers spray on them. Question 1: Is this money well spent?

Bananas and Avocados and Mangoes -- I do not buy these organic, as they have big-time husks, I've read that the gunk that's sprayed upon fruits/vegetables that have husks gets caught up in the husk and doesn't make it into my guts. (I do wash the heck out of the mangoes before cutting them open and eating the meat.) Question 2: Is this correct, do the toxins get caught in the husks of these fruits?

Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar -- Because these products come from olives and grapes, neither of which has much of a husk, I spend the extra bread -- which is considerable -- to buy these items organic. I eat a lot of olive oil and a lot of balsamic vinegar in salads and just anywhere else, love that sweet tang of balsamic vinegar in lots of foods. Question 3: Is this money well spent?

My condo complex have four kumquat trees full of ripe kumquats right now, they are sweet as can be, really good, one of them right next to where I often practice yoga, down on the river, great fun, eat and practice. But fact is that I do not know much about these little dudes, not having been raised where they grow. Question 4: Is it okay to eat the skin of kumquats? I pretty much chew all the fruit out of them, spit the seed and skins into the river -- am I losing vitamins and whatnot? Will I die or some such if I do eat the skins? Question 4a: Also -- mangoes; I am not supposed to eat the skin off these dudes either, correct? (I don't eat them, but I'm wondering...)

The kumquat trees are full to overflowing just now, I bet that using my ladder I could/can get five ten gallon buckets of fresh fruit off these trees, easy. Question 5: Can I put these up without them losing their nutritional value IE take the seeds out of them and freeze them? (Of course if the skins cannot be eaten there is no way that this is feasible.)

And the mangoes usually only come in twice a year, they're very inexpensive just now, and quite easy to get the husk off, so essentially the same question as prior except about mangoes this time. Question 6: Can mango fruit be frozen?

Huge sale on avocados this week, avocados bigger than baseballs for $0.90. Question 7: Can these be frozen well, or even refrigerated to keep them a while?

I am often deep hungry from this whole yoga thing, one of the things that works to stave that hunger is eggs, of which I eat just one heck of a lot of. 8 to 12 a day, some days 16. (I usually boil them and make an egg salad, olive oil balsamic vinegar onions slivered carrots etc and etc. Yeah yeah, I know, sounds like I'm a hog gut but I'm just flat hungry is all; YOU try a serious Ashtanga practice and then tell me if YOU'RE hungry. Hint: You will be.) If I eat 8 eggs I eat only 2 yolks, if 12 only 3 yolks; throwing the yolks away so as to not blow my heart out of my chest with cholesterol. Question 8: Am I OD'ing on too much egg protein here? (I'm mostly not eating meat, like at all, or fish, eating some walnuts and/or pecans for protein.) Also: Is three or five egg yolks a day too much bad-guy fat?

Last. I put some pinto beans into a pot of water on Saturday to soak prior to cooking, the pot has set on the stove top, I basically forgot it had anything in it, nice shiny covered pot sitting on the stove is all. I remembered about an hour ago, and now some of the dang beans are even sprouting, the water looks a tad murky, I don't want to die from eating grungy, scungy beans. Question 8: Can I cook and eat these gems or do I toss them? I'm assuming that I'd have to rinse them of course...

Long list there of questions there; I wish I knew how to make bullet points or numbered lists or what-have-you, but I don't -- sorry...

And now I've finished this list o' questions and my coffee and a dang mango (and that sucker was sweet -- man!) and headed now to the river to suffer creatively (ie practice Ashtanga) and eat a few kumquats.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Peace.

How do I start my own backyard garden?

lockestockbarrel — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 12:25:43 -0800

GreenThumbFilter: I'd like to start a garden in my backyard to grow some veggies and herbs and stuff -- like the Obamas' garden, but obviously at a lot smaller scale. How do I do this? I live in Matamoros, Mexico -- that's at the southernmost tip of Texas. I have a backyard area that gets pretty good sunlight and is completely fenced, so I don't have to worry about small animals getting in and ruining everything.

1. What should I plant? I'm mostly interested in stuff I can use in cooking, so vegetables and herbs. I also sorta want to plant a lime tree or banana tree or something -- is that difficult to do / care for?

2. From what I understand, I have to start the seeds in little egg containers and then transfer them outside. What soil do I use in the egg containers? Do I put them in direct or indirect sunlight?

3. For composting -- what do I need to exclude other than dairy? Do I need earthworms or anything? Can I chuck everything in a big plastic bin outside and let the magic happen? How do I know when it's ready?

4. I'd like to grow these things organically. Do I need to do anything special to replace whatever pesticides one normally uses?

5. Are there any good online resources for this kinda thing?

Thanks everyone!

Foraging for yummies

mudpuppie — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 11:44:37 -0800

What can I forage (for)? Aside from mushrooms, which I'm not quite comfortable identifying on my own, what kind of edible flora can I search out in Northern California, when, and where? Fiddleheads? Wild ramps? Wild asparagus? (I guess the latter is a longshot, since it doesn't appear to grow out here.)

