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What veg could you not live without?

(63 Posts)
J52 Sat 17-Jan-15 13:37:25

I was just preparing some veg and decided that I could not live without onions. Their flavour and variety enhance most savoury food. Also, they become sweet when caramelised. I wondered what veg other GNs couldn't live without?

loopylou Sat 17-Jan-15 13:39:11

Definitely onions but also tomatoes. And runner beans fresh from the garden.

tanith Sat 17-Jan-15 13:47:36

Yep onions definately, carrots and tomatoes.. so many dishes are enhanced by all three

soontobe Sat 17-Jan-15 13:57:21

onions, carrots, beans.

ninathenana Sat 17-Jan-15 14:18:18

Onions and tomatoes for flavour, but also broccoli simply because I love it.

soontobe Sat 17-Jan-15 14:23:59

ooh broccoli, yes. I think greens are important.

janerowena Sat 17-Jan-15 14:25:13

Onions definitely. I would cheat and say any member of the allium family - leeks, garlic and shallots.

You can substitute any other vegetable for each other, but nothing replaces an onion.

Riverwalk Sat 17-Jan-15 14:30:14

Would have to be onions.

rosequartz Sat 17-Jan-15 14:33:38

Are we excluding potatoes from this?

Then probably broccoli - and onions.

Soutra Sat 17-Jan-15 14:36:17

I could sohappily live without broccoli, in my opinion an overrated vegetable which seems to have taken over from the much more delicately flavoured humble cauliflower!
So, caulis I think and good old carrots!

Galen Sat 17-Jan-15 14:41:41

Greens? Poison used to come in green bottles! It's a warning I tell yougrin

rosequartz Sat 17-Jan-15 14:43:04

I do like caulis, but if I had to choose it would be broccoli.

DM used to tell me that all the goodness of the cabbage was in the stalk.
Like that fairy tale about eating your crusts .....

chloe1984 Sat 17-Jan-15 15:19:22

Tomatoes and butternut squash.

Lapwing Sat 17-Jan-15 15:21:46

Onions, leeks and carrots during the winter, home grown tomatoes, cucumbers and peas eaten out of the pod in the summer.

Liz46 Sat 17-Jan-15 15:22:35

Onions, shallots and garlic. We are having proper chips with prize winning sausages from the butcher later and to finish it off, lots of fried onion. Lovely. (Until I have my cholesterol test.)

feetlebaum Sat 17-Jan-15 15:25:54

Potatoes, spuds, murphies - I'll have no truck with this pious fiction that potatoes somehow aren't vegetables/don't count. Populations have survived on little else before now...

Actually though, for me, myself, personally, like (!) I have, like some others here, to plump for the alliums - there's no starting without an onion, and a meal without garlic is like a day without sunshine... or so I have heard.

The Jains don't eat them, as they fear the destruction of tiny beasties in harvesting them from the earth, and have to make do with a pinch of asafoedita which can smell a bit like onions frying... I suppose they mean well.

granjura Sat 17-Jan-15 15:29:00

Love absoutely all veg- but try to stick to those in season.

Marmight Sat 17-Jan-15 15:38:47

Fennel.
Tomatoes, garlic, kale, peas, and brussel sprouts also on the list. I like most veggies - I have even managed to eat beetroot so long as there's no vinegar in sight wink

granjura Sat 17-Jan-15 15:50:28

Fennel- yes love fennel, raw or cooked and served with a cheese sauce with Gruyères cheese- yum.

Now a question about veg. I was given some very tall yellow helianthus - and one of the plants was growing at the front of the border and was much much too tall for the location, so I dug it up. Up came lots of big round reddish roots- which I left on the ground and they had the frost. Couple of days ago, I found an article in a magazine about jerusalem artichoke- and there they were! So I collected them and brought them in. Been looking at lots of articles on Google- to see if they are all edible, or if there are some poisonous ones- but can't find anything negative about them. So am thinking of having some tomorrow to try. Any advice?

There should be plenty more where the other plants were growing behind the veg plot.

feetlebaum Sat 17-Jan-15 15:58:38

I remember you have to peel them quickly and get them into water with lemon juice as they discolour very quickly otherwise. Then rinse and cook.

Liz46 Sat 17-Jan-15 15:59:10

I think horseradish can be a bit of a nuisance in the garden.

We have an allotment and go there in the morning weather permitting. We collect whatever is ready, bring it home chop it up, add olive oil and balsamic vinegar. While it is cooking we have our showers, add some garlic bread to the oven, then have a delicious lunch. It is often fennel, beetroot, shallots, tomatoes, garlic, broad beans, butternut squash and anything else to hand.

Asparagus, lightly cooked just after picking is delicious and even when my gc were tiny they ate it like sweets.

J52 Sat 17-Jan-15 16:00:09

I think Jerusalem artichokes are very much like potatoes to taste. However, once you have planted them in a plot they tend to pop up year after year. Very handy! x

Soutra Sat 17-Jan-15 16:14:36

Jerusalem Artichokes are indeed delicious but are not called fartichokes in this household for nothing!shock

granjura Sat 17-Jan-15 16:20:07

ah well- will just join the dogs then- fairness at last ;)

janerowena Sat 17-Jan-15 17:14:20

To stop Jerusalem artichokes being fartichokes, add asafoetida to them while cooking. It counteracts the chemical that causes the problem. Yes, a big favourite in our house is a soup made from them.