...but I hate vegetables

I'm working hard to increase the vegs I eat every day, but I really hate them, all but raw carrots. Any advice? I picked this dislike up during my childhood. The texture! The taste! Ugh. But I'm trying to force myself.
What else should I try?
And are there any good recent books where I can get ideas?

if you can steam your veggies theyre really good. prolly cuz theyre tender and if you need flavor: add a little salt.

the only raw vegetables that i really go for are baby carrots and sugar snap peas, theyre kinda like the sweeter raw veggie. also: yellow peppers are sweeter

Vegetables can be really, really delicious if you roast them until they start to caramelize.  My favorites are brussel sprouts, cauliflower, red peppers, and sweet potatoes.  I do the brussel sprouts and cauliflower with garlic, salt, pepper, and a little bit of olive oil.   Roast them at about 425 until they start to turn dark brown.  Peppers and sweet potatoes don't even need the garlic, just a little oil and maybe some salt.  Addictively good.  Also consider tossing them with a little bit of balsamic vinegar. 

Alright! At least your being honest and not taking in a million servings of raw carrots. What I like to do is stir-fry! It allows you to cook the veggies down (until they taste less like veggies), its really delicious and it accomodates you to the texture and flavor bumping you up to be able to eat raw broccoli and all those goodies. And I actually saw this on Oprah the other day a cookbook called Deceptively Delicious....basically it finds really innovative ways to put veggies into everyday delicious foods like Macaroni and Cheese---they were using it to get kids get their vitamins and not know it but I really think it would work well in these situations---you get your vitamins AND its delicious.

Also try using uncommon things to spice veggies- cinnamon works on a lot of vegetables while your cooking and helps to mask flavors you aren't too fond of.

Hope this helped Sarah!

It might be nice to try some of the weirder veggies that you might not have had like jicima....or just keep trying different things with them you never know when you will find that you like something cooked one way but had always disliked it cooked another!

An easy way to add veges is when youre making something like spaghetti bolognese is add heaps of grated carrot, grated zucchini/courgette, peas, beans etc to the sauce. You would never know it has carrots and zucchini in it. Peas are fairly non-offensive as well :)

I also do this when i make lasagne.  It turns out pretty healthy! i load the "meat sauce" with SO many vegetables its hard to find the meat between the veges lol. I only use 2 layers of  lasagne pasta sheets and then i make a white sauce without cheese and sprinkle just a fraction of grated cheese on top.

These are two DELICIOUS ways to eat more veges!

Not to be condesending but ask your Mum how she tricked you into eating them when you were a kid.

 Im lucky, my girls like vegies but my nephew doesnt so my sister does all sorts of things to hide them in his food.

Like singing girl said, putting them in dishes finely chopped up is a great one. Or tempura style with a very thin batter and then cooked. Steamed with a yummy sauce on top.

Just keep experiementing and trying new things and hopefully you find something you can enjoy 

Soups might help - at least you won't have the texture problem then.  Curried parsnip or celeriac (it might sound weird but trust me on this) is fantastic!  If you like spicy foods then you could make things more palatable by putting in things like chilli, tabasco, worcester sauce, while you try to adapt to veggies.  I'm lucky and LOVE them, so can't imagine what it must be like to only like raw carrots!

Casseroles are also an area where you can really bulk up the veggies and not notice them - make a beef/chicken/pork/whatever casserole and sauté carrots, onion and celery before you add the meat.  You can also throw in some green pepper if you're feeling really brave.  The veggies ( as long as you cut them up small) sort of disintegrate into the liquid and thicken it and add flavour.  Add a can of crushed tomatoes to the liquid and you've added flavour and more veggies.

Good luck!

I like frozen veggies (mixture of corn, broccoli, peas, and whatever.)  These have much less salt than canned veggies.

 Otherwise, it is good to make meals where you don't really realize you are getting your veggies.  Casseroles are great (mmm... tator tot casserole.)....  however, they have a lot of calories, too.

 Finally, a way to get veggies if you really don't want to eat them is with either V8 or the harvest juicy juice.  I am not big on tomato juice, but the v8-splash has a really good flavor.  These help bump both veggie and fruits for the day, but add a lot of calories, too.

 The best is to eat fresh, raw, or frozen, but if you don't like this, you won't stick with it.  The point to all of this is to change your lifestyle, not to just eat things you don't like until you get to your goal weight.  Try a bunch of different options and eat the veggies that you like, and don't force the ones that you don't. 

 Oh yeah, another thing is to add things you like to veggies.  I like peanut butter, so a eat celery with peanut butter.  This might help, too.

It's pretty common to learn to dislike certain foods in childhood, and avoid them as an adult.  But I've found that sometimes, if I just try them again now that I'm older, they don't bother me.  Sometimes I even find out I like them.

If you have tried veggies as an adult but still don't like them, try other veggies or other ways of preparing the ones you have tried.  Or if you still can't stand them after all that, I saw something on "Oprah" a day or two back where a lady wrote a cookbook that you can hide veggie purees in all kinds of foods.  That way you can sneak veggies in and not even have to taste them, if you don't wanna.

I came here to say the same thing as naia_zifu...  Have you tried eating the veggies prepared in different ways from the way you had to eat them when you were younger?  I discovered that I do like green beans and peas more than I previously thought, because at family dinners and stuff they were always cooked nearly to death and smothered in butter.  I found that disgusting, but I like just plain frozen veggies.

I used to hate vegetables, but my parents just sucked at cooking them  :P

Take the advice of the posted who said you should roast/carmelize them (I like onion/red pepper/squash, or onion/carrot/celery potato combinations). 

