I have, I know, complained before about carrots and described in detail how much I detest them. All other vegetables (save the lowly celery stalk) are good friends of mine. I will happily dine on asparagus, Brussel sprouts, spinach, okra, eggplant, broccoli, cauliflower, and pretty much any other vegetable you can name. My love of vegetables started as a child. On one notable birthday (we were permitted to ask for any dinner menu on that one day a year), I asked for creamed spinach, lima beans with bacon, grilled asparagus, and baked potato.
That’s one of the reasons my parents’ insistence that I eat cooked carrots once a week astonishes me to this day. I would have happily eaten parsnips, turnips, or peas, but every Wednesday night we had the orange crud battle. I typically lost. And while cooked carrots made me gag (and still do), cold, congealed cooked carrots are another level of pain and agony. That’s typically when I forced myself to down them, after a couple of hours squirming on the dining room chair and pushing them around the plate.
My loathing of carrots continues to this day. Strangely, I was never forced to eat celery, even though my mom stuffed stalks with cream cheese and/or peanut butter several nights a week for my dad as an appetizer. Apparently, eating veggies as an appetizer was optional in my house. It was a blessing, because celery never appealed much to me. It’s stringy and has very little taste (unless you pour a half a teaspoon of salt on each bite).
This is one reason why I get aggravated at soup makers. I expect it in vegetable soup, but try buying a can of chicken noodle soup that hasn’t been tainted with a few carrots. Some brands even include celery. But chicken and dumplings – which sounds amazing – has both critters in it. So does split pea with bacon, and let me just say that there are far more bits of carrot in that one than bits of bacon. They should just call it what it is – carrots in pureed pea with a bacon bit waved over it.
I get annoyed primarily because when you pluck out all the nasty pieces of carrot and celery, you have about half of a can left. A secondary reason I get annoyed is that if you leave them in, the whole soup tastes awful.
Now some folks have told me that “carrots and celery absorb the flavors of the other ingredients.” This is a bald-faced lie. Carrots and celery absorb nothing but moisture and become large, mushy bits of bitterness.
Some other folks have told me they use these items to create “that crunchy texture.” First of all, they won’t be crunchy if you cook them. If you don’t cook them, they will taste awful. Secondly, soup, by definition, is not supposed to be crunchy. If you want to add crunch, do what normal people do and use oyster crackers or saltines. But for heaven’s sake, leave the carrots where God put them – underground!
Can you tell I made some canned soup this weekend?
I just sent you a comment below on Vacation Musings and now l get to do this one! Not tonight though. I just wanted to beat John to the punch!
i am so beat – busy night and will comment tomorrow!
Well. I a, so with you on these two veggies – mostly due to my denture problems now – but even back in the early days – I was never a fan of ANY vegetable – ate them last on my plate – often tried to dump them off into the garbage and even out the window at Highland Road home – Dad found them in the rose bushes and I paid dearly for that = still not a big fan of most veggies – will eat tomatoes since they are classified as a fruit – and lots of green bean cut and sweet peas and of course my favorite is Popeye cut spinach – which I eat often as possible – carrots drive my crazy – especially when eating out and that is the preferred side for all special plates and also cole slaw with a whole complete carrot diced on top!! My rant over – all with you except I am gaining back some weight thanks to rye bread and raisin cinnamon bread used with my daily dose of 2 eggs over top!! yeehah!!
I never cared for raw celery – too many strings! And now I’ve discovered cabbage will no longer be a part of my diet. My digestive tract is not going to allow it! Up half the night trying to calm down the intestinal tract with Pepto- Bismol. But I do like carrots. Any way you fix ‘em. We had them rolled in cornmeal and fried when I was a kid. Also, carrot gravy. I know. Laughable, right?
And now “they” are telling me it’s because my bodily functions are slowing down, becoming less efficient because of aging! And that’s causing a higher risk of damaged gut wall which may result in digestive disorder, such as: blah, blah, blah — a whole long list you don’t even want to know about!
You know what, I see this ad every night on TV (several times, in fact) where you can get everything you need in a capsule! Why, we don’t even have to eat. Or a drink! It will Ensure you that you will get all the vitamins you need! Hey, I figure if I have to I will get out the old VitaMix food processor and go to town!
We don’t give up easy, do we John?
Keep writing, Susie. You keep us young. Young at heart, anyway!
I got to thinking last night about my comment yesterday, and now I need to eat my own words. I certainly didn’t mean to make light of anyone’s health problems. Hey, I may be getting my nourishment from a tube before I reach my final destination! It just seems some of these advertisements proclaim they can make life so easy and simple in no time at all. I mean, like … if I want to lose these extra pounds I’ve accumulated in the last couple of years, I just need to go low. Watch out, Betty! You may have to eat your own words … again! And they’re certainly not very digestible!