After I posted Like Leeks?, I scanned down through my other alliterative adventures with various vegetables. Imagine my shock when I realized that my very first post was almost 5 years ago! I know a lot has happened in the interim, but this project still feels new and fresh to me. I still love gently pushing my culinary frontiers, and finding a delicious dish is a delight!
When a TV show hits 5 years, that typically means they have over 100 episodes. Often, they’ll remix scenes from past seasons into a “Clip Show.” I certainly don’t have 100 posts, but this is a good time to share a few memories, elaborate on my experience, and share how this challenge has changed my life.
First, it’s obviously taken me much longer to work through The List than originally anticipated. I never set a specific timeframe or goal, but I do remember thinking someone more ambitious than me might try to bang it all out in a year. One vegetable per week fits nicely, plus there would be two weeks extra to cover vacations (or falling off the wagon). However, I never wanted to hold myself to that standard. I’m a busy gal! Plus, I’m not just taking the challenge–I’m also writing about it! In several cases, posting was months after the actual sampling.
Also, it’s more fun for me when I can suck other people into the journey as well. Some of my favorite 50 Vegetable Challenge memories are cooking on Sunday afternoons with the Sous Chefs. As all good friends do, they really entered into the spirit of the thing by looking up recipes, peeling and chopping like machines, and feigning pleasure with undeserving dishes. You can hear their own histories with vegetables in The Interview.
Now that most of us have moved to different cities, the real challenge is to find willing participants/victims. It’s so much less fun cooking by myself! I’ve also already tried most of the low-hanging fruit (or rather vegetables) that are easily found in regular supermarkets. The more obscure the vegetable, the more ethnic the store needs to be. For instance, I have no idea where to find a Jerusalem artichoke (aka sunchoke) in Maryland. Thus, the adventure becomes geographic as well as culinary. Stay tuned for a lot of Asian dishes in the coming months as I check off the less-common vegetables like bok choy, kohlrabi, bamboo shoots, and daikon.
People always want to know what I’ve tried and liked. The raging success that immediately comes to mind is my Rutabaga Revelation. It’s a classic example of taking a chance and discovering something wonderful that I’ve added to my cookbook. Butternut squash soup, hummus, and artichoke dip are also in my regular rotation. Other recipes, like stuffed eggplant and radish risotto, were also wins, but enough work that I haven’t made them again.
While many of my experimental efforts didn’t turn out quite like the recipe, the only true epic failure was celeriac. What a disaster! Not only would I never make that particular dish again, but I have forsworn all celery root entirely. Still, much as I despised that taste, the retelling of the story is absolutely delicious.
Though I still have roughly 30 vegetables to post about, I am still determined to finish because I recognize how broadening this experience has been for me. I’ve eaten 10 out of 50 on the list just in the last few weeks! I also no longer automatically dismiss a dish when I see one or two unfamiliar ingredients on a menu or in a recipe. I pay attention to what’s on sale in the entire produce department, not just automatically reaching for the same five staples over and over again. I still wouldn’t consider myself a “foodie,” but my palate is definitely more sophisticated than it used to be.
I hope my experiences have also encouraged you to be more adventurous. If you’re just finding this blog now, you may want to read some of my earlier posts to get some ideas how to start. Review The List, check out some recipes online, and make a plan to try something new!
Vegetable Challenge 