• Buffaloaf@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I used to hate asparagus, but turns out it’s because my mom and grandma would always boil it.

    Pro-tip: don’t do that, it’s awful.

    • thepianistfroggollum@lemmynsfw.com
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      1 year ago

      Yup, properly cooked veggies are awesome.

      But, children’s taste buds are different from adults. Iirc they taste things more strongly, so the bitter notes are more pronounced.

      Also, they’ve been breeding stuff like brussel sprouts to be less bitter for a while now, so veggies might actually taste better than when we were kids.

    • Ibaudia@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I didn’t even think you could do that to asparagus. That’s seriously demonic.

    • kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Same with Brussel sprout. My step-dad would boil them. Tastes like a soggy sulfur fart. But cut them in half, toss them in a bit of oil, salt and pepper, roast them until crispy in the oven with, and they’re delicious. Oddly sweet, even. Try with other seasonings to enhance further.

    • PunnyName@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Blanche and shock are the only way I actually like asparagus.

      I can tolerate a baked or sauteed spear, but the margin for error is too damned small, and either side of it makes it unpalatable.

    • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I dunno about asparagus, but it turns out the Brussel sprouts we ate as kids were bitter and didn’t taste as good as the ones they sell now. But yeah, with asparagus, you gotta broil those bad boys with garlic/olive oil, etc

    • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 year ago

      I love steamed (not boiled) asparagus. Though for most of my life, vegetables were just a vehicle for butter and salt. I’ve pulled way back on how much I use in recent years.

      My buddy makes the most delicious grilled asparagus. He’s a real pro and it’s a treat to bbq with him.

    • Resonosity@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Same thing with Brussels sprouts. Don’t boil. Toss in salt, pepper, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar, bake at like 425 for 20 minutes, you’re welcome

  • DannyMac@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The real reason is that unhealthy food contains ingredients that were rarer for our ancestors to obtain. Dense caloric food meant surviving a winter, but our winter never comes.

  • BlinkerFluid@lemmy.one
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    1 year ago

    My mom after feeding me canned green beans for years watching me wolf down green beans at my house

    “You hated veggies when you were a kid.”

    …sure, mom

    • BeefPiano@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      My kids are the opposite. We can sauté up some fresh green beans and make them so good, but the kids only want to eat the canned ones.

      • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        My mom was a hippie and made her own bread and we always ate homemade food. When I went away to camp, I was the one pigging out on the sugary breakfast cereals like Froot Loops etc. while the other kids were busy being amazed by the eggs and pancakes and whatnot.

    • sock@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      i used to be anti meat except ham and chickfila chicken (specifically), turns out my parents made super dry chicken…

      i now eat 2x the meat to account for vegetarians and my lost time

    • SARGEx117@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I looked my mother in the eyes after a long day once and responded to a similar statement with “No, I hated your chilli when I was a kid.”

      She really does make the absolute worst chilli I’ve ever tasted. It’s so bland. There is almost no chilli powder in it, just some salt and a little bit of pre-ground pepper from a packaged salt/pepper shaker. The recipe amounts to “throw some hamburger and tomato sauce with canned beans in a pot and cook it for an hour and then add random amounts of all THREE seasonings”

      It’s a wonder I survived to be able to cook on my own.

  • EfreetSK@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    No! Salt kills you, cooking kills vitamins and when you think you do everything right, then your vegetables don’t have good enough quality and don’t have enough nutritients. Eating healthy means to suffer, deal with it!!! /s

        • SARGEx117@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          My wife grew up with terrible cooks. So did I, but I learned to cook to make my own food, she resorted to microwaves, frozen pizzas, and 2 (in my opinion extremely bland but will never say because she was super happy to make it for me) dishes she figured out.

          Since being with me, she has figured out she likes chicken, salmon and tilapia, medium steak, a few vegetables, and quite a few other things. Her parents UNDERCOOKED chicken and seafood, made steak into charcoal or still bloody with no in between which made her not trust any pink, and they boiled the everloving shit out of every vegetable until peas were mush and broccoli looked like it was rotting.

          They also never had real mayonnaise, and she only ever had miracle whip and thought she hated mayo.

          And tea was always super weak and filled with sugar, so she never had real tea until she tried mine one day and went “I thought you said this was tea?”

          Total speculation: I think the reason so many of our parents suck at cooking is because they didn’t learn before having kids, and when it came time to either spend shitloads on carryout or figure out cooking, they just remembered the basic ingredients from their own childhood, but we’re never around for the spices or cook times. And since internet wasn’t really a “I need a recipe, let me google that on my phone real quick” until much later, it was that or find a cookbook with all your favorite recipes.

  • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    White people conquered the whole world looking for spices and then decided they didn’t want to use any of them

    • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Im of Scottish, Irish, and South German descent my ancestors didnt conquer shit beyond the whole bursting into flames under direct sunlight problem.

        • DillyDaily@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Mineral zinc

          As a Fitzpatrick skin type 1 living in Australia, zinc is my best friend.

          I’m pale enough that you can’t even tell I’ve got white paste on my face, and I’m physically blocking the sun.

          I have a 50 SPF moisturiser that I use daily before I leave the house, even in winter, and I reapply it several times a day in summer, but I still get sun burnt if I don’t also wear zinc.

          Now that I’m older I’ve gotten a lot better at often wearing a wide brim hat and long sleeves in the summer, but it’s not always possible.

          Zinc is also reef safe for beach wear, and doesn’t contain avobenzone so it will provide longer protection from UVA rays, and no risk of irritation if applied prior to swimming in a chlorinated pool. (avobenzone and chlorine are not friends)

          • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            I’ll be sure to pass this on to all my vampi… I mean, wow, that is a very fascinating thing to read, I’ll surely take what you said into consideration the next time I’m shopping for sunscreen.

        • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          Well the scottish side have been here in southern California for about 150 years, the Irish for about 110 years, and the German for about 100 years. Also I can be under high UV and only start burning after about 2 hours.

          We conquered that weakness, now if only we could get rid of the madness, actually nevermind on that one being able to go into a berserk fury by will alone is fucking useful. Good for cussing out shitty bosses and feeling high as a kite while at it, just gotta keep from trying to kill them.

      • Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Nova Scotia was going well until king Charles gave it to the French.

        Darien was going well until… the everything… Ok, Darien was never going well at all.

        I suppose there’s modern capitalism, public investing, and one of the most iconic holidays ever. Cultural victory?

      • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        You forget the legend of Gregor MacGregor and his conquering and settling of Cazique. And his freedom fought for the Republic of Florida.

    • Amends1782@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Unnecessary racist comment but it’s OK since its against the one group that its OK to be racist towards. This wouldn’t fly if it was about black people and a similar gotcha line

  • logicbomb@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    “Oh my God!” - God

    I think God is, by definition, an atheist, though, since God must not believe in a higher power.

    • LemmyIsFantastic@lemmy.world
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      I feel like God would have the capacity to realize he is the higher power. Nothing says there has to be a higher power at each level.

      • logicbomb@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Nothing says there has to be a higher power at each level.

        Sounds like you’re just about ready to join /c/atheism

    • JoYo@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      im an atheist and i believe in a higher power.

      that sun will fuck me up if i get too close

    • eloq@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Depends on if he’s having a bad day, or if he believes in himself. Wait, is that why faith is how you get into heaven? God having shitty self-confidence and not wanting any haters around makes as much sense as any other I’ve heard.

    • Flaimbot@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      who’s the creator of god and the realm he resides in? hm? hm? hm?

      checkmate, theists!

  • HughJanus@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    I’m lazy so here’s lazy delicious veggie tip:

    Get a rice cooker. Get rice and FROZEN pre-processed (chopped) veggies. These are still very inexpensive, require no preparation, last forever in the freezer, and are actually FRESHER than “fresh” veggies, since they are picked when ripe and then flash frozen rather than picked prematurely and sprayed with a ripening agent. Your rice cooker should come with a veggie tray so you can cook the rice and veggies simultaneously. Drop them in there and fire it up. Get yourself some “simmering sauce” and heat it up in a pan for ~15 minutes and baby you got a stew goin’.

      • HughJanus@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        It’s just like a pre-mixed (typically middle-Eastern) sauce with coconut milk and spices and thing like that pre-prepared. It shouldn’t have any preservatives or anything you can’t pronounce.

      • Barack_Embalmer@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        There’s many options for sauces, depending on your preferences and dietary requirements, but there are a few key common steps.

        For example many Indian curry type sauces can begin with frying diced onions, some ginger, garlic, chillis, coriander seed powder, cumin powder, turmeric powder, black pepper, and tomato paste, then coconut milk to form the main body of the sauce. Don’t worry if you don’t have access to all of these, mix and match. Then finish with fresh coriander leaves.

        Or a simple marinara type sauce begins with frying diced onions, garlic, tomato paste, followed by a glass of wine and a can of tomato to make the main body of the sauce. Add basil at the very end, as the flavor is delicate and destroyed by heat.

        Notice in both cases we begin with aromatics - onions, garlic, spices - that get heated up to release the volatile flavor compounds. Then deglazing the pan and simmering with something that constitutes the main bulk of the sauce - e.g. canned tomato or coconut. Then finishing with more delicate herbal flavors that get desroyed by extended cooking. This is a general pattern that appears in foods from all over the world. The crucial part is learning how long each ingredient requires to cook for, and therefore what stage it gets added.

