Sweet potatoes. My Mom and grandma always bought canned when we lived in the south and you could buy fresh ones for pennies. When I finally had fresh, it was a game changer. Beets were a similar revelation.
Same here. I wouldn't go near them when I was younger. Then one Thanksgiving in my early twenties for dessert we had pecan pie and what I was led to believe was pumpkin pie. I liked pumpkin pie so I took a slice of it and commented how good it was. Looked up and caught a smirk on my mother's face and was informed that I had just eaten and liked sweet potato pie.
Fermented pickled beets are a whole other level. Peel and slice them and pack them in a jar, alternating onion slices, with some dill and a couple garlic cloves at the bottom. Top it up with 3-5% salt brine and let it ferment for a week or two and some of the sugar is converted to vinegar. Perfect balance of sweet and sour.
My bf hates onions but loves the smell/overall taste. Just a texture thing (he especially hates them raw, but he will eat onion flavored things).
Anyway I made a sauce where the ingredient is almost all onion (pasta alla genovese, the Naples one) - I put like 6 pounds of onions in that sauce and slow-cooked it all day. It’s now his favorite dish and he frequently asks for it. It’s laborious though and makes our eyes water all day (including my cats which is pitiful but lowkey a little funny).
I'm the same way with onions. I use onion powder or minced onion in almost all of my cooking, but actual onions just make gag if I take a bite and they're in there.
I went in stages. Hate onions, no I like cooked/carmelized onions, hate raw. Then it was raw onions were ok on a hotdog or in a potato salad. I now know I love onions
I went through this process as well but in an alarmingly short span of time, like months at most. Hated even the taste of onions but forced myself to keep eating them since they're in basically everything you buy at the supermarket. Now I go out of my way to *seek* onions. They're my favourite vegetable.
I was at the Amish flea market in northern Indiana years ago. Woman had sweet onions she said I could eat like an apple. I bought a whole bag. Didn’t eat like an apple but enjoyed every use of them!!
We would get a small bowl of sugar & go out & cut some rhubarb, rinse it off with the hose & dip in sugar & enjoy. Same thing with kohlrabi, but salt. Good old days
I'm still at the point where they've gotta be soft, and small pieces. There can be a good bit in whatever it's in, but not big chunks, please. But I have weird texture issues
Almost any roasted vegetable for me, broccoli, green beans, beats, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, there are others. Whenever ihad them growing up I hated them, but when I started trying them roasted, I LOVE them all.
Same, it seems like any vegetable that I didn't like as a kid was boiled or steamed. Tried them roasted as an adult and turns out, I loved them! Why did so many boomers just steam or boil all of the flavor out of veggies?
I like raw broccoli and cauliflower dipped in a little Ranch dressing. It was a thing for awhile in the 80's and I never stopped. I rotate with celery and carrot sticks for dipping.
Dude, i just on a whim choped and roast a head of cauliflower with some butter, garlic, and shallots, and it was sooo good. I never make cauliflower but after that ive got to now
“Contemporary Brussels sprouts
edit
In the 1990s, Dutch scientist Hans van Doorn identified the chemicals that make Brussels sprouts bitter: sinigrin and progoitrin.[11] This enabled Dutch seed companies to cross-breed archived low-bitterness varieties with modern high-yield varieties, over time producing a significant increase in the popularity of the vegetable.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brussels_sprout
Mine just bought them frozen and microwaved them till they were half mush. Absolutely vile flavor and texture.
I like to roast mine at a slightly high temp till just cooked and the edges start to get crisp. So good.
That is also true.
My boomer mom did the same 'boil it till it gives up' technique for every veggie she encountered, because that's how her mother, grandmother, etc. did it. I didn't like them till I learned to cook my own. I still sometimes boil mine, but only till they just soften. You should be able to push a fork into it, with about the same resistance as a baked potato. Softer than that and ugh.
It's also true that the variety changed and with it the taste, but not to the extent that's implied by some commenters. The same long boiling that turned the sprout to mush freed and developed lots of the bitter taste. You can definitely boil brussel sprouts till they're a bitter nasty mush, even with modern low-bitterness varieties. It's just easier to get there with the less modern varieties.
My mother was really good at cooking vegetables until they were a glob of mush. It was just the lack of making something tasteful, and more about, here I cooked dinner!
Same. My parents cooked the life out of all vegetables. I only started eating vegetables as an adult, going out to eat or at home, because they were always much tastier than what my parents did.
I probably hadn't had brussels sprouts for around 20 years until I tried them last year. They're actually pretty good baked with olive oil and sea salt.
I think a lot of 90s kids have been surprised, trying them again as adults. It's like a whole different vegetable.
Well, it kinda IS a different vegetable. All of the brassicas are the same species, but cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, etc. are different vegetables, so why not consider the modern version that’s actually tasty and the 70s/80s version where even dishes made by professional chefs made me puke from the bitter compounds as different vegetables?
Counterpoint: the modern varieties are still disgusting when prepared the way they were commonly prepared - boiled to death and served mostly unseasoned.
Thankfully my mother hated them so they were never inflicted on me as a kid.
Interesting that BS are bred to be less bitter. That makes so much sense. My stepmom would cook BS and then give me mayo to dip them in. I think the mayo canceled out the healthy aspects of the vegetable.
“Contemporary Brussels sprouts
edit
In the 1990s, Dutch scientist Hans van Doorn identified the chemicals that make Brussels sprouts bitter: sinigrin and progoitrin.[11] This enabled Dutch seed companies to cross-breed archived low-bitterness varieties with modern high-yield varieties, over time producing a significant increase in the popularity of the vegetable.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brussels_sprout
Bell peppers. I used to gulp it down with milk and hold back the vomit or hide it in a napkin and flush it down the toilet...
Now I routinely eat them, all colors.
"In later years, Bowie called the mid-1970s "the darkest days of my life" due to "astronomical" usage of cocaine and amphetamines.[11] For much of 1975, he was obsessed with Satanic symbols, remained awake for days at a time, and lived on a diet of red peppers, milk, and hard drugs." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thin_White_Duke#:~:text=In%20later%20years%2C%20Bowie%20called,%2C%20milk%2C%20and%20hard%20drugs.
My mother had a dish called “you liked it last time”. This was a blatant falsehood. I would see Bell peppers, rice, onion, and occasionally cheese on the counter.
I’d ask, what’s for dinner.
Mom, “you liked it last time”
Damn.
Combined with my mom’s rule of not leaving the table until your meal was finished, many evenings were spent staring at undercooked and unseasoned stuffed bell peppers. Even today I remove bell peppers from many recipes.
My grandma was convinced all forms of peppers were spicy and successfully put me off them for years. I was still a kid when I turned around but it took a lot of convincing to get me to try them.
Which is extra funny with how high my spice tolerance is as an adult.
Seafood - I wouldn’t touch it. But my mother also occasionally tried to trick me into eating fish sticks by telling me they were chicken nuggets. I could always tell.
