What do you do with raw veggies?

[Beth3346]

I love veggies too. My husband is on a low sodium diet now so we eat a lot more veggies. but as i get older i like them a lot more.

We usually do rice bowls a few times each week. I usually add sliced red onions and cucumbers. but it would be good with the cucumbers, red peppers and tomatoes. Or roasted broccoli and cauliflower. you can pretty much use whatever you have on hand. we also add a little low sodium soy sauce but you can add any light sauce. You can also add some fish. We usually add roasted salmon. you can even roast the veggies at the same time as the fish.

[Marshie]

My favorite is the easy way, eating them completely raw! I always felt like raw veggies had stronger and more complex flavors. I have some sugar snap peas with me right now (one of my favorite snacks!)
If I am feeling something different though, I love a good caprese salad or just some hummus and I'm good to go. As for salads, I don't have a real favorite. When I make my own though, I don't use lettuce. I prefer spinach!

[Griffin]

I love veggies and cook a lot with them. I'm trying to be more mindful about using seasonal produce but it's hard to avoid buying tomatoes, cucumber or courgettes, bell peppers and lettuce throughout the year! Those are the staple salad and sandwich ingredients I'm used to. Seasonal veggies in the winter would be limited to root vegetables, cabbages & kale, squash/pumpkins, onions... and that's pretty much it. They make nice salad ingredients (esp. roasted or otherwise cooked) but putting them on sandwiches is more challenging. Doable but weird.

Salads (and sandwiches, wraps etc.) aside, I don't often eat veggies raw... I may snack on some carrots but that's about it, I usually go for fruit. Hummus or other dips are great but even then I mostly just dip carrot and cucumber. I don't like eating broccoli or cauliflower raw although I love to cook with both. Can't stand raw celery either.  But some of my favourite ways to eat veggies is cooking them al dente, quickly sautéing them, or pickling them. Take cabbage for example! Traditional Finnish cooking is very bland - we're located in the North with long winters, and this used to be a poor, remote country with not much access to spices and such. Although I like some of our traditional cabbage recipes such as casserole and rolls, some Asian recipes and more modern ways of preparing cabbage have brought a whole new level to how I use this boring ol' vegetable. I now love stir-fried cabbage, and summer cabbage roasted in the oven! Sometimes is pretty fun to think about how our cooking habits have changed compared to the 80s & 90s, for example. So many veggies and exotic fruits which now seem normal to me were simply not available back then. I first tasted fresh pineapple in the 2010s!

I'd also like to share this, vegetable kinpira, a Japanese method which can be applied to almost any crunchy vegetable, including veggie scraps such as broccoli and cabbage stalks! It's an amazing way to reduce waste and tastes so good, and it makes a super quick side dish or quinoa salad ingredient. I can totally recommend the rest of the website too (Just Bento and its sister site Just Hungry) - some great recipes to try even if you're not interested in preparing a real bento box!

// edit for typos

[BlackCurtains]

Thanks for the suggestions! The other day I had a head of broccoli I wasn't sure what to do with, but I ended up making broccoli cheese soup. It was really good! Way better than store bought.

I've been buying veggies every time I grocery shop and doing different things. I made a simple lentil soup one time (someone in this thread suggested that), man I love lentils. I need to eat them more often. I did a couple pans of different roasted veggies, that's always good. I made cucumber sandwiches one day and cucumber salad. I mashed up two recipes to fit the stuff I had on hand. I'm still eating a lot of onions and tomatoes. Love them! I've got bite sized slices of golden potatoes in the fridge leftover from making creamy potato soup. I think I'll get them crispy in a skillet with some seasoning.

I'd also like to share this, vegetable kinpira, a Japanese method which can be applied to almost any crunchy vegetable, including veggie scraps such as broccoli and cabbage stalks! It's an amazing way to reduce waste and tastes so good, and it makes a super quick side dish or quinoa salad ingredient. I can totally recommend the rest of the website too (Just Bento and its sister site Just Hungry) - some great recipes to try even if you're not interested in preparing a real bento box!

Oh, that looks good! They have a section for vegetarian recipes too. I've always wanted to try more Japanese food. I can make decent omelet rice but that's about it.

[LadyAmalthea]

I made some ranch-turkey-cucumber wraps for my girls recently; I was just trying to use up stuff in the fridge and I got creative. Not something that I would normally choose to eat, since I don't eat poultry except as a last resort, but I took a bite of one to show my toddlers how to eat it (in hopes that they wouldn't pull it apart and dissect it everywhere!) and thought it was so good I made myself one. It would probably also be good with avocado on it, but I didn't make it that way.

Turkey or chicken breast, cold, cut up (I used leftover Thanksgiving turkey)
Cucumber slices or triangles
Cream cheese with ranch powder mixed in (or could use ranch dip or ranch dressing I suppose)
Whole wheat tortillas

[Esbayne]

In salads with bleu cheese or vinegarrette dressing, or completely raw with sour cream! (Ranch is okay but I never actively choose to eat it, only if it's the only option)
I'm a veggie fiend, I'd eat salad all day every day if I could, especially if there's also egg or seafood in it...