Other ways to eat vegetables:  vegetable soup (all soup has the same texture!) or v8 juice (try the fruit/vegetable combos).  I think a lot of veg. soups (ugh, Campell's) aren' the greatest, so try other more "upscale" brands you never tried before or try making your own.  Or marinate and grill veggies if you want a firmer texture.

If you don't like salad, try different types of lettuce.  You might not like plain iceberg, but another type like baby Arugula has so much sweet peppery flavor. 

Or, go out to a nice restaurant (not a chain) and try different vegetable dishes and salads.  Figure out what you like and replicate it at home :)

Youre supposed to hate them - they fill them with vitamins and minerals so people will eat them. :P

But not all hate is created equal.  Trying many kinds will help you distinguish between the ones you hate, the ones you dont hate as much and hey, the ones that arent so bad.  Dont force yourself to eat ones you hate - there too many to pick from for that. 

toss 'em in to pasta or sandwiches, stir-fried, sprinkled with melted cheese, steamed with meat, tossed into soup, chopped into omlette.

endless possibilities!!

A sizeable minority of people are "supertasters" which means they are overly sensitive to bitter flavors.  As far as I'm concerned, broccoli is poison and not meant to be consumed by man.  Tragically I also don't like coffee, dark chocolate, beer and most wine....bitter, you see.

Therefore I eat a GIGANTIC spinach salad (which is not especially bitter) with both lunch and dinner. Throw in some tomatos and onions (which are also not bitter) and you can easily get your veggies for the day.  Technically salt and fat flavors counteract the bitter but that sort of defeats the purpose (like cheese sauce on broccoli).

Hopefully you are not a supertaster and can use the other excellent suggestions above.  :)

Someone here mentioned the lady on Oprah.  Not sure if this is the same one as I don't watch Oprah but in Reader's Digest they had an interview with Jessica Seinfeld.  Her cookbook is Deceptively Delicious (Collins, 2007).

She puts pureed butternut squash in Mac and Cheese, pureed sweet potato in pancakes, pureed cauliflower in potatoes and spinach pizza.  She even tells you how to work with veggies before you puree them so you get good results (as opposed to just tossing them in the food processor).

I pureed all my son's food until he was old enough to eat solids and it didn't take too long to do.  I'd have "batch" day, usually on the weekends.  They also store well in the freezer, especially after being frozen in ice cube trays.  So you could puree a whole squash and store it in little ice cube shapes in a freezer bag and then just plop them out and add them to whatever you're cooking.

Another good thing is to juice your veggies.  My son refuses to eat any veggies if they're cooked (except tomatoes in a sauce) but he's too little to chew through the tough fibers of many veggies.  Hail the juicer!  I toss in an apple, a carrot, a handful of parsley, a stalk of celery and a bit of red cabbage.  Delicious and sweet thanks to the apple!  And it's not just my weird mommy taste, lol.  He loves it and asks for it everyday ... his "faywit" juice.  2 year old approved, can't get better than that.  ;)

Juicing, you may lose some fiber but retain more nutrients than cooking them.  Just make sure you eat enough dietary fiber through other means.  We have the Juiceman Jr, it was like $40 at Walmart and we use it everyday.  Cleaning it can be a pain because you have to clean the mesh strainer part of it soon after using it but fresh juice is so much better than bottled juice that it's worth it.  Even my I-hate-health-food hubby loves fresh juice.  More expensive brands are available and I think I feel a large purchase coming on ... ssshh.

If you don't like veggies, then eat fruit instead. My DD is a picky eater, and that's what the pediatrician told us. You can get all your vits & mins, fiber and antioxidants from fruit. Yes, it'll cost you some calories, but it's good for you, so worth the trade-off.

My DD has become slightly less picky over the years, she will now eat broccoli, for example. She tends to prefer uncooked veggies. I've learned if I put a plate of uncooked veggies in front of her before dinner - when she's ravenously hungry - she will eat them. :-)

As for cooked veggies, she likes my pureed broccoli soup. If broccoli is too strong a flavor, try pureeing cooked cauliflower or leeks or carrots or spinach or uncooked tomatoes or just about any veggie into a soup.

I also do the pureed veggies in the tomato sauce idea. And, I used to add finely pureed carrots, zhuccini, peppers, oninions, etc to meatloaf. You really don't notice it.

You can also google "Chocolate Beet Cupcakes." Or how about some Pumpkin pie? Or zhucchini bread? If you have a sweet tooth, this is a good place to start. Many veggies are actually sorta sweet, not bitter.

I personally prefer bitter tastes to sweet tastes... so I gravitate towards strong veggie flavors. I used to not like veggies either - but that's because my mom tended to crack open a can (shudder) or wayyyy overcook things until they turned grey and looked dead, or dump a bottle of salad dressing and drown the poor delicate veggies... veggies need a delicate touch.

i just ordered a cookbook by Jerry Seinfeld's wife called Deceptively Delicious. It's basically a bunch of recipes where you add your own steamed veggie puree to everything. She was on Oprah earlier in the week and even Oprah couldn't tell that the recipes (cookies, brownies, chicken nuggets and more) all had some kind of veggie puree (spinach, beets, carrots, cauliflower). I have the same problem, I only like a select few. I hope this helps!

i've always liked vegetables OK but was too lazy to cook them. however, i've found a really delicious way to get lots of vegetables in!

i buy whole wheat wraps (80 cals) and usually stir fry eggplant and zucchini, mushrooms, onions, peppers, spinach, whatever I have, mix in some salsa and chicken, and make a delicious burrito!

also ratatouille is good.  i like eating lots of vegetables together.