Cooking Green Challenge #1

So, to improve the health of myself and my mate, I decided to incorporate more green items in our diet. I usually eat lots of fruits and vegetables, but I cannot say the greenery has much fanfare.

Therefore, in an attempt to produce five star restaurant vegetable dishes, I borrowed a book, written by a former chef of the Greens restaurant in San Francisco, from the library. Reading through all these recipes, I was thinking, “Yes, I can get my mate to eat vegetables…no problem.” I carefully selected recipes I thought he could eat without cringing at the sight.

Last night…point for me…I constructed a savory salad of butter lettuce, carrots, Roma tomatoes and avocadoes with a creamy shallot herb dressing. While the sight of greens made him nervous, the man ate the bait.

Attempt no. 2: Leek and Artichoke Soup. The ingredients seem less intimidating and if I blended it as suggested, then he may eat it. Well, after an hour of cutting, washing, simmering and blending, the result...I don’t like it. I won’t even bring it to the table. Actually, I really don’t like the texture (fibrous) with less savory taste than expected. It smells nice, but argh.

Here are my thoughts on cooking experimentation:

1. Stay with ingredients you know or have learned how to deal with. My problem with attempt number 2 was my lack of knowledge with artichokes. Apparently, I didn’t get enough of the “choke” out of the artichoke making the fine fibers a main part of the soup texture (gross).

2. If the ingredient requires you to remove more of the item than what you purchased, then maybe leave it alone. Case in point: artichokes require you to remove tough, thorn-bearing outer leaves along with a fine fibrous “choke” to leave you with a quarter of the item you purchased. Since they are expensive, I think I will leave artichokes alone (if you already haven’t noticed my hint). For those of you who love artichokes, go for it…I will leave it for restaurant purchasing.

3. Work with what you got. While I have enjoyed feeling “green” and “healthy” buying mostly plant-based groceries, the cost has not returned much. I usually will give myself some consolation by saving my bad experiments and blame the mold for the reason to throw it out; however, this time, I just threw it. I didn’t want it, and I could foresee the reaction of my mate.

So I will work toward savory sauces and not introduce foreign greenery unless I have tried it previously. I will keep you posted on good and bad concoctions.