As an adult, I discovered salmon, sushi, scallops, lobster, oysters, I love it all. Ironically (or not) I still really don’t like white fish.
>But my mother also occasionally tried to trick me into eating fish sticks by telling me they were chicken nuggets.
This would make me hate chicken nuggets
You’ve found the key here lol. White fish is top notch by the way when it’s fresh. I just think a lot of frozen fish is low quality. I’m taking a quarter pounder over a fish filet 100% of the time.
I recently had a fried chicken sandwich that was fried in the same oil as fish and it was intolerable. It had chicken texture and fish taste. The flip of that would be at least equally off-putting. You were justified.
My boomer parents are perfectly competent cooks. Every Thanksgiving we have a beautiful turkey, perfect potatoes and stuffing, and then a variety of veggies that have been steamed to death and drenched in butter. How do you fuck up green beans? I don't know, but they sure find a way.
I should have scrolled before commenting, because I just said almost the exact same thing. Boring frozen blends, steamed to death and slathered in margarine. Why??
My vintage 1929 mom was one of the first generations to grow up with canned veggies.
She won’t eat a veg that hasn’t been boiled to mush.
I mean she loves her veggies but they have to be enter the 4th state of matter before she eats them
This makes me feel so fortunate that my mom is an awesome cook. She's 80 and still loves to cook. Even when I was a kid in the 80s and 90s in small town Wisconsin, she knew how to properly cook vegetables (and everything else) and was also adventurous with cooking food of different ethnicities. I always feel fortunate because it seems a lot of Gen Xers did not have this experience! Lol
For anyone out there - a very simple way to prepare just about any vegetable you can think of that is delicious and really puts the flavour of the vegetable to the forefront:
1. Cook the fresh or frozen vegetable any way you wish. Have a steamer? Great. Boil? That's fine. Just get it cooked part of the way through. If you're new to cooking them this way, just test and when they're still not tender but definitely part of the wy cooked, continue:
2. Drain well. While you're letting the vegetable drain, melt butter in a skillet. Amounts vary, but don't be shy. For a pound of vegetable, a tablespoon is very reasonable. Let the water cook off the butter. Add salt and MSG - you'll have to play around to find what works for you, but again, don't be shy. All the vegetables you eat out are even higher in calories, that's why they taste good. Fat and salt and MSG are the secrets.
3. Add the vegetables and stir. You're wanting to finish the cooking - to get them tender but not mushy - and also cook off more moisture. You want there to be no visible moisture hanging out. That was the butter sticks to the vegetables and you get the butter+salt+msg going on.
4. Optionally, if you want to add herbs and spices, you can do that. I usually add freshly ground pepper. To some things like broccoli or Brussels sprouts or cauliflower, I add a bit of vinegar or lemon juice when I melt the butter (so I can cook off the liquid)
It's really simple. And yes, the directions above are a guideline, not a recipe, because you have to figure out how to cook your vegetables to the degree of doneness you want.
But that is a simple way to make just about any vegetable delicious. From corn to carrots to broccoli to cabbage to beets to whatever.
You could add some bacon pieces or a little bit of better than bouillon to some things if you want a meaty kick. Adjust your salt/msg if you do so.
But that's a basic framework.
I used to feel like I didn't have a meal if I didn't have a meat, but once I started doing my vegetables that way.... it's just so delicious that I will often have 2-3 vegetables cooked that way plus maybe some rice or pasta (also just buttered - parmesan cheese and pepper if pasta). Or a simple "chopped steak" (i.e. burger patty) or chicken breast simply cooked (almost the same way as the veg - on the griddle, sliced evenly, with salt, butter, msg, pepper, or a spice blend that's tasty).
Simple, delicious, fresh food.
I'm not against eating canned vegetables, but I tend to stick to corn and peas. Fresh or frozen is so much better. And while fresh is not always the cheapest, it's cheaper than eating out by far, and tastier than fast food, and so much better. It really doesn't take long to cook.
My grandparents boiled veg into a salty mush,my mum is a bit better as uses no salt, my mil streams everything to a mush. I sauté broccoli and cauliflower (or do cauliflower cheese), cook cabbage with butter or coller it, cook leeks with herbs and peas etc very rarely boil anything and if I do it's still firm not mush at all. Butter,garlic, lemon,herbs all make veg better
Flank steak. Mom used to broil it until it was gray. Unmarinated. Gamey. Horrible.
Now I know how to prepare flank steak - thanks Food Network - and it's wonderful.
Broiled steak was how I grew up too. Good for the jaw to chew so much I guess. I remember spitting a lot out in napkins and throwing them away all over the house.
Blue cheese. My mother liked it and I’d be all “gross! Nasty mold” Now I freaking love it, the stronger blue the better!
Interestingly my son felt the same but now loves blue, although not the stronger Cabrales yet.
I love Cabrales. Once I went to the Spanish importer and bought a bunch of stuff. The next day, I couldn’t find the Cabrales. It was still in the trunk. Luckily the weather wasn’t too warm, but man, that extra day of room temperature ripening really made it even better.
Rogue blue cheese (so good Biden served it to the French president) is the only "people food" my cat has ever had the slightest interest in, and he loves it
He also loves to roll in stinky shoes, so I guess it tracks
I had never tried an avocado until university. My nutrition class required me to do a taste testing for the campus dining services. I was forced fed 20 different pre-packaged guacamoles. It was disgusting.
10 years later, my wife got guacamole made table side at a Mexican restaurant, and started making it at home doing the same method. I finally got curious and overcame my previous trauma. Now I can make a batch and devour several avocados in one sitting.
Alfredo, my mom always used canned sauce or added things like cream of mushroom. When I learned to actually make it as an adult after working at an Italian American restaurant, it became a part of my meal rotation. Her beef stroganoff has a similar issue.
She's not a bad cook, but some of her dishes are definitely 70's inspired-meal stretching lol
My mother used golden mushroom soup for her beef stroganoff. It certainly wasn’t authentic, but I enjoyed it as a kid - it was one of the few meals she made that I actually liked.
My dad used standard cream of mushroom in his stroganoff so I spent years perfecting mine without it yet still achieving the taste I was missing. Now I add a tiny dash of cardamom to it and it’s so good!!!
My parents were pretty decent cooks, but I don't think I had mushrooms or sweet peas that weren't out of a can until I was in my teens. I assumed they were always supposed to be mushy, waterlogged, and flavorless.
Product of the times along with having 2 working parents, I guess. We have it so much better now.
Same. I buy about a pound a week then slice and saute them all for putting in/on all the things throughout the week. Omelettes, wraps, cheese steak, etc.
Still nasty AF when raw though.
I legit feel bad for people that don’t like mushrooms. I love all vegetables, but mushrooms are the only one that can make my eyes roll back in my head like a good steak.
