Vegetable boredom - new ideas please!

[RockingMyFiftiesNot]

Following on from the great advice I received on my 'what to do with leftover fennel' thread ...

I wander up and down the veg aisle every week and am all out of inspiration and am BORED with the same old veg. I won't list them as I buy most of the regular veg, a different selection each week. But we cook from scratch most days and always have a few veg (either as an ingredient or sides) so am struggling for different ideas.

Last week I bought fennel for the first time in ages . This week I bought Pak Choi to stir fry along with tins of bean sprouts; water chestnuts, bamboo shoots .
We use the various types of tinned beans in casseroles etc, have also used butter beans in tomato sauce as a side dish.
I bought frozen okra as couldn't find fresh but found it a bit slimy, will buy it again when I see it.

Given I buy a lot of different veg already and scan the aisles for something different, maybe it's more about ideas on how to make veg seem different.

Some ideas of things I do already:
Courgettes and aubergines I usually make ratatouille, but have served them individually, halved lengthways and stuffed
Roast butternut squash as a side dish or eg risotto ingredient.
Added broccoli and leeks to cauliflower cheese.
Stir fried carrots and mangetout with a little soy sauce.
Stuffed peppers

I've also woken up to using some veg I would normally use as an ingredient as a side dish in their own right eg
Baked tomatoes ( whole cherry toms or bigger toms halved and scattered with basil. )
Peppers sliced and roasted or stir fried with soy sauce
Garlic mushrooms
Sliced leeks, cooked then with a little cream flavoured with curry powder, or just cooked in a little butter.

Any ideas along those lines much appreciated.

Love this thread; taking notes.

I bought frozen okra as couldn't find fresh but found it a bit slimy, will buy it again when I see it.

May I weigh in on okra? It’s my favorite vegetable. It’s naturally slimy, and sometimes the sliminess is wanted in certain recipes. In a lot of Caribbean, Creole, and southern African (and US southern and soul food) cooking it’s used as a kind of binder for gumbo, stews, caillilou, etc. Or if it’s served in a tomato and/or bean prep, it doesn’t matter as much. Served with cornbread - which is terribly dry - you may want it more moist/sticky. Madhur Jaffrey describes this in her book World Vegetarian as “mucilaginous”. Other times the mucilage isn’t wanted, and cooks avoid or disguise it.

Either way, I would buy okra fresh if you can. Ideally, look for small pods, less than 4 inches long or so, and green all over (it’s still OK to use with brown spots, but best to buy it without especially if you’re not using it immediately).

Wipe the individual pods down with a wet cloth or sponge and let them dry thoroughly before you put it in the refrigerator. Don’t cut them until you’re ready to cook, but then take off the hard cap on the top and also the very tip.

If you DO want the sliminess, don’t worry too much - cut them however you want and frozen is OK although fresh is better. If you DON’T want the sliminess, frying is the best way to go: deep-fried is OK (although may benefit from batter) but a quick, dry stir-fry is easiest. A lot of people cut the trimmed pods crosswise to make circles or rings, but I like to cut them in half lengthwise so you get a large, flat surface against the hot pan and they cook through quickly.

For non-slimy okra: serve it right away, straight out of the hot pan. Letting it sit either on the heat or on the plate will make it less crispy, more soft and soggy. And while it’s fine reheated (even frozen and reheated) it will lose the crisp quality and become kind of moist/gummy again.

Made these with the dc yesterday www.littlecooksco.co.uk/recipes/courgette-boats/ (minus the flags!) and will certainly be making again but maybe using this recipe recipes.sainsburys.co.uk/recipes/courgette-pizza-boats

And these carrot flapjacks are a lunchbox staple in our house www.myfussyeater.com/savoury-carrot-flapjacks/

Incorporate veg in with batter for toad in the hole www.lovefood.com/recipes/95079/shivi-ramoutar-vegetable-toad-in-the-hole-recipe This recipe uses it instead of sausages, which works for us as we’re trying to reduce our meat intake.

Salads!!!! I'm a massive fan of complex and varied salad - just started adding strips (potato peeler) of courgette.

Cabbage with garlic and bacon.
Swede mash / bake
Creamy garlic mushrooms with Worcestershire sauce

I’ll add to the campaign to eat more sprouts all year round. Kung pao sprouts are one of my favourites.

cookieandkate.com/kung-pao-brussels-sprouts-recipe/

Also ching he huang has a great recipe for sweet chilli sprouts and coconut milk noodles.

www.itv.com/lorraine/articles/chings-creamy-coconut-noodles-with-roasted-sprouts

Cauliflower is another favourite here. Particularly roast cauliflower enchiladas or Bosh buffalo cauliflower wings.

Celeriac is pretty much the only vegetable I don’t like.

Can I suggest you take a peek at the Ottolenghi website for recipe ideas for veg? I've got one of his books, Plenty More, and it's all veg recipes, many of them main courses. Some of the recipes are on his site, and I've yet to make something we didn't absolutely love.
This is my favourite butternut squash recipe of all time.
ottolenghi.co.uk/recipes/roast-butternut-squash-and-red-onion-with-tahini-and-za-atar

We have it as a main, but I've served it as a side with a roast chicken before now, for a group of us.

I was also going to suggest Ottolenghi - I was given his Simple recipe book for Christmas and it has some lovely veg-based recipes - there’s a delicious one for cauliflower cheese with mustard seeds and green chillis for example. Frozen edamame beans are nice as a quick side with fish and rice or scrambled eggs with chilli.

You may be able to tell I like chilli 😂

Have to say I find celery and celeriac quite similar in taste (i.e. disgusting )

I'd like throw roasted radishes into the mix. Absolutely delicious and completely different to raw on salads.

DH dislikes celery and celeriac, but celeriac is so good the rest of us still eat it. It makes the creamiest soup ever with no cream!

invest in a mandolin for slicing, then you can create layered bakes of veg. I did one last week with root veg (potato, sweet potato and carrot) and blanched nettles (my favourite spring green - you could use spinach) with a goats cheese sauce. layered in a casserole dish and cooked on about 200 for an hour then under the grill, lid off, to brown the top.

with courgettes - cut them in half longwise then spread the cut bit THICKLY with wholegrain mustard, bake in the oven. The mustard mellows and turns into a lovely crust on top, delicious.

Roasted radishes are great, I agree.

Following with interest!

Does anyone have a cooked radish recipe to recommend? I love them raw, and am happy that there are so many different kinds - but every time I have tried to cook them, it's a disappointment. Thanks!

My DH also hates celery... and celeriac. He thinks they taste the same but I don't.

I love cubed courgette, cubed halloumi fried in rose harissa. Tiny cubes. Amazing.
I usually serve that with tapas or bbq type meals though.

Peas crushed with garlic, mint and chilli.

Broccoli roasted with sesame oil and garlic.

They're what I'm loving at the moment.

Just a few suggestions creamed leeks, my children's favourite. Sliced courgette, onion and pepper flash fried in a little butter. Red peppers fried in olive oil when starting to brown round the edges add sliced garlic and balsamic vinegar(Antonio Carluccio). Delias roasted peppers with tomatoes and anchovies. If you need to get a lot of veg in your diet I do a bolognese/chilli/lasagne that I can get up to 10 veg in. Either chopped finely, or grated includes onion, leek, celery, carrots, sweet potato, courgette, mushrooms, peppers, fennel, tomatoes.

More lovely suggestions, thank you.

Fennel in fish pie is a game changer. And fridge bottom soup. Just throw it all in and see what you get?

Ah yes - fridge bottom soup used to be my Saturday lunch go to, thanks for the reminder !

Hope no one minds me reviving this thread but I needed to thank @TheOnlyKoiInAPondOfGoldfish for this courgette idea:
with courgettes - cut them in half longwise then spread the cut bit THICKLY with wholegrain mustard, bake in the oven. The mustard mellows and turns into a lovely crust on top, delicious
I did them alongside pork chops today and it was absolutely lovely! Thank you!

I hate cooked celery but LOVE celeriac, especially roasted.

Cauliflower and broccoli are both amazing broken into florets and roasted.
And the cauliflower leaves turn into tasty crisps after a short go in the oven.

Happy for this thread to run for ever as I'm always on the look out for new veg recipes! Will def try the courgettes

@BlueCowWonders you can also do it using Boursin on a half courgette. Delicious.

@2Olives1Onion I like this recipe using radishes www.sainsburysmagazine.co.uk/recipes/mains/moroccan-roast-chicken-with-root-vegetable-couscous. Sometimes I do the chicken, sometimes I just do the roast veg couscous.

Thanks @Wildernesstips - I love raw radishes but have never thought of cooking them, will give it a go

You're very welcome @BlueCowWonders - I really can't remember where I got this from - but do remember doing it when the dc were little - and they're all adults now !