        Once you get used to this you can begin to enjoy the creativity and rewarding nature of cooking, and explore the world through food. Like the Indian example above can be quite easily modified into a Thai green curry with a few substitutions such as extra green chillis, galangal instead of ginger, and finishing with Thai basil.

        I’d say another crucial aspect is appreciating the importance of emulsions - a colloidal suspension of small fat particles in water - which results in a rich and unctuous mouthfeel. Many of our favorite foods and sauces are emulsions (butter, mayonnaise, pesto, curry). But I don’t want to overload you with information as I’ve already written a lot. Good luck.

        • Floey@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Also a starch slurry or roux are easy ways to thicken sauces, controlling the consistency of a sauce can be important depending on what you are tossing in it or putting it over.

      • AgnosticMammal@lemmy.zip
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        Any packet sauce mix like curry or gravy’ll work too

        I’ve also heard you can cook a chicken breast on top of the bed of rice

    • joenforcer@midwest.social
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      1 year ago

      and are actually FRESHER than “fresh” veggies

      As an adult who thought that they hated pretty much all veggies (especially broccoli and corn) and found out that I absolutely love them when prepared fresh and that the bagged versions tasted like ass, I’m gonna call bullshit on that.

      It might work for you, but nothing beats freshly-prepared corn, whether grilled in the husks or cut and sauteed.

    • MuchPineapples@lemmy.world
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      The bible actually says there are other gods beside the main one; he’s the king of kings, god of gods. But maybe there’s an emperor of emperors, God of gods of gods? It’s gods all the way up.

  • ColorcodedResistor@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Never forget, wars were fought for spice. people died to not have to consume bland food.

    and yet you pass the spice aisle every grocery visit, shame.

    ;)

    • DillyDaily@lemmy.world
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      Because who buys spices at the regular grocery store, it’s like $4 for a 50g bag. You gotta go to the Asain grocer or Indian market for those delicious half kilo bags for $6.

      Then put them in an old pasta sauce jar and shove them in your pantry and let them get old and off gas their aroma until they’re just bland sawdust…but act like you’re still better than other white people because you own spices.

      • nix@midwest.social
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        1 year ago

        The obscure and unassuming the specialty store is, the more incomprehensibly low their prices are

  • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Because you are designed to seek out salt and sugar as a survival trait; then decided to mass produce it and put it into everything. Now your tastebuds have been ruined, even the standard apple/banana has been genetically modified to have more sugar

    • meowMix2525@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      iirc the modern banana is actually a less flavorful variety than centuries past, but not for selective breeding reasons. The more popular variety, the Gros Michel, was susceptible to a certain fungus that wiped it out by the 60s. Those apparently tasted closer to the artificial banana flavoring that is still used today and in fact are what that flavoring was based on (albeit probably quite a bit more sugary and concentrated since it’s still a candy flavoring).

      And then you have other produce like apples and tomatoes being bred for size and yield, since that will both net more profit and feed more people. This often necessarily means that the produce will lose flavor in the process, as well as nutritional value by weight since the size/yield increase is mostly just the crop taking up more water. (I think the genetic modification you mentioned is in some part meant to correct that inverse relationship between yield and nutritional density, but I’d have to read up more on the subject.)

      So I think you can just as much argue that it’s not our tastebuds being ruined so much as produce itself being considerably less appealing to them.

      • Peaty@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        You can buy Gros Michel bananas still you just have to put in some effort. If you are in the USA and have the cash the Miami Fruit Co ships them when they grow them. I haven’t checked but I believe they are in banana season.

      • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        The gros Michel is also not a natural banana. Those were also all clones of each other. Natural bananas have big ass seeds throughout them.

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      1 year ago

      Genetically modified? That’s a stretch.

      Like many other cultures, bananas and apples were selectively reproduced to obtain fruits with more to eat. Corn, carrots, every single kale and cabbage, potatoes, oranges and even strawberries can go into this basket.

      The wild banana has almost nothing to eat, being filled with large seeds and we can still find wild apples, by nature very tart but still edible. Every single cereal we plant and harvest today was originally nothing more than a wild grass.

      But to call the work of millenia and who knows how many generations of farmers genetic modifications is a bit over the top.

      GMOs are very recent introductions and normally for obtaining pest, drought or disease (more) resistant plants.

      • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Selective breeding and grafting modified the genetics

        Bananas all being clones

        There’s no reason to separate the terms

          • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            I would have said a skyscraper made of metal and a skyscraper made of cement are both skyscrapers for your analogy but sure

        • qyron@sopuli.xyz
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          Let’s analyse that.