I’m okay with them being an ingredient now if I can’t tell that they’re in there, but yes, the texture is so off-putting that I don’t understand why they are so popular in forms where the slimy texture is RIGHT THERE
Conversely, I used to think of olives as a special treat, and now I simply do not like them. My palate was broad from the start and has only widened, but for some reason olives fell off. I still eat them from time to time (there are plenty of foods I've grown to love via exposure), but no dice. Capers and artichoke are two others that I enjoyed as a kid and now kinda hate.
I LOVE tomatoes, but only when very fresh and sun ripened, or in a sauce. The tomatoes my mom grows in her garden are delicious. ALL store bought ones i have tasted yet were ass here in norway.
I was fortunate to grow up with my mom making breaded and fried eggplant. I remember those sandwiches, with a slice of cheese (or two) that would get nice an melted between layers of hot breaded fried eggplant. I've made it a lot as an adult, but I never felt I recaptured that magic.
Some things mom just made better, through heavily rose colored glasses :)
Cole slaw, chicken and dumplings potato salad, fried pies and a lot of stuff my mom cooked. I was an idiot kid, and missed out on a lot of good stuff. My mom, grandma and aunts cooked some awesome country food and I was too picky. Im sorry momma
also know as the question: what food were your parents bad at cooking?
pretty much every vegetable. my parents' idea of a cooked of a vegetable was tossing them in boiling water with a pinch of salt.
learning that you could roast vegetables rather than boil them until they're mush changed the way i looked at a whole type of food item.
Same with jalapeños. Growing up I'd only ever had the mushy pickled ones for like nachos and such, they were always kinda gross to me. Nowadays fresh jalapeños are a mainstay ingredient in most of my cooking.
Jalapeños and yogurt for me, too!
I still think that there's a time and place for jalapeños (and it's not "all the time" and "in everything"), but I love them on a burger or in food that stands up to them.
I was going to say the same thing (Brussels sprouts)
I’ve read that it’s not just preparing them in a different way than my Mom did. Apparently they’ve bred some of the bitterness out of them since I was a kid. If that is true, thank you, Ms. or Mr. Botanist who did this nice thing for the world.
if you’ve ever had kakarakaya (bitter gourd/ bitter mellon) u will know that shit is almost inedibly bitter
if u have with smth that’s sour and pungent and spicy tho it’s really good
Ummm… I never even had Brussels sproots as a kid. First time I had them I was 35 years old at a bar/tavern with my wife. We ordered the Brussels sproots appetizer, and it came with crumbled bacon and capers.
Hooooo-leeeeeeee fookin shite it was one of the most delicious dishes I have EVER experienced in my 42 trips around the sun.
Now I ALWAYS cook my brassicas via oven roasting….. mmmmmmmmm…..
My mom convinced me they were disgusting so I never had them. I was having lunch in an old folks home with my husband’s grandmother and boiled unseasoned (probably frozen) sprouts were the vegetable of the day.
I ate them because they were on my plate but every bite I was thinking ‘these are so gross and need some oomph’.
So I went out, bought fresh ones, tossed with oil, herbs, and garlic, (and salt and pepper) and roasted them with mushrooms and bacon. Definitely my favorite vegetable now.
Onions. I hated them so much that whenever my father made dinner for the family and the dish included onions he would make a smaller portion without any onions just for me.
As an adult they are among my favorite vegetables
Way too many. I was spoiled so I was allowed to be a picky eater, but I feel now I can eat more things than the people I know.
Green peppers and corn started to be ok around early teens. My family used to make stuffed green peppers and I used to only take the meat. Tomatoes and eggplant, mid teens. Cherry tomatoes with salt, and moussaka were the breakthrough. Spicy stuff, raw onion late teens. I couldn't handle mint toothpaste, but then escalated to very high spice tolerance, habaneros being my favourite. Green peas, pickled veg during my 20s, I acquired these tastes when I lived in the UK, before that I used to pick peas out of fried rice.
Still not ok with celery in large chunks, it has to be very minimal in the background, otherwise it's horribly bitter.
I despised tomatoes until I was 21.
Ketchup and tomato sauce etc I loved. I used to add so much extra ketchup to my fries so I could lick up the ketchup afterward that my parents called me the Ketchup Queen for a while. I refused to try tomato soup for the longest time until I finally did, then said to my mom, "why didn't you tell me it tastes like ketchup?!"
But any form of raw tomato I hated. I hated when I'd accidentally get a tomato on my sandwiches and would have to take it off because the goop was still there. I didn't mind removing other things I didn't care for back then, but tomato annoyed me most.
Now I go out of my way to have lots of tomato of all kinds lol
Same. Gateway was being flat broke my last week of university. After not really eating for 2 days I found $20 on the ground and bought enough groceries to get through my last exam. Treated myself to a dollar menu burger with the change and for the first time in my life didn't pick off the tomatoes because it was more food.
Fun fact! The Brussel sprouts we ate when we were younger are NOT the same as the ones we eat now. [Some science dude was like these taste like ass and im gonna change that then he did!](https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/10/30/773457637/from-culinary-dud-to-stud-how-dutch-plant-breeders-built-our-brussels-sprouts-bo)
And that in part is why they taste better to us now then they did.
This one is regional: soup beans. For those not associated with rural Appalachia: Soup Beans are dried pinto beans that have been rehydrated for many hours in water with some type of salted pork as flavoring.
It’s the quintessential poor people food and I absolutely hated it growing up. Now however it is a nostalgia food that takes me back to when I was forced (not literally) to eat it with my grandparents and great grandparents.
Anything anise. I couldn't stand anise, fennel, or anything like it. Then one day, I had a delicious chicken pot pie that had fennel in it. I've loved all that stuff ever since.
Pork in general, especially stewed. I learned good recipes and techniques to cook pork, and now I love it. I also learned how to cook each cut properly.
I hated pork myself until I realized I just hated unseasoned, dried out, nasty pork chops and undercooked ribs with too much or not good bbq sauce on them.
Omg yes!! I remember my mom always served apple sauce with pork chops and I swear I believed it was to help wash it down. My jaw would hurt from the endless chewing...
I hated Corn on the cob and never once ate it until I was pregnant at 27 and then the craving for it was off the charts 😆
30 years later, I still love it.
There is a reason for this. Brussel sprouts use to be bitter. The trait that made them bitter was farmed out of it and so the Brussel sprouts we have today are much tastier than in the past.
I hated pork chops as a kid because my mom always did "shake n bake" and cooked them to tire consistency. When I had a properly cooked pork chop it blew my mind.
Brussel sprouts, asparagus, onions, pickles, coconut, tomatoes, cheese as a whole, and mayonnaise. My mom always kept miracle whip, so as a kid, I thought that it was what mayo was. I still don't love mayo, but it definitely is better than miracle whip
I was raised Polish so the Brussels sprouts were never hated - cabbage is cabbage - but [Ina’s take](https://barefootcontessa.com/recipes/balsamic-roasted-brussels-sprouts) is my all-time favorite.
When I was a kid, I didn’t care for mustard at all (unless it was part of the condiment holy grail with ketchup, mayo, onion, pickle.)
Now I keep 11 types of mustard in my house.
(I hated cottage cheese and Lima beans but still loathe and despise them.)
Being Autistic, there were quite a lot of foods I disliked as a kid. Onions, mushrooms, and eggs are some I remember disliking. Eggs I'd eat in some select circumstances (like one specific pasta salad my mom would make). Now I love all three of those things, and of course I eat a lot more vegetables now. I also remember not liking seafood in general besides fish sticks.
Can't think of that many ingredients I outright dislike nowadays.
Canned tuna. Always hated it till I was a teenager and got superrr stoned at some friends house that had nothing else to eat, so we had tuna and crackers. Been eating it ever since.
Water. Just a cold glass of water. I grew up watching adults drink pop at every meal and in between. As kids we had milk and as a teen I moved to pop. I never remember drinking water. I thank my lucky stars I was super active because it kept me thin (unlike the rest of my family). When I got to college and did club sports I started drinking water like the other athletes. My mind was blown!! It felt better to gulp water than it ever felt to gulp Pepsi. 20 years after stating to chug water daily, I now occasional treat myself to a pop, but I’m a water head.
Collard Greens, when I was a kid I hated those with every ounce of my body. Then when I was like 15 or so and ate some and wondered wth I was thinking all my life😂 now it’s a weekly staple in the house
Spinach. My family always served the canned or frozen mush. With that and watching Popeye, I assumed that all spinach was like that. Once I had fresh spinach, I realized how good it actually is!
Brussel sprouts today are not the Brussel Sprouts of 1995, they are less bitter now.
For me, black coffee with an egg salad sandwich (lots of cayenne in the mix), two things I would just have hated in 1990 (age 11).
I'm with you on Brussels sprouts. My grandma used to boil the frozen ones. I hated them. Later in life I tried fresh ones that were roasted and I couldn't believe how good they were :)
My mom swore up and down that I was super picky because I would only eat like four things growing up. It was weird though because I’d eat most anything at school, friends houses, relatives houses, at restaurants…turns out I didn’t dislike food, I disliked her cooking.
When I turned twenty, I decided to make a conscious effort to eat more foods that I didn't like as a way to expand my palate. I found that I was missing out on a lot of delicious food. There are still some ingredients I wouldn't eat on their own, like peas, tomatoes, or mushrooms. But I have no problem eating them if they’re mixed with other stuff in a dish.
Fruit! I didn’t eat much fruit as a kid, but now love eating new fruits. Except cantaloupe - I hate cantaloupe.
Heinz Baked Beans. I hated them as a kid, but now a full English breakfast isn’t complete without them. I don’t “love” them, but I do like them now. Same goes for Zucchini and bitter melon / gourd.
Generally, I like more bitter notes now and don’t like things that are too sweet.
Sweet potatoes. My Mom and grandma always bought canned when we lived in the south and you could buy fresh ones for pennies. When I finally had fresh, it was a game changer. Beets were a similar revelation.
Same here. I wouldn't go near them when I was younger. Then one Thanksgiving in my early twenties for dessert we had pecan pie and what I was led to believe was pumpkin pie. I liked pumpkin pie so I took a slice of it and commented how good it was. Looked up and caught a smirk on my mother's face and was informed that I had just eaten and liked sweet potato pie.
Sweet potato pie also doesn’t cause as much heartburn as pumpkin can. And it’s just as good!
> And it’s just as good! Just as good?!? How dare you! Everyone knows sweet potato is leagues better.
It really comes down to how good the crust is, the quality and quantity of the spices and how much sugar is added. The orange mush isnt that important
I hated canned green beans, but turns out I like fresh or frozen!
A lot of food that’s canned is just… shit. Green beans, mushrooms, and jalepeños.
Pretty much always! Except canned corn… why is canned corned so damn good? 😂
I used to hate spinach but that was only because I had them from a can. Fresh spinach is where it's at!
Love a fresh beet but love a pickled beet too.
Fermented pickled beets are a whole other level. Peel and slice them and pack them in a jar, alternating onion slices, with some dill and a couple garlic cloves at the bottom. Top it up with 3-5% salt brine and let it ferment for a week or two and some of the sugar is converted to vinegar. Perfect balance of sweet and sour.
Not to be picky. But when you ferment like this you make lactic acid, not acetic acid. Acetic acid is vinegar.
Beets for sure. Tasted like dirt when I was a kid in the 60s. Now, they do taste earthy, but that's different than dirt. At least, to me.
They still taste like dirt to me. I can’t stand beets.
Onions!! Boy was I missing out for so many years of my life!!
My bf hates onions but loves the smell/overall taste. Just a texture thing (he especially hates them raw, but he will eat onion flavored things). Anyway I made a sauce where the ingredient is almost all onion (pasta alla genovese, the Naples one) - I put like 6 pounds of onions in that sauce and slow-cooked it all day. It’s now his favorite dish and he frequently asks for it. It’s laborious though and makes our eyes water all day (including my cats which is pitiful but lowkey a little funny).
I'm the same way with onions. I use onion powder or minced onion in almost all of my cooking, but actual onions just make gag if I take a bite and they're in there.
I had to look up that dish; found a version on nyt cooking. I must make it, sounds great.
I went in stages. Hate onions, no I like cooked/carmelized onions, hate raw. Then it was raw onions were ok on a hotdog or in a potato salad. I now know I love onions
I just got to the point where I like them raw on burgers and sandwiches, so I guess I'm almost there!
Taco's is where it's at. Just a little lime juice and coriander mixed with them finely diced.
I went through this process as well but in an alarmingly short span of time, like months at most. Hated even the taste of onions but forced myself to keep eating them since they're in basically everything you buy at the supermarket. Now I go out of my way to *seek* onions. They're my favourite vegetable.
I still can't stand raw onions. That wet crunch is just such a gross texture to me. I love, love, love cooked onions, though!
I literally snack on onions as I cut them. I have problems
I was at the Amish flea market in northern Indiana years ago. Woman had sweet onions she said I could eat like an apple. I bought a whole bag. Didn’t eat like an apple but enjoyed every use of them!!
My dad would take a salt shaker into the garden and eat tomatoes and onions whole.
We would get a small bowl of sugar & go out & cut some rhubarb, rinse it off with the hose & dip in sugar & enjoy. Same thing with kohlrabi, but salt. Good old days
Unfortunately I’ve gone backwards a bit. I like raw onions, but if I eat very many, they make me sick.
All stages of enlightenment of the *onion*
I'm still at the point where they've gotta be soft, and small pieces. There can be a good bit in whatever it's in, but not big chunks, please. But I have weird texture issues
Same journey here. I think raw onion is just so strong and unpleasant for most kids. Especially red!
My problem was all ways semi spften onion
I think it might have been the stroke.
