I Has a Secret

And when one has a secret, what better thing is there to do with it than tell it to the entire Internet?

My secret: I've been a vegetarian for roughly fourteen years and there are still vegetables and other vegetarian staples I don't like. Major ones.

I can't stand cooked peppers. I'd marry them raw, but I won't go near a dish that contains cooked peppers and eat around them or pick them out because their oils seem to permeate the entire thing.

Beets freak me out. I can't say I don't like beets because I don't think I've ever actually eaten one, so I'll say they freak me out. This is weird for me because I would usually try anything my parents ate and my mother is quite fond of the beet. Now it's built into my head that beets must be pretty bad if I wasn't even willing to taste them. I know that's illogical, and plan to try beets sooner or later, but here we are for now.

I don't like sweet vegetable salads. Fruit is great in fruit salads. Vegetables are great in salady salads, but I refuse to desegregate my appetizers. For me, few things ruin vegetables more than the addition of craisins and mandarin orange sections.

I refused to eat squash and gourds (except zucchini and pumpkin pie) for about ten years. This, however, was completely "reasonable". When I was a teenager, I spent the weekend at a friend's house. Her entire family was omni, but her mother knew I was a vegetarian and went through loads of trouble to make special food just for me, including a pumpkin-gourd-squash-thingy that had to have been the most disgusting thing I'd ever tasted. Her mother had gone through so much trouble and seemed so proud of it (it was presented very well, just tasted like shit) that I had to eat the whole thing. Since then, I hadn't been able to even look at squash until I recently made myself do the Herbed Winter Vegetable Roast. Thankfully, I picked the right dish to reintroduce myself to squash because now I'm hooked.

I don't like most beans, but I'm getting better about them. They just have to be seriously firm, or really mushed up. If it looks like a real bean but turns to mush in my mouth, eurgh.

I don't like most melons either. Watermelon wins but cantaloupe, honeydew and all things cantaloupe and honeydewesque kind of make me flee the area. That includes a cantaloupe and honeydewesque fragrance.

I don't like hummus. Or tahini. I love babaganoush, falafel, whole chick peas and sesame seeds, so I don't quite get it.

I know VeganMoFo is supposed to be all about the love of veganism and vegetables (and their related products), but maybe this will help me purge my demons and learn to embrace some of the vegetables I've been hating on for so long.

What about you? What vegetable aversions do you have that you'd like to overcome? Will you give one of them a shot this month? My goal this month is to make at least one thing containing beets in some capacity (and eat it, not just give it away!).