          Selective breeding increases the frequency of a given set of genes, already present in a species, in order to better manifest specific, more advantageous - either nature or human chosen - traits.

          Random mutations can occur when biological reproduction happens but unless extreme and radical - which often prove fatal for the offspring - are not relevant for the species in the immediate.

          These principles are applicable to both plants and animals.

          Now grafting takes a part of one plant - usually a small branch - uses another plant to provide the root system - usually something that grows much faster than the graft - and this process multiplies asexually the plant from which the branch was oroginally cut. No genes are carried over between the two plants.

          This is valid to get a bunch of trees out of a single one in a very short time but it will not introduce new genes into the crop.

          Quince trees are often used as root stock to graft other trees, like pear and apple. If the seeds from those grafted trees were to be sprouted, planted and nurtured to maturity, apples or pears would grow but of completely new varieties. The quince trees used to provide the root for grafting would provide zero genes to the new varieties.

          Can you expand on why you consider grafting as a tool for genetic manipulation?

          • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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            it will not introduce new genes into the crop.

            Under normal circumstances new genes would be, but the new plant isn’t considered a new species (like tigons not being a species)

            • qyron@sopuli.xyz
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              1 year ago

              normal circumstances

              As in a quince tree cross polinate a pear tree or an apple tree?

      • XTornado@lemmy.ml
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        GMOs are very recent introductions and normally for obtaining pest, drought or disease (more)

        Those bastards!!!

        resistant plants.

        Oh…ok…

  • tfw_no_toiletpaper@feddit.de
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    I still don’t understand why the cooking skill of my parents sucked this bad. I started cooking on my own when I moved out and even after just a bit of practise and good recipes you can cook tasty meals. How do you go on 50 years failing this, I don’t understand. If I see another bowl of dry rice, canned peas and ready marinated chicken from some discounter I’m going to throw up.

    • alekwithak@lemmy.world
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      Boomers came up as fast food franchises and convenience foods began to dominate. The equal rights movement meant more women in the workplace and less in the kitchen and instead of spreading the burden, capitalism filled in the gaps.

    • rchive@lemm.ee
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      Another explanation is that American cuisine got wrecked by the Great Depression. Everything that had flavor was expensive. People’s inability to purchase and make certain foods stopped generational transfer of knowledge on how to make certain things. Thankfully, after several generations it’s finally recovering.

      “Ethnic” food (non European) wasn’t as affected as much.

      I heard an interview about a book on it a few years ago but now I can’t find it.

    • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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      Because they did cook well at one point. It took hours, it involved a lot of cleanup, and 4 year old you whined and complained for some chicken nuggets and the fucking candy bar your aunt gave you without talking to your parents first.

      So they gave up. The tantrums, the rejection, the effort. None of it was worth it. Like pretty much every skill in life it atrophied.

      • RoquetteQueen@sh.itjust.works
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        I loved to cook and I’m good at it. My 5-year-old won’t eat a burger I made and asks instead to go to the “burger store”. I don’t want to cook much anymore.

        • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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          Know the feeling. Feel so defeated. Fighting this losing battle against all the crap junk food people want to give my kids on top of the normal tendency of children to only enjoy bland food.

      • DillyDaily@lemmy.world
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        Practise is a verb, practice is a noun.

        I like to remember it with the following sentence.

        “The doctor had to practise his surgery skills before he could open his own private practice clinic”

        Verb, S=surgery. Noun, C=clinic

        • michaelmrose@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          It’s funny that you offer correction. UK English makes this distinction, US English doesn’t and uses practice for both. Internationally where many English speakers mix neither usage can really be said to be incorrect. Pedantry fail.

  • Skkorm@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I just spent Thanksgiving with my family, and was reminded how much my parents love boiling things. Fucking disgusting, no spices either? Fuck bland potatoes. It takes almost no effort to just toss a bunch of fucking spices on them and then put them in the oven.

    • DillyDaily@lemmy.world
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      As a lazy person who grew up with a parent who’s method of cooking vegetables was just “boil it till its grey!”, if a vegetable can be eaten raw, I will be eating it raw.

      Raw broccoli dipped in garlic greek yoghurt is delicious, nutritious and fast/lazy to prepare.

      I’m on the hunt for a vegan alternative that is decent, but until then, crunchy carrots and sugar snap peas are my go-to lazy veggies.

      • Pitco88@lemmy.ml
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        Raw broccoli and a good hummus is a great alternative. It’s a salad combination i use quite frequently.

      • Smoogs@lemmy.world
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        Raw broccoli…Oh man I do not want to smell your farts. I mean you don’t even have to boil them but give them just a hot dip to reduce the raffinose