When it comes to the world of fruit and veg, are you a risk-taker or a play-it-safe kinda person?
Do you eagerly seize the mystery vegetable in your box and set about working out how to use it, or does it linger, guiltily, at the back of the fridge, until it sneaks its way to the compost bin, shrivelled and mouldy?
When we first started getting a vegetable box delivery, I’d definitely have called myself a guilty-fridge-user. There were days when I didn’t even want to open the fridge door, to avoid the reminder of my failures as a budding green-girlie. My worst culprit was actually the surprisingly common cabbage. I thought I hated the stuff. School dinners, hospital corridors. You name it, I had cabbage baggage.
I had convinced myself it was an unnecessary addition to my culinary repertoire and, since it didn’t arrive too often with our veggies, I was able to manage the shame…
Then, one day, my life changed. In the early stages of pregnancy, I started getting cravings for (you’ve guessed it) cabbage… Pickled beetroot also scored highly, but that’s another story. So there I was, probably desperate for the folic acid and calcium so abundant in “green, leafy vegetables” and I realised I was going to have to bite the bullet and learn how to cook the stuff.
Fortunately for fans of the cruciferous family, there are now plenty of delicious recipes for cabbage and its friends on Veg Box Recipes. Some of my (am I really going to say this?!) favourites are:
So enough of my confessions: where do you stand? Which vegetables do you sneakily avoid? And what do you do when something bizarre crops up in your veg box, farm shop or at the farmers’ market?
I guess the one lesson my experience taught me was, just because something is unusual or brings back yucky food memories, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give it a go – just the once.
If you come across a stranger in your veg box and aren’t sure where to start, our Picture Gallery should help you identify it and work out what to do with it.
You never know, you might even enjoy it!
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