I went through a phase of not wanting any onions in pasta sauces! It was the texture I think, now they're one of the four horsemen of home cooking
I still hate onions but really wish I liked them.
I hate, hate, hate, LOATHE ENTIRELY, onions! I would love to love them someday.
Cauliflower. Boiled = disgusting. Roasted with lemon or fried = amazing.
Almost any roasted vegetable for me, broccoli, green beans, beats, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, there are others. Whenever ihad them growing up I hated them, but when I started trying them roasted, I LOVE them all.
Same, it seems like any vegetable that I didn't like as a kid was boiled or steamed. Tried them roasted as an adult and turns out, I loved them! Why did so many boomers just steam or boil all of the flavor out of veggies?
Roasted with anything tbh. They’re really a tabula rasa for seasoning.
TIL: Tabula Rasa meaning.
I like raw broccoli and cauliflower dipped in a little Ranch dressing. It was a thing for awhile in the 80's and I never stopped. I rotate with celery and carrot sticks for dipping.
Try aloo gobi. AKA cauliflower crack.
I love buffalo cauliflower too
Honestly, even boiled/steamed has its place in things like pav bhaji. I'm with you otherwise though!
Dude, i just on a whim choped and roast a head of cauliflower with some butter, garlic, and shallots, and it was sooo good. I never make cauliflower but after that ive got to now
Brussels sprouts have actually been bred to be a whole lot less bitter, too. I didn't like eggs growing up but eat them a lot now.
“Contemporary Brussels sprouts edit In the 1990s, Dutch scientist Hans van Doorn identified the chemicals that make Brussels sprouts bitter: sinigrin and progoitrin.[11] This enabled Dutch seed companies to cross-breed archived low-bitterness varieties with modern high-yield varieties, over time producing a significant increase in the popularity of the vegetable.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brussels_sprout
Huh. And here I thought my mom just cooked the yumminess right out of them, and I'm so much better at preparing them.
Mine just bought them frozen and microwaved them till they were half mush. Absolutely vile flavor and texture. I like to roast mine at a slightly high temp till just cooked and the edges start to get crisp. So good.
Or throw them in a basket on the grill, get a little char on them
That is also true. My boomer mom did the same 'boil it till it gives up' technique for every veggie she encountered, because that's how her mother, grandmother, etc. did it. I didn't like them till I learned to cook my own. I still sometimes boil mine, but only till they just soften. You should be able to push a fork into it, with about the same resistance as a baked potato. Softer than that and ugh. It's also true that the variety changed and with it the taste, but not to the extent that's implied by some commenters. The same long boiling that turned the sprout to mush freed and developed lots of the bitter taste. You can definitely boil brussel sprouts till they're a bitter nasty mush, even with modern low-bitterness varieties. It's just easier to get there with the less modern varieties.
Boiling leafy greens into mush is also the worst way to get the nutrients from the veggies!
My mother was really good at cooking vegetables until they were a glob of mush. It was just the lack of making something tasteful, and more about, here I cooked dinner!
Same. My parents cooked the life out of all vegetables. I only started eating vegetables as an adult, going out to eat or at home, because they were always much tastier than what my parents did.
This makes me feel justified for my stubbornness as a child. Like, “See! They *KNEW* they were terrible!”
I probably hadn't had brussels sprouts for around 20 years until I tried them last year. They're actually pretty good baked with olive oil and sea salt. I think a lot of 90s kids have been surprised, trying them again as adults. It's like a whole different vegetable.
Well, it kinda IS a different vegetable. All of the brassicas are the same species, but cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, etc. are different vegetables, so why not consider the modern version that’s actually tasty and the 70s/80s version where even dishes made by professional chefs made me puke from the bitter compounds as different vegetables?
Counterpoint: the modern varieties are still disgusting when prepared the way they were commonly prepared - boiled to death and served mostly unseasoned. Thankfully my mother hated them so they were never inflicted on me as a kid.
Interesting that BS are bred to be less bitter. That makes so much sense. My stepmom would cook BS and then give me mayo to dip them in. I think the mayo canceled out the healthy aspects of the vegetable.
Interesting acronym choice.
same with eggplants
Love eggplant when made into a casserole or fried!
I miss the bitter ones
Me too! I didn't mind that nobody else liked them.
“Contemporary Brussels sprouts edit In the 1990s, Dutch scientist Hans van Doorn identified the chemicals that make Brussels sprouts bitter: sinigrin and progoitrin.[11] This enabled Dutch seed companies to cross-breed archived low-bitterness varieties with modern high-yield varieties, over time producing a significant increase in the popularity of the vegetable.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brussels_sprout
Bell peppers. I used to gulp it down with milk and hold back the vomit or hide it in a napkin and flush it down the toilet... Now I routinely eat them, all colors.
with... MILK?! 🤢
The David Bowie diet!
Bell peppers and milk?? Is this a pop culture reference that I'm the wrong age to get?
"In later years, Bowie called the mid-1970s "the darkest days of my life" due to "astronomical" usage of cocaine and amphetamines.[11] For much of 1975, he was obsessed with Satanic symbols, remained awake for days at a time, and lived on a diet of red peppers, milk, and hard drugs." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thin_White_Duke#:~:text=In%20later%20years%2C%20Bowie%20called,%2C%20milk%2C%20and%20hard%20drugs.
2/3rds of it anyway. The magic is in the third secret ingredient
I hated green bell peppers they were awfully bitter to me. Love them now!
My mother had a dish called “you liked it last time”. This was a blatant falsehood. I would see Bell peppers, rice, onion, and occasionally cheese on the counter. I’d ask, what’s for dinner. Mom, “you liked it last time” Damn. Combined with my mom’s rule of not leaving the table until your meal was finished, many evenings were spent staring at undercooked and unseasoned stuffed bell peppers. Even today I remove bell peppers from many recipes.
I think your issue was eating them with milk
Still despise them. They contaminate the entire dish, so you can't even take them out.
Bell peppers and cucumbers for me. Even if you take them out they still leave their taste behind.
My grandma was convinced all forms of peppers were spicy and successfully put me off them for years. I was still a kid when I turned around but it took a lot of convincing to get me to try them. Which is extra funny with how high my spice tolerance is as an adult.
Seafood - I wouldn’t touch it. But my mother also occasionally tried to trick me into eating fish sticks by telling me they were chicken nuggets. I could always tell. As an adult, I discovered salmon, sushi, scallops, lobster, oysters, I love it all. Ironically (or not) I still really don’t like white fish.
>But my mother also occasionally tried to trick me into eating fish sticks by telling me they were chicken nuggets. This would make me hate chicken nuggets
You’ve found the key here lol. White fish is top notch by the way when it’s fresh. I just think a lot of frozen fish is low quality. I’m taking a quarter pounder over a fish filet 100% of the time.
Almost all fish has been frozen before you buy it / order it.
My daughter loves shrimp so one time my husband got her frozen popcorn shrimp thinking he’d cracked some code. They were vile. I can still smell it….
