"Summertime" Starts This Weekend

Summertime starts this weekend—as far as the official outdoor living goes. I want to take advantage of the easy and fresh food of summer and that includes lots of fresh salads and vegetables. Veggies have gained a reputation for the healthiest food around and terrific for slimming down—besides they taste wonderful. But if they’re so good, why do so many people balk at the idea of these great healthy foods?

The answer is that they may be “supertasters.” The same phytonutrients that make them so good for you are what cause some people to hate them. One in four people are born with thousands of extra taste buds which enable them to detect all the tastes—sweet, sour, salty and bitter—more intensely than the other 75% of people. These people often report that cabbage tastes musty; broccoli, bitter; beets, dirty; spinach, metallic.

Here’s a test that experts say will identify you as a supertaster: punch a hole with a hole-punch in a one-inch-square piece of waxed paper. Take a cotton swab and dip into a bit of blue food coloring and dab it on your tongue. Place the waxed paper over the blue area of your tongue and count the pink circles in the hole that you punched out. If you see more than 25 pink circles, you’re a supertaster.

If you have one or more of these special tasters in your family, you might want to try some of these ways to prepare vegetables that will make converts of even the fussiest eaters—because they’re designed to mask the very taste in the veggies that they don’t like. Those of us that are ordinary tasters can revel in these dishes, too, and finally give vegetables their rightful place on the dinner table.

Cabbage can cut your risk of breast, lung and colon cancers thanks to the isothiocyanates that make it taste “cabbagy.” To mask its pungent taste, mix it with fruit and strong spices like caraway or cloves.

Spaghetti with Red Cabbage

1 small head red cabbage
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup apple juice
½ cup raisins (either golden or regular)
½ tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
8 ounces spaghetti (thin or regular)

Cook spaghetti in boiling water according to package directions, cooking until al dente. In a nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook until translucent (about 7 minutes). Add garlic and cook 1 minute, stirring. Stir in cabbage, apple juice, raisins, cloves and salt. Cover and cook 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Reserving ¼ cup pasta cooking water; drain pasta. Stir pasta into cabbage mixture in skillet; add cooking water if mixture seems dry.

Beets are often one of those vegetables that you either hate or love. I love them, Zig hates them. He says they taste like dirt. I say they have a rich, earthy flavor. This raw presentation was a compromise—I thought it was good, he thought it was definitely edible. If you have a beet hater, give this a try.

Shredded Beet Salad

1 pound beets, peeled
3 stalks celery, thinly sliced
½ cup pitted dates, chopped
3 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 tsp. sugar

Cut beets into quarters. In food processor with shredding blade, shred beets; transfer to large bowl. Stir in celery, dates, lemon juice ¼ tsp each salt and pepper.
Can be covered and refrigerated for up to 4 hours, or served immediately

Brussels sprouts are arguably the most hated vegetable on the planet—or is it broccoli? My brother-in-law was diagnosed with cancer and was put on a diet high in vegetables, with Brussels sprouts on the top of the must-eat list. He hated the sulphuric, bitter taste and asked me if I knew how to cook them to make them edible. Here’s the advice I sent: cook them until barely tender in a small amount of water with ½ tsp. sugar added to it. But I came across this recipe that really does the trick as well.

Sesame Ginger Brussels Sprouts

2 10-oz pkgs. fresh Brussels sprouts
2 Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
2 tsp. grated, peeled fresh ginger
1 tsp. dark sesame oil
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 large onion, cut in half and thinly sliced
2 Tbsp. water

Trim stems and any yellow leaves from Brussels sprouts. Cut each sprout lengthwise into quarters. In cup stir together soy sauce, grated ginger and sesame oil. Meanwhile in skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat until hot. Add onion and cook about 5 minutes or until it begins to soften, stirring occasionally. Increase heat to medium-high; add Brussels sprouts and water; cover and cook about 5 minutes or until sprouts are beginning to soften and brown, stirring once. Remove cover from skillet and cook about 5 minutes longer or until sprouts are tender-crisp, stirring frequently. Remove skillet from heat and stir in soy sauce mixture.