Veggie Rut

A few months ago our storage freezer broke, forcing us to clean it out and buy a new one. As the bags of frozen vegetables were strewn on my garage floor during the freezer transfer, I had a revelation.  We were in a veggie rut.

Although I try to prepare healthy meals, which almost always include a vegetable, the variety has been limited to green beans, peas, and corn. I know that there is a whole world of veggies that we ignore, more out of habit than anything else. In order to break us out of our veggie isolation, we have joined a farm CSA.

Each week we drive to the farm where we pick up our box of freshly grown, in season produce. Because the selection of fruits and vegetables depends upon what is ripe, we are forced to expand our culinary repertoire. Soon, we will be non-discriminatory vegetable lovers. At least, that was the grand plan.

This week we picked up our first box of produce which included large bunches of kale. Undeterred but a bit weary, I scoured the internet for family friendly recipes featuring the vegetable I had always seen as a garnish. Selecting the least offensive, I headed to the kitchen to whip up our first in what will be a summer of vegetable trials.

I am proud of everybody for trying the dish, but despite the effort even I have to admit that it was not good. I think that the recipe would have been far more successful had I substituted spinach for the kale. Kale, it turns out, kind of tastes like muddy paper regardless of how it is prepared. 

While I was hoping for a home run, I suspect that we are going to experience a lot of culinary misses during our summer of vegetable exploration. Hopefully, we will find a few more to add to our rotation through our efforts. Even if we don't, it won't be from lack of trying.