I do find myself having a harder time eating fruits these days though. I'd eat all fruit, anywhere any time as a kid, but the older I get the more and more my sweet tooth dies.
I really stopped liking sweets when I was about 17/18, now I'm not even really too keen on too much fruit, lol.
I don't dislike fruit, I just never have cravings for sweet stuff, and when I'm hungry, sugary-sweet is the last thing I want.

I have a whole box of blueberries in the fridge that I bought the other day to snack on, they're barely touched and I'm sitting here fantasizing about salads... lol.

Though I did have a storebought blueberry salad the other day for breakfast. I say this about, well, a LOT of salads, but I think it was one of the best salads I'd ever had. I was so sad when I finished it.
Hadn't ever found one before, haven't found one since.
I'd make one myself but it had this really unique blueberry vinegarrette, I don't know if I'd be able to find that easily.

[BlackCurtains]

I'm not too fond of most fruits either because they're often too sweet or hurt my teeth (looking at you, apples). I like bananas, raspberries, green grapes and mango. That's about it

One of my favorite salads is kale, raspberries and walnuts! It's sooooo good.

[Leave a Whisper]

Depends on what they are. I like them raw sometimes if its celery or carrots, or stuff to make a salad with. Other then that, I cook it.

[Ponybookworm]

I'm not too fond of most fruits either because they're often too sweet or hurt my teeth (looking at you, apples). I like bananas, raspberries, green grapes and mango. That's about it

One of my favorite salads is kale, raspberries and walnuts! It's sooooo good.

Not been able to bite a whole apple since I was 7 due to tooth injury (apple slices I can do, just not the bite into whole thing)

[Thimble]

Broccoli or cauliflower: steamed with lavender, then tossed with olive oil snd salt. Besssst, mmmmm. Add some real bacon bits if you have 'em.

Actually, olive oil and lavender is awesome on a lot of veggies.

Otherwise, soup! All the soup. Unless it's hotpot. Or stew. Lol.

[Griffin]

One of my favorite salads is kale, raspberries and walnuts! It's sooooo good.

Sounds delicious! One of my favourites is crunchy lettuce, cucumber, basil, halloumi, raspberries (or strawberries) and watermelon. It's so good! The sweet berries and crunchy melon & cucumber balance out the saltiness of the halloumi so beautifully. The original recipe has raspberries but I actually prefer using strawberries, although they are sweeter. Strawberries and basil make a great combo! *already dreaming of summer*

For Christmas I made a salad with red cabbage, orange, pomegranate seeds and walnuts, with a simple dressing (olive oil, white vinegar or balsamico, a dash of orange juice, honey, salt & pepper).

[BlackCurtains]

One of my favorite salads is kale, raspberries and walnuts! It's sooooo good.

Sounds delicious! One of my favourites is crunchy lettuce, cucumber, basil, halloumi, raspberries (or strawberries) and watermelon. It's so good! The sweet berries and crunchy melon & cucumber balance out the saltiness of the halloumi so beautifully. The original recipe has raspberries but I actually prefer using strawberries, although they are sweeter. Strawberries and basil make a great combo! *already dreaming of summer*

For Christmas I made a salad with red cabbage, orange, pomegranate seeds and walnuts, with a simple dressing (olive oil, white vinegar or balsamico, a dash of orange juice, honey, salt & pepper).

I had to look up what halloumi is That is one interesting sounding salad though! I would try it The other one sound delicious too. I love pomegranate, it's good in everything.



Well, I started dieting (or rather trying to eat healthy and make better choices) and bought myself a Nurtibullet. It should come tomorrow along with some groceries that include a bunch of fresh veggies and frozen fruit I already have some frozen bananas because I like to eat them as is, haha. I think I'll try my kale salad in the Nutribullet first. I might love to eat it fresh but my stomach has a hard time digesting the raw kale.

[Leave a Whisper]

You guys reminded me to make that yummy squash soup last night.

[Esbayne]

Ahhhhhh squash souppp. @_@
I'm like, addicted to the stuff lol.

You can buy it by the carton here from some organic brand, I always buy like 2-3 of butternut squash soup, and 2-3 of their tomato basil, and then eat it all myself over a few days. xD
My bf hates the stuff, so more for me!

[Leave a Whisper]

Ahhhhhh squash souppp. @_@
I'm like, addicted to the stuff lol.

You can buy it by the carton here from some organic brand, I always buy like 2-3 of butternut squash soup, and 2-3 of their tomato basil, and then eat it all myself over a few days. xD
My bf hates the stuff, so more for me!

We borrowed our recipe from the Geeky Chef. Its scrummy.

Love tomato soup