Vegetables - What are your safe havens?

[Froz]

I guess that we all have veggies that we tend to use more than others on a regular basis. While certain dishes require specific ingredients, when it comes to "every day" cooking, which are those that you will the most likely turn to?

As far as I'm concerned, my top 5 would be:

- Green beans : The latter tend to blend in perfectly with most meats along with fish.
- Carrots : For more or less the same reasons as green beans, but I like mine thoroughly cooked, as crunchy carrots aren't really appreciated at home (except in salads of course).
- Mushrooms : Being a big mushroom addict, I tend to incorporate them into a lot of dishes, but once more they must be well cooked
- Zucchinis : I mostly use these in summer dishes as well as in pastries and oriental tainted meals.

 

[Ellyn]

Potatoes, garlic...and mushrooms for me too! I live in the tropics, so I try to work with locally-grown veggies more often. Last week I did a comparison of Luffa veggies (Luff aegyptica and a star-shaped one with the scientific name of...get this... Luffa acutangula. What a disappointment. Usually the scientific names have more poetry to them.) In any case, I think I prefer chayote--and, yes, zucchinis! Zucchini and eggplant!

 

[Sweetkymom]

Potatoes, green pepper, onions, lettuce and tomatoes!! My husband and I eat alot of veggies whether it be raw, in a salad or cooked in a dish. I buy up all kinds of fresh veggies and just go from there. Some weeks we eat mushrooms like crazy while the next two weeks, well eat them just once.

 

[Jade]

Carrots and potatoes are my favorites and they are very good for incorporating into many kinds of dishes including soy and tomato sauce based stews. Another one I wouldn't mind eating everyday would be broccoli. I like it even if it's just steamed but there are also many different ways of preparing it.

 

[Food4thought]

I use a whole onion every day. There is nothing that does not go well with chopped onion, lightly boiled or fried.

Next on the list would be tomatoes. I like them fresh but I also use canned, sieved, sundried and concentrated paste in my cooking.

 

[Caribbean girl]

I use carrots almost on a daily basis. These are mostly cooked, but I also eat them grated and raw. Onions are never left out of anything I am cooking. Then there is christophine, broccoli, green beans and fresh tomatoes. Potatoes are another favourite of mine, and this would also include sweet potatoes. Celery is also used occasionally when I cook rice, but I would always use it in soup.

 

[lizzief79]

Every now and then I will try something different, but usually my shopping list stays pretty much the same. Most weeks I buy the following fruit and vegetables:
Potatoes, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, peppers, celery, bananas, apples, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, carrots and swede.

 

[OhioTom76]

Garlic and Onions are a given and so essential to most recipes, so I won't really count those. My main ingredients would be:

- Red & Green bell peppers
- Potatoes
- Mushrooms
- Black Beans
- Scallions
- Broccoli
- Carrots
- Escarole

Honorable mentions would be:

- Green beans/Wax beans
- Kidney Beans
- Jalapeno peppers
- Hungarian hot peppers
- Tomatoes (I get most of the tomato in my diet from sauces, not raw)
- Spinach (I prefer escarole over spinach, if I have a choice, much more interesting flavor imo)

One of my favorite side dishes when I go out to eat at local Italian restaurants are their sauteed greens (which are usually escarole) which are cooked in a ton of garlic and olive oil, and topped with roasted hot peppers. I make it at home too, but I can never seem to get it to taste as good as theirs.

 

[JoshPosh]

If anything I usually make some sauteed onions and garlic. I serve that with half of my meals. Yeah it sounds boring but its like second nature for me.

 

[Ella]

My safe vegetables I can use in anything are;

1. Mushrooms
2. Sweetcorn
3. Broccoli
4. Peas
5. Cauliflower

I have all these in my freezer, so I can create a meal out of them at any time; soups, salads, pasta, rice, as a side and for stir fries. I prefer fresh mushrooms, so often I will cook them with onions and then freeze them to use later on.

 

[DancingLady]

Sweet corn is actually a grain, not a vegetable from a nutritional standpoint, although it look and tastes like a vegetable. Most people don't know that, including my mom who did not believe me when I told her.

I like all vegetables. I can't think of one that I would have any problems working with. I like the bags of Carrots, Broccoli and Cauliflower because they are very healthy and easy to use if time is an issue. Otherwise I really like greens a lot, like kale, collards, Swiss Chard and Bok choy. Those are probably my favorite veggies.

 

[tangela]

Hmm...my top 5 would definitely have to be:

- broccoli
- carrots
- spinach
- cabbage
- bok choy (if it's available)

Whenever I go grocery shop I ALWAYS make sure we pick those up, especially the spinach cause you can eat it as a salad or cooked!

I try to get kale too but those can be pricey sometimes