The Family of Five Vegetarians who HATED All Vegetables
And how I managed to nourish them with a little "Stealth health" maneuver.
When Carrie called me with a desperate, “WE NEED HELP WITH DINNERS!”, I immediately understood her dilema. She was a single mother of four kids, who worked long hours at a local hospital in Chatham Country, just outside the little college town of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She said the kids had some issues with food, but they weren’t “too bad”, but she just didn’t have the time to deal with their eating needs. We immediately set up a time for the following week to do the interview with the whole family.
When I arrived at their very large house, I rang the doorbell and was met by a thirteen year old boy with brunette hair that had a severe side part and a swoosh of hair covering most of his eyes. Apathetically, he said, “Yeah…?” , to which I replied, “Uh, I’m the chef. Is your Mom home?” He gave me a quick nod, his head tilted to the side to keep his hair in place. “MOOOOOOM!”, he yelled, with me following behind him into the expansive bright and sunny kitchen. “Oh hey there, Chef!”, Carrie said, rushing into the kitchen with two young girls following behind her like ducklings. Carrie was a petite woman in her mid-forties with curly brown hair and a warm smile. The two girls, I guessed, were about eight and ten years old. “Where would you like to sit to do the interview?”, I asked Carrie. She requested we sit in the large, comfy looking living room. In typical Mom style, she excused herself to go find her oldest, a daughter of fifteen. “Teenagers…you know…” she quipped as she left the room. Carrie then returned with her daughter whose arms were folded across her chest and looked about as excited as an inmate about to get booked.
“OK, so why don’t you tell me about your likes and dislikes first,” I began.
“OK. We are vegetarians. Uh, we like all sorts of cuisines, I think. Right kids?” Carrie said while looking at her 4 children. They quietly nodded.
“Alright, that sounds good”, I said. “Why don’t you each tell me your favorite cuisines then,” I suggested.
“Well, we love italian food, don’t we kids?” Carrie began. “But I am not a fan of carbs, oh, and the kids don’t like sauce touