Hello, Avacado

As mentioned in my opening post, the biggest challenge I face in becoming a vegetarian is that I hate vegetables.  Most vegetables.  As in, the ones that taste like...vegetables.  Tomatoes, corn, beans, yes, of course, nobody's really repulsed by something that tastes more like a carb.  But branching out into the green is difficult for me.

So I'm exploring one new vegetable at a time.  Because seriously, if you tell me, "oh, just load up a bunch of veggies onto a pizza," or you make me a stir-fry, or tell me to put peppers and cucumbers and sprouts on a veggie sub?  Not gonna eat it.  I need to make peace with one plant at a time.

It's working.  Since my first post about not dying from the consumption of broccoli, I have voluntarily purchased said broccoli twice, and actually looked forward to eating it.  Say whaaaaaaaa?  I literally used to gag on it.  And now?  Dare I admit this...sometimes I actually have a broccoli hankering. 

Today I arranged a meeting with the avocado.  What? But don't you just love guac? you ask.  No, I don't.  I think I haven't liked avacado for the fact that it's 1) green 2) is high in (good) fat and yet doesn't taste like much of anything, which then makes me think of something akin to lard, 3) it's creepily smooth for a vegetable, like baby's butt smooth, and that's just weird, and 4) it's a vegetable. 

But I decided to try a recipe that included avocado today; this was referred to me by my friend Kelsey, who generously shared a whole batch of veggie recipes for me to try after reading my blog. It included avocado, yes, but it turns into...hold onto your britches... avocado cream sauce!  And anything paired with "cream sauce" is worth trying.  Here is the recipe for black bean patties with corn relish and avocado cream sauce:

http://www.annies-eats.com/2012/01/23/black-bean-patties-with-corn-relish-and-avocado-cream-sauce/

Before making the sauce, I bravely took a baby-sized bite of avocado.  What was I so afraid of?  It wasn't that bad.  In fact, it tasted vaguely like a nut.  It's still a weird texture, but maybe I can look past that; the taste was actually okay.

The whole recipe, on the other hand....was more than okay!  Michael consumed his meal before I ate mine, and with a twinkle in his eye and a mischievous smile he said, "This is fantastic.  A+.  Seriously, you're gonna love this."  And love it I did. 

Pass the sauce, please.  Avacado: we can be friends, after all.