Learning to Like the Yucky

We all have foods that we just can't stand, whether due to taste, texture, appearance, or some combination thereof, and it doesn't necessarily have to make sense. My husband will eat *sensitive stomach alert* raw hamburger meat and canned cream of mushroom soup straight out of the can, but rejects blueberries because "food isn't supposed to be blue." Early on in our marriage I realized that if I wanted to make something exotic (and I use the term loosely), it would be just for me. Though, in fairness to him, as long as I stay within some loose general guidelines (no fish, no casseroles, no blueberries), he usually eats what's put in front of him--or else it's potato chips for dinner.

For me, tomatoes were a childhood dislike, but years ago I learned to love them and now I can't imagine cooking or eating without them. With vegetables in particular, I go on occasional campaigns to learn to like the few that I don't; I'm not going to bother learning to love escargots or sweetbreads or rattlesnake meat, because there is no way that I will ever even taste any of those things. We all have our limits.

So, in honor of learning to like foods that you don't, I'm posting here my first recipe, for a roasted vegetable salad featuring eggplant, which I don't like much as a general rule but which I know is good for me. This salad was inspired by Ina Garten's Roasted Vegetable Salad with Orzo (very delicious), but is vegan (not that I am vegan, mind you, just pointing that out for anyone who might find that a selling point) and has no pasta. And it does have zucchini and tomatoes, which hers does not. And a totally different dressing--the dressing having been inspired in part by a slaw recipe by Crescent Dragonwagon in her "Dairy Hollow House Cookbook." So--here we go. The amount of vegetables you use is certainly flexible and you can use more or less of whatever you like to use up your vegetables. Servings--I don't know. For me, with this constituting the entire meal, this would be one serving. If you put it over pasta, then I'd say two servings. But maybe you're a lighter (or bigger) eater than me.

Roasted Vegetable Salad

1 Chinese eggplant, peeled, sliced and salted
1 zucchini, diced in 1" pieces
1/4 to 1/2 red onion, diced
1 or 2 small red and/or yellow bell peppers
1 handful cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbls. olive oil
1 lime, juiced
1 Tbls. light sesame oil
1/2 jalapeno, minced, seeds and ribs removed to reduce the heat or leave them in if you want it hotter (optional)
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Peel and slice the eggplant and place in a colander. Salt the slices and let sit for 20 minutes or so. Rinse them (DO NOT FORGET TO DO THIS! I forgot the first time I tried this and they were, of course, too salty) and pat them dry with a paper towel.

Line a baking sheet with foil. Toss the eggplant, zucchini, onion, and pepper with 1 Tbls. olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Roast for 20 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and turn the vegetables. Add the cherry tomatoes and garlic and roast for 10 more minutes, enough to soften the tomatoes.

Whisk together the sesame oil, lime juice and jalapeno. Salt and pepper to taste. Toss the vegetables in the dressing.

I think this recipe makes eggplant very easy to eat!

Recommended reading: Crescent Dragonwagon's "Dairy Hollow House Cookbook." I do not know if it is still in print, but if you can find it, check it out. My mother and I stayed once at the lovely namesake inn, though sadly, Ms. Dragonwagon no longer runs it and I do not know anyone bought it. Also sadly, her beloved husband Ned, with whom she ran the inn, was killed while riding his bicycle one day. But, it's still a treat to read her stories about the inn and her husband--she's an excellent writer, being also a children's book author--and many of the recipes have a nostalgic hippie slant.