Editor’s note: This post is the first of a regular series that will be appearing on Fridays. The idea is to try new “real food” recipes that can be prepared on the weekend. Of course, each recipe can also be prepared during the week (that’s when I’m trying it), but with the hectic schedules of most, a recipe might be easier to try on the weekend when work is generally less of a factor. If you enjoy this article, please consider subscribing to my feed. Thanks.

As part of the holistic approach to improving my health, I am searching for creative ways to “get into” vegetables. I didn’t grow up eating a lot of fresh greens, so finding vegetables that I like has been a long and continuous road, fraught with danger (or so I feared). However, despite my initial skepticism, I’ve found that the more well-prepared, well-seasoned vegetable dishes that I try, the more I like them, which even I find hard to believe. In my case, the key to this is how they are prepared.

This recipe is based on the principles that a) you can never get enough vegetables in your diet, so eat as much as you can, b) if you cook your vegetables, it should be done with reasonable skill and attention, and c) (and most importantly) eating vegetables should be about the pleasure of doing so because the flavor is out of this world, not simply because it’s “good for you.”

The concept of eating vegetables solely because they’re good is a nice idea, but based on my experience that is not a good enough reason for me to stick to a new dietary habit. I simply won’t eat them regularly if they don’t taste good.

Here’s recipe number 1 - I hope you enjoy it for the flavor first, the experience of cooking second, and the health benefits third. I’ve prepared these dishes side by side numerous times, sometimes in the quantities mentioned here, and other times for larger groups. Both times they turned out well, and were enjoyed by our guests (or at least I’m sure they didn’t have to spit it out ).

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