Settle this argument for us: is adding butter to vegetables and sugar to peas the norm?

[Snowstorm]

DH thinks it's normal and likes it every time vegetables are cooked - I think it's only for special occasions/dishes, if at all and prefer my veggies unadulterated (although I'll concede that some new potatoes benefit from a bit of butter).

What do you think/do?

eeww no

no, if I put anything on it's lemon or olive oil depending on the veg

no to the sugar with peas, only ever put butter on a jacket potato.

depends whether there's some kind of sauce in the rest of the meal. i don't often do butter but did for asparagus the other day. i am partial to a squeeze of lemon on broccoli though.

yes to butter.

NOOOOO to sugar!! Madness

Thanks for getting back to me ...

Apparently a teaspoon of sugar added to peas enhances the natural sweetness of the peas.

DH's mother has always added lots of butter to vegetables and sugar to peas and unfortunately that's what tastes good to DH now. I say unfortunately because DH does all the cooking - which is fantastic and one of the reasons that I'm with him as I find it a complete bore so could never have married someone who wanted me to do it all, but we argue about the butter/sugar and it being 'normal'.

I had lots of weight issues growing up but am average enough weight-wise now. I LIKE lots and lots of vegetables because I like the taste and I like the fact that they are healthy and guilt-free! DH is over-weight, his sister and father are over-weight and his mother is very slim but is constantly on a diet ...

I have two DD's. I want them to learn to like food as it's supposed to taste so that it becomes normal ... I'm not a complete meanie, strawberries/raspberries that are tart need some sugar, sure, but let them learn how vegetables/fruits are supposed to taste ... if it's one step towards a healthy attitude to food that will stand them in good stead for all the thin/fat/normal female years to come, then that can only be a good thing, can't it.

Sorry ... needed to get that rant off my chest ...

I really like lime juice on green vegetables.

I like lime juice on nearly everything though.

you don't need a huge, unhealthy amount of butter though. I think 1 teaspoon for a peas or carrots shared between 5 people isn't going to cause obesity and heart attacks...

can't you ask him to only add butter to his veg and put up with the peas?

But sugar doesn't enhance the natural sweetness of the peas - it takes away the naturally sweet flavour and replaces it with the artificially sweet flavour of sugar

Definitely ask him to stop making peas, and when he does vegetables to serve yours before he adds the butter.

(I am pg and the thought of sugar in peas is making me queasy, so I am going to bed!)

Well it's a delicate matter, as you will understand, because he does all the cooking or the two of us (I generally do the DD's) and what I don't want to do is end up with the situation of him turning around and saying 'Well if you don't like my cooking, YOU do it' ... that would be a disaster!!

Might have to undergo a 'healthy eating programme' (which is a bit suspect as I'm a healthy eater anyway but heh ... he's a bloke) and ask him to help me by NOT doing these things. Perhaps that'll work ... for both of us.

Can you grow some peas etc and eat them fresh? Then you have the excuse of "I want to see what they taste like"... Peas will grow in a tub up a frame.

Adding sugar to peas sounds like a hangover from the era when people added bicarb to sprouts and cooked all veg for 30 minutes

Dp's grandma always used to put sugar on tomatoes - particularly in sandwiches.

ew seeker.actually thinking about it my nan used to give us cucumber in sugar

seeker, I do put sugar in tomato salad. In most salad dressing actually.

but 'cucumber in sugar' does sound a bit, erm, eccentric!

I put sugar in salad dressing too - but Grandma used to sprinkle it with granulated so that it was actually crunchy.

butter (and pepper) on cabbage
no sugar with peas

I would never sugar peas. I do put butter on new potatoes and on good sweetcorn if I microwave it.

I don't do butter on veg, but remember mum putting a blob on peas. Not heard of the sugar thing either.

My ex dh is german, and his mum used alot of butter on the veg I ate there, but somehow the way she did it, it tasted lovely.

never heard of sugar in the peas but would put butter on veg if we were having company for dinner or something - for every day I wouldn't

butter on potatoes and corn on the cob. Also sometimes for a nice meal I'll had just a touch of butter and honey to carrots after they've been cooked and returned to the pan.

Actually sugar on peas is in Anne of Green Gables - they all put a spoon in so it ends up disgusting!

(snowstorm - I never put sugar on strawberries either. Small guests sometimes ask for it tho....)

I hate butter on veg so never do it, and never add sugar to peas!

DS likes a drizzle of honey on his veg occasionally though, and I like a teaspoon of honey in my salad dressings.

vinegar on sprouts

and did anyone else have "vinegar potatoes" for school dinners