Am familiar with wild fennel and jerusalem artichokes, so I've got those covered.

I'm in Davis and am willing to drive two hours or so.

Thanks!

Help turn me orange.

arianell — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:53:24 -0800

Give me your best sweet potato recipes! I'm on a huge sweet potato kick lately. Mostly I've just been sticking to baked or simple roasted sweet potatoes. But I'm ready to branch out.

I prefer savory preparations to desserts. Health and ease of preparation are not concerns of mine.

Thanks!

A taste of poison paradise?

gensubuser — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 22:04:20 -0800

How can I test my family's garden vegetables for nutrition/toxins? My father just finished canning 70 quarts of green beans. I like them (really) and I am glad that my kids may end up liking vegetables too through their consumption. But, seeing as how I grew up eating them and I will probably be dining on them occasionally for the next 10 (!) years, it might be nice to reassure myself that they are harmless at worst.

Is there a program or company somewhere that offers to test food or vegetables for harmful content and nutrition?

Preparing for the Worst

netbros — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 04:43:30 -0800

What vegetables, fruits, fish and animals would be recommended for a self-sufficient survival farm? Whether it be climate change, energy shortage, economic collapse, or act of nature; there are many plausible reasons these days to consider alternatives to the western way of living. Perhaps people living in the communes of the 1960-70s were thinking ahead.

If you had a small, 10-20 acre family farm or slightly larger community property what vegetables would you plant, what fruit trees would you cultivate, what fish would you stock in the pond, and what farm animals would you raise to make your environment as self-sufficient as possible for your family and/or community in the face of a calamitous future? What considerations are required to care for all of this?

Living off the fat o' the land

edjusted — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 10:57:31 -0800

We've got a tiny patch of dirt in our back yard and want to grow edible stuff. We're not that serious, just mostly goofing off. What could we grow out there using existing foodstuffs? By that, I mean, we want to grow green onions, for example. Can we just grab a few green onions from the fridge, cut off the bottom, and plant those? Are there any other simple-to-grow foodstuffs we should consider? We're in Southern California, but the patch of dirt only gets direct sunlight maybe 1-2 hours a day.

What to do with all these vegetables?

arha — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 17:01:24 -0800

Does anyone have great recipes that can use up a massive bag of vegetables? I am hoping I will end up with one or two dishes, preferably that I can then portion up and freeze. My sister is going away for the week, so she very generously gave me the bulk of her organic vegetable delivery. So I am now staring at enough vegetables to feed a family of four for a week, and while I do like my vegies there is no way a single girl can eat that much of them before they rot.

1 have: 2 heads of broccoli, one GIANT head of cauliflower, a large sweet potato, a sizeable bag of mushrooms, a bag of carrots, several onions, a bunch of bok choy, a head of celery and a capsicum (red bell pepper).

I know the most likely option is to make soup, but does anyone have any specific recommendations or recipes? Any other ideas?

I am really not wanting to make compost at the bottom of my fridge. Again.

Brains vs Grains

twine42 — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 05:33:16 -0800

What is the most energy efficient form of flesh to eat? I've got a veggie friend who doesn't eat meat largely because it's a better use of natural resources to eat the vegetation yourself than to feed it to animals and then eat them.

Ignoring the validity (or not) of this statement, I was wondering how the different meats stack up and how efficient they are at providing fuel to humans.

I guess the question ultimately is "how much energy does it take to get a cow/pig/chicken/whatever to maturity and how much can be gained from eating the flesh."

For the sake of simplicity, I guess we have to assume the vegetation is all natural, the animals aren't in centrally heated houses and no energy is expended getting the recently dead flesh to the dinner table...

Learning to eat better/more

papakwanz — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 14:07:09 -0800

Help cure me of being a picky eater. As long as I can remember, I've been a fairly picky eater. This leads to a good bit of social embarrassment as well as a limited and probably not totally healthy diet. I've gotten a little bit better as I have grown older, but I would like to expand my tastes more and train myself to be more adventurous when it comes to food.

Stuff I generally don't like: soups, most salads (except Caesar salads), just about all vegetables, seafood, many ethnic cuisines (especially Mexican, Chinese, or Japanese food), most foods with a mushy texture, foods with a lot of sauces on them, anything with mushrooms or onions, anything with beans, meatloaf, many fruits (I do like apples and bananas, but most others I don't eat).

The foods I like and eat at least fairly regularly: burgers (turkey or beef, usually with cheese only, sometimes w/ mayo also, rarely with lettuce & tomato); pizza (usually just with pepperoni, sometimes with sausage or bacon); spaghetti or other pastas (sometimes stuffed with cheese, spinach, occasionally chicken; simple generic Ragu-style sauces); baked potatoes, french fries, and recently learned to like mashed potatoes (but no sour cream on the baked, no gravy on the mashed); steak (as long as there isn't some weird sauce on it); grilled chicken; chicken wings (but none of the "exciting" sauces like jerk or teriyaki or whatever; just the bbq sauces); sandwiches (usually just some sliced turkey or ham & cheese, occasionally with mayo, lettuce, tomato), some Indian food (again, not the vegetable dishes).