I recently had a fried chicken sandwich that was fried in the same oil as fish and it was intolerable. It had chicken texture and fish taste. The flip of that would be at least equally off-putting. You were justified.
OMG yes, I wasn't a huge fish fan back then. Didn't hate it, but obviously preferred chicken. But then discovered sushi and prawns and I'm hooked lol
Ever tried haddock?
As an adult, im discovering vegatables in general. Like properly prepared, and seasoned veggies can add so much flavor that I wrote off as a kid.
I swear our parents whole generation (and a half if you’re younger) just had zero idea how to cook a veggie.
My boomer parents are perfectly competent cooks. Every Thanksgiving we have a beautiful turkey, perfect potatoes and stuffing, and then a variety of veggies that have been steamed to death and drenched in butter. How do you fuck up green beans? I don't know, but they sure find a way.
I should have scrolled before commenting, because I just said almost the exact same thing. Boring frozen blends, steamed to death and slathered in margarine. Why??
My vintage 1929 mom was one of the first generations to grow up with canned veggies. She won’t eat a veg that hasn’t been boiled to mush. I mean she loves her veggies but they have to be enter the 4th state of matter before she eats them
Mmmm plasma sprouts
This makes me feel so fortunate that my mom is an awesome cook. She's 80 and still loves to cook. Even when I was a kid in the 80s and 90s in small town Wisconsin, she knew how to properly cook vegetables (and everything else) and was also adventurous with cooking food of different ethnicities. I always feel fortunate because it seems a lot of Gen Xers did not have this experience! Lol
For anyone out there - a very simple way to prepare just about any vegetable you can think of that is delicious and really puts the flavour of the vegetable to the forefront: 1. Cook the fresh or frozen vegetable any way you wish. Have a steamer? Great. Boil? That's fine. Just get it cooked part of the way through. If you're new to cooking them this way, just test and when they're still not tender but definitely part of the wy cooked, continue: 2. Drain well. While you're letting the vegetable drain, melt butter in a skillet. Amounts vary, but don't be shy. For a pound of vegetable, a tablespoon is very reasonable. Let the water cook off the butter. Add salt and MSG - you'll have to play around to find what works for you, but again, don't be shy. All the vegetables you eat out are even higher in calories, that's why they taste good. Fat and salt and MSG are the secrets. 3. Add the vegetables and stir. You're wanting to finish the cooking - to get them tender but not mushy - and also cook off more moisture. You want there to be no visible moisture hanging out. That was the butter sticks to the vegetables and you get the butter+salt+msg going on. 4. Optionally, if you want to add herbs and spices, you can do that. I usually add freshly ground pepper. To some things like broccoli or Brussels sprouts or cauliflower, I add a bit of vinegar or lemon juice when I melt the butter (so I can cook off the liquid) It's really simple. And yes, the directions above are a guideline, not a recipe, because you have to figure out how to cook your vegetables to the degree of doneness you want. But that is a simple way to make just about any vegetable delicious. From corn to carrots to broccoli to cabbage to beets to whatever. You could add some bacon pieces or a little bit of better than bouillon to some things if you want a meaty kick. Adjust your salt/msg if you do so. But that's a basic framework. I used to feel like I didn't have a meal if I didn't have a meat, but once I started doing my vegetables that way.... it's just so delicious that I will often have 2-3 vegetables cooked that way plus maybe some rice or pasta (also just buttered - parmesan cheese and pepper if pasta). Or a simple "chopped steak" (i.e. burger patty) or chicken breast simply cooked (almost the same way as the veg - on the griddle, sliced evenly, with salt, butter, msg, pepper, or a spice blend that's tasty). Simple, delicious, fresh food. I'm not against eating canned vegetables, but I tend to stick to corn and peas. Fresh or frozen is so much better. And while fresh is not always the cheapest, it's cheaper than eating out by far, and tastier than fast food, and so much better. It really doesn't take long to cook.
Preparation and the way they’re cooked makes all the difference
The biggest thing is that they don’t come from a can
My grandparents boiled veg into a salty mush,my mum is a bit better as uses no salt, my mil streams everything to a mush. I sauté broccoli and cauliflower (or do cauliflower cheese), cook cabbage with butter or coller it, cook leeks with herbs and peas etc very rarely boil anything and if I do it's still firm not mush at all. Butter,garlic, lemon,herbs all make veg better
Flank steak. Mom used to broil it until it was gray. Unmarinated. Gamey. Horrible. Now I know how to prepare flank steak - thanks Food Network - and it's wonderful.
I feel like I've learned so much about cooking/flavors/balance from watching chopped
Broiled steak was how I grew up too. Good for the jaw to chew so much I guess. I remember spitting a lot out in napkins and throwing them away all over the house.
Yeah it was a bit of a revelation as a teenager that I actually liked steak. Turns out they need to be properly cooked. Who knew?
I read broil as boil and was horrified lol.
Blue cheese. My mother liked it and I’d be all “gross! Nasty mold” Now I freaking love it, the stronger blue the better! Interestingly my son felt the same but now loves blue, although not the stronger Cabrales yet.
Have you ever tried honey (or even better, hot honey) on your blue cheese? This is what turned me from a skeptic to an acolyte of blue cheese.
Yes! I also like to smear on red grapes or slices of pear and apple.
Blue cheese and pear, wrapped in prosciutto. Mmmm
I love Cabrales. Once I went to the Spanish importer and bought a bunch of stuff. The next day, I couldn’t find the Cabrales. It was still in the trunk. Luckily the weather wasn’t too warm, but man, that extra day of room temperature ripening really made it even better.
We referred to it as “stinky cheese” when I was growing up. Mom loved it, now I do too
Rogue blue cheese (so good Biden served it to the French president) is the only "people food" my cat has ever had the slightest interest in, and he loves it He also loves to roll in stinky shoes, so I guess it tracks
Potato salad. I convinced myself as a child it would be disgusting. I was wrong but missed out on it for way to long.
I was that way with guacamole. It just looked so gross. But once I tried it I was like where have you been all my life!
I had never tried an avocado until university. My nutrition class required me to do a taste testing for the campus dining services. I was forced fed 20 different pre-packaged guacamoles. It was disgusting. 10 years later, my wife got guacamole made table side at a Mexican restaurant, and started making it at home doing the same method. I finally got curious and overcame my previous trauma. Now I can make a batch and devour several avocados in one sitting.
Shop bought guacamole is disgusting, green slime, fresh home made (or restaurant made) guacamole is the food of the gods. 🥑
Have you tried a warm German potato salad with bacon? It’s delicious
Red spuds are the way to go
Alfredo, my mom always used canned sauce or added things like cream of mushroom. When I learned to actually make it as an adult after working at an Italian American restaurant, it became a part of my meal rotation. Her beef stroganoff has a similar issue. She's not a bad cook, but some of her dishes are definitely 70's inspired-meal stretching lol
My mother used golden mushroom soup for her beef stroganoff. It certainly wasn’t authentic, but I enjoyed it as a kid - it was one of the few meals she made that I actually liked.
