Amazing, but true. I started giving them spinach when they were young, as a puree. Now they’ll happily eat creamed spinach. When I served them steaming plates of dark green goo yesterday for dinner, my daughters simply said: “Spinach! Yum!”. (No, I am not making this up). They’ll also eat it raw, as a salad, dipped in home-made salad dressing.
There’s nothing miraculous about it, I don’t think. I started serving it to them very young, always made sure it was tastily prepared, and always enjoyed eating it with them. My kids also like broccoli and green beans (although they’re not so fond of kale). They’re puzzled by the reactions of their friends to green vegetables. To them, green vegetables taste good.
My opinion is that kids can learn to love most vegetables, if they’re introduced early enough, prepared tastily enough, eaten often enough, and enjoyed by parents together with kids. (This strategy doesn’t seem to work for everything, I admit: no matter what I try, my kids will NOT eat radishes.)
What ‘odd’ vegetables do your children like?
I remember in 3rd grade when my friends and I talked about how we liked spinach and didn’t see all the hoopla people make about vegetables and kids not liking them. Yeah just like any food not everyone is going to like everything. Maybe it’s a cultural thing. But I mostly think it’s people expect kids to hate spinach, show kids should hate spinach so then the kids act on that self fulfilling prophesy
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Our daughter is a fan of broccoli, green beans, peas, edamame, raw fish, carrots, olives - lots of nutritious stuff! I think this is probably because we just gave her what we were eating from early on and she developed a taste for them. The kids menus at restaurants are generally so disappointing! If you only give your kid french fries and chicken fingers, she/he will likely acquire a taste for precisely those things.
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