I could go on and on, but you get the idea. As you can see, generally a lot of fairly simple and sometimes bland foods. I know that I'm never going to be one of those people who can travel anywhere and eat anything. But, I would like to be able to go out with my friends when they go to a Mexican restaurant without having to make some lame excuse like "I just ate, so I'll stick to the nachos." I also worry, now that I'm 30 yrs old, about my future health, especially because of the lack of vegetables in my diet.

I think a lot of it is mental, and I'm sorely lacking in willpower. I also wonder if I maybe have an oversensitive olfactory sense, because often very strong smells of food, sometimes even food I like, makes me feel a bit nauseous, but I think it's mostly just because my parents let me be a picky eater when I was young (my dad is also somewhat of a picky eater, but my mom and brother will eat ANYTHING).

So, practical advice? Tips? Recipes? Mental exercises? Anything?

It ain't easy cooking green.

Inconceivable! — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 06:28:52 -0800

What do I do with all these unfamiliar veggies from the CSA? My CSA has started delivering vegetables for the summer, and once again I'm at a loss for what to do with some of them. Do you have any favorite recipes that use chard, kale, or mustard greens? What about kohlrabi, which I'm sure will be showing up again in abundance later this summer? I've been sauteeing the greens with garlic and eating them with beans and rice or polenta, but it's getting to be a bit boring.

When are various fruits & vegetables in season?

teem — Sun, 16 Oct 2005 00:37:28 -0800

During which times of the year are various fruits/vegetables/herbs/other in season? I love to cook, but the list of dishes that I cycle through has stopped growing. Whenever I'm at the markets I see loads of ingredients I would love to try, but not knowing when they are at their best (and cheapest -- I'm a stingy uni student), I'll play it safe and rush home to make the same delicious Carbonara I've been filling my arteries with for the last 3 years.

Most of the websites I've found using Google are northern-hemisphere-centric, and I have no idea if it's as simple as just reversing the seasons. Since I'd imagine that geography comes into it, I'm in Adelaide, South Australia. The climate here is pretty temperate: the winters rarely duck under 5ºC even at night, and the summers only occasionally peak above 37ºC. Don't let that limit your answers though, be as broad as you like. And I'm talking about any ingredients here, from tomatoes to figs to taragon to squash. Anything you can think of. If some ingredients aren't worth the fuss to buy fresh and in season, by all means mention those too (e.g. if I'm just cooking for me and the girlfriend, frozen raspberries are fine for a quick coulis).

If you're talking in terms of months of the year, please specify whether you're in the northern or southern hemisphere if it makes a difference.

Where can I get green tomatoes in New York?

paul_smatatoes — Sun, 14 Aug 2005 09:36:22 -0800

Where can I get green tomatoes in New York? And no fair saying things like "at a farmer's market". I'm going to pickle these guys, so this is serious business...I want names, MeFi. Name and addresses. The more specific the better.

Can a carnivore become a vegetarian?

logovisual — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 12:39:51 -0800

I'm thinking about trying to go vegetarian, if only for a month's experimentation. But for a variety of reasons, I know it will be very difficult indeed. So: suggestions? For one thing, right now, I'm basically a carnivore. I pound down fast-food burgers, fried chicken, etc. like nobody's business -- and I almost never eat fruits and vegetables. In fact, I'd go so far as to say I normally dislike them; but I've learned that if you force yourself to do something unpleasant quite regularly (get up early, for instance), you'll eventually come to appreciate it. For another thing, I'm going through some life turmoil at the moment. And for another another thing, I don't have unlimited cooking / shopping resources (i.e. I live in an apartment with a non-professional kitchen, and the grocery stores out here in Brooklyn don't rock one's socks clean off, though they're adequate).

What I need to hear are tips and suggestions from similar folks who've made the switch -- things to watch out for, tips to stop meat cravings, etc. -- plus ideas about things to eat / cook / etc. I wouldn't be surprised at all if this has been asked before, but I didn't see it when searching. Thanks!

(I'd be doing it primarily for reasons of health and general well-being; I'm not overweight at all, but I do silently fear that the effects of my sat-fat-filled diet are building up catastrophically inside my young body. Plus, it's just an interesting lifehacking challenge, and I haven't done nearly enough of those...)

Brussel Sprouts

Utilitaritron — Wed, 27 Oct 2004 13:38:13 -0800

[VegetableFilter] What should I do with the brussel sprouts I bought?

Fresh Fruit

grumblebee — Fri, 26 Dec 2003 09:14:57 -0800

I keep buying produce that tastes terrible, and I know it's because I'm buying stuff out-of-season. I need a really good guide to fruit that tells me when it's best to buy various items. I already found a great book that helps me buy vegetables.