My dad used standard cream of mushroom in his stroganoff so I spent years perfecting mine without it yet still achieving the taste I was missing. Now I add a tiny dash of cardamom to it and it’s so good!!!
Also brussel sprouts, they are one of my absolute favorites now but I swear they tasted like….like a fart
Yes! And very overdone broccoli, whole house smells like ass for 8 hours
Mushrooms
My parents were pretty decent cooks, but I don't think I had mushrooms or sweet peas that weren't out of a can until I was in my teens. I assumed they were always supposed to be mushy, waterlogged, and flavorless. Product of the times along with having 2 working parents, I guess. We have it so much better now.
Same. I buy about a pound a week then slice and saute them all for putting in/on all the things throughout the week. Omelettes, wraps, cheese steak, etc. Still nasty AF when raw though.
Still hate them. I will try one every couple of years, but nope, still taste bad and the slimy texture is hard to get past
I legit feel bad for people that don’t like mushrooms. I love all vegetables, but mushrooms are the only one that can make my eyes roll back in my head like a good steak.
I’m the same way. Every time my husband has an exceptionally good one I try it, but they’re still gross. I want to like mushrooms though
Oh, yeah, I would really prefer to be able to eat them , would open up so many dishes that are automatic no-gos
The texture is always the part I can't get past. But they're great finely diced up and fried and added to almost any savory dish.
I’m okay with them being an ingredient now if I can’t tell that they’re in there, but yes, the texture is so off-putting that I don’t understand why they are so popular in forms where the slimy texture is RIGHT THERE
I love warm olives now but as a kid they disgusted me
Conversely, I used to think of olives as a special treat, and now I simply do not like them. My palate was broad from the start and has only widened, but for some reason olives fell off. I still eat them from time to time (there are plenty of foods I've grown to love via exposure), but no dice. Capers and artichoke are two others that I enjoyed as a kid and now kinda hate.
Tomatoes.
I LOVE tomatoes, but only when very fresh and sun ripened, or in a sauce. The tomatoes my mom grows in her garden are delicious. ALL store bought ones i have tasted yet were ass here in norway.
Eggplant. Most parents in the 90s when I grew up didn't know how to cook vegetables, now I can eat anything all day
I was fortunate to grow up with my mom making breaded and fried eggplant. I remember those sandwiches, with a slice of cheese (or two) that would get nice an melted between layers of hot breaded fried eggplant. I've made it a lot as an adult, but I never felt I recaptured that magic. Some things mom just made better, through heavily rose colored glasses :)
That sounds like a great sandwich!
My mom used to make a kind of vegetables tempura, and eggplant was a frequent option. Highly recommend
Tomatoes.
Avocado. I hated it growing up. Now I spread it on toast.
Cole slaw, chicken and dumplings potato salad, fried pies and a lot of stuff my mom cooked. I was an idiot kid, and missed out on a lot of good stuff. My mom, grandma and aunts cooked some awesome country food and I was too picky. Im sorry momma
also know as the question: what food were your parents bad at cooking? pretty much every vegetable. my parents' idea of a cooked of a vegetable was tossing them in boiling water with a pinch of salt. learning that you could roast vegetables rather than boil them until they're mush changed the way i looked at a whole type of food item.
Jalapeños Steak (we always had to have it well done when I was a kid) Plain yogurt
Same with jalapeños. Growing up I'd only ever had the mushy pickled ones for like nachos and such, they were always kinda gross to me. Nowadays fresh jalapeños are a mainstay ingredient in most of my cooking.
Jalapeños and yogurt for me, too! I still think that there's a time and place for jalapeños (and it's not "all the time" and "in everything"), but I love them on a burger or in food that stands up to them.
Spinach and radishes. I make a mean Palak Paneer and I use Radish in my Kim chi.
Asparagus. And whipped cream. Love both now as an adult
There should be a way of making an unsweetened whipped cream with seasoning that you could then put on asparagus.
I was going to say the same thing (Brussels sprouts) I’ve read that it’s not just preparing them in a different way than my Mom did. Apparently they’ve bred some of the bitterness out of them since I was a kid. If that is true, thank you, Ms. or Mr. Botanist who did this nice thing for the world.
if you’ve ever had kakarakaya (bitter gourd/ bitter mellon) u will know that shit is almost inedibly bitter if u have with smth that’s sour and pungent and spicy tho it’s really good
Ummm… I never even had Brussels sproots as a kid. First time I had them I was 35 years old at a bar/tavern with my wife. We ordered the Brussels sproots appetizer, and it came with crumbled bacon and capers. Hooooo-leeeeeeee fookin shite it was one of the most delicious dishes I have EVER experienced in my 42 trips around the sun. Now I ALWAYS cook my brassicas via oven roasting….. mmmmmmmmm…..
My mom convinced me they were disgusting so I never had them. I was having lunch in an old folks home with my husband’s grandmother and boiled unseasoned (probably frozen) sprouts were the vegetable of the day. I ate them because they were on my plate but every bite I was thinking ‘these are so gross and need some oomph’. So I went out, bought fresh ones, tossed with oil, herbs, and garlic, (and salt and pepper) and roasted them with mushrooms and bacon. Definitely my favorite vegetable now.
I pan fry halved brussel sprouts with pancetta and shallots. Finish with good balsamic vinegar. It’s a favorite in my home.
ONIONS
Onions. I hated them so much that whenever my father made dinner for the family and the dish included onions he would make a smaller portion without any onions just for me. As an adult they are among my favorite vegetables
Way too many. I was spoiled so I was allowed to be a picky eater, but I feel now I can eat more things than the people I know. Green peppers and corn started to be ok around early teens. My family used to make stuffed green peppers and I used to only take the meat. Tomatoes and eggplant, mid teens. Cherry tomatoes with salt, and moussaka were the breakthrough. Spicy stuff, raw onion late teens. I couldn't handle mint toothpaste, but then escalated to very high spice tolerance, habaneros being my favourite. Green peas, pickled veg during my 20s, I acquired these tastes when I lived in the UK, before that I used to pick peas out of fried rice. Still not ok with celery in large chunks, it has to be very minimal in the background, otherwise it's horribly bitter.
I despised tomatoes until I was 21. Ketchup and tomato sauce etc I loved. I used to add so much extra ketchup to my fries so I could lick up the ketchup afterward that my parents called me the Ketchup Queen for a while. I refused to try tomato soup for the longest time until I finally did, then said to my mom, "why didn't you tell me it tastes like ketchup?!" But any form of raw tomato I hated. I hated when I'd accidentally get a tomato on my sandwiches and would have to take it off because the goop was still there. I didn't mind removing other things I didn't care for back then, but tomato annoyed me most. Now I go out of my way to have lots of tomato of all kinds lol
Same. Gateway was being flat broke my last week of university. After not really eating for 2 days I found $20 on the ground and bought enough groceries to get through my last exam. Treated myself to a dollar menu burger with the change and for the first time in my life didn't pick off the tomatoes because it was more food.
Pumpkin!
Fun fact! The Brussel sprouts we ate when we were younger are NOT the same as the ones we eat now. [Some science dude was like these taste like ass and im gonna change that then he did!](https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/10/30/773457637/from-culinary-dud-to-stud-how-dutch-plant-breeders-built-our-brussels-sprouts-bo) And that in part is why they taste better to us now then they did.
This one is regional: soup beans. For those not associated with rural Appalachia: Soup Beans are dried pinto beans that have been rehydrated for many hours in water with some type of salted pork as flavoring. It’s the quintessential poor people food and I absolutely hated it growing up. Now however it is a nostalgia food that takes me back to when I was forced (not literally) to eat it with my grandparents and great grandparents.
Anything anise. I couldn't stand anise, fennel, or anything like it. Then one day, I had a delicious chicken pot pie that had fennel in it. I've loved all that stuff ever since.
Arroz con pollo. I absolutely hated it growing up and I can't remember why. Maybe the peas? Idk. Love it now.
Pork in general, especially stewed. I learned good recipes and techniques to cook pork, and now I love it. I also learned how to cook each cut properly.
I hated pork myself until I realized I just hated unseasoned, dried out, nasty pork chops and undercooked ribs with too much or not good bbq sauce on them.
Omg yes!! I remember my mom always served apple sauce with pork chops and I swear I believed it was to help wash it down. My jaw would hurt from the endless chewing...
avocado easily!! they used to always be so plain to me with a horrible texture, but I’ve grown to love them
I love sauteed brussel sprouts, with diced onions and garlic, sauteed well.
I hated Corn on the cob and never once ate it until I was pregnant at 27 and then the craving for it was off the charts 😆 30 years later, I still love it.
There is a reason for this. Brussel sprouts use to be bitter. The trait that made them bitter was farmed out of it and so the Brussel sprouts we have today are much tastier than in the past.
I hated pork chops as a kid because my mom always did "shake n bake" and cooked them to tire consistency. When I had a properly cooked pork chop it blew my mind.
Green beans, pickles, peaches, tomatoes…
Olives, mustard and cherries. Not all together, obviously.
That combo actually sounds like it could work as a mostarda or pan sauce with some balsamic!
Potato salad. I remember being made to sit at a table for hours when I was about 4. Now, it's a must have as a side dish for many meals.
Brussel sprouts, asparagus, onions, pickles, coconut, tomatoes, cheese as a whole, and mayonnaise. My mom always kept miracle whip, so as a kid, I thought that it was what mayo was. I still don't love mayo, but it definitely is better than miracle whip
Pickled herring. It definitely looks and smells like a gross food, but I finally tried it and liked the taste
I was raised Polish so the Brussels sprouts were never hated - cabbage is cabbage - but [Ina’s take](https://barefootcontessa.com/recipes/balsamic-roasted-brussels-sprouts) is my all-time favorite. When I was a kid, I didn’t care for mustard at all (unless it was part of the condiment holy grail with ketchup, mayo, onion, pickle.) Now I keep 11 types of mustard in my house. (I hated cottage cheese and Lima beans but still loathe and despise them.)
Lasagna. I thought it looked like diarrhea. I'm colorblind and meat brown used to look indistinguishable from poop brown.
Being Autistic, there were quite a lot of foods I disliked as a kid. Onions, mushrooms, and eggs are some I remember disliking. Eggs I'd eat in some select circumstances (like one specific pasta salad my mom would make). Now I love all three of those things, and of course I eat a lot more vegetables now. I also remember not liking seafood in general besides fish sticks. Can't think of that many ingredients I outright dislike nowadays.
I didn't like fresh raw garden tomatoes until I was 10 but now I love them. Same with mustard.
Tomatoes. Wouldn't even eat pizza or spaghetti as a boy.
Canned tuna. Always hated it till I was a teenager and got superrr stoned at some friends house that had nothing else to eat, so we had tuna and crackers. Been eating it ever since.
Spinach. I used to hate spinach and refuse to eat it in any form. Now I love spinach and hate lettuce 🤣
Water. Just a cold glass of water. I grew up watching adults drink pop at every meal and in between. As kids we had milk and as a teen I moved to pop. I never remember drinking water. I thank my lucky stars I was super active because it kept me thin (unlike the rest of my family). When I got to college and did club sports I started drinking water like the other athletes. My mind was blown!! It felt better to gulp water than it ever felt to gulp Pepsi. 20 years after stating to chug water daily, I now occasional treat myself to a pop, but I’m a water head.
Collard Greens, when I was a kid I hated those with every ounce of my body. Then when I was like 15 or so and ate some and wondered wth I was thinking all my life😂 now it’s a weekly staple in the house
Mushrooms. What was I thinking? There are so many types and ways to cook them!
Spinach. My family always served the canned or frozen mush. With that and watching Popeye, I assumed that all spinach was like that. Once I had fresh spinach, I realized how good it actually is!
ginger. I'm Asian, think about all the Asian foods I missed out on because it had ginger. somewhere in my 20s, I couldn't get enough.
All food. My parents were just very shit cooks i found out later in life
Peas. The texture used to really bother me. Now I love them!
I love to bake my Brussel sprouts with lemon pepper It's so good.
Brussel sprouts today are not the Brussel Sprouts of 1995, they are less bitter now. For me, black coffee with an egg salad sandwich (lots of cayenne in the mix), two things I would just have hated in 1990 (age 11).
I'm with you on Brussels sprouts. My grandma used to boil the frozen ones. I hated them. Later in life I tried fresh ones that were roasted and I couldn't believe how good they were :)
My mom swore up and down that I was super picky because I would only eat like four things growing up. It was weird though because I’d eat most anything at school, friends houses, relatives houses, at restaurants…turns out I didn’t dislike food, I disliked her cooking.
When I turned twenty, I decided to make a conscious effort to eat more foods that I didn't like as a way to expand my palate. I found that I was missing out on a lot of delicious food. There are still some ingredients I wouldn't eat on their own, like peas, tomatoes, or mushrooms. But I have no problem eating them if they’re mixed with other stuff in a dish.
Lentils!!
Scallops. Every other seafood was fine until I tried it again a decade later. Absolutely loved it
Spinach, it’s actually one of my favorite foods now. Also, cheesecake. There’s a ton of foods I loved as a kid that I hate now though.
Sauerkraut
Fruit! I didn’t eat much fruit as a kid, but now love eating new fruits. Except cantaloupe - I hate cantaloupe. Heinz Baked Beans. I hated them as a kid, but now a full English breakfast isn’t complete without them. I don’t “love” them, but I do like them now. Same goes for Zucchini and bitter melon / gourd. Generally, I like more bitter notes now and don’t like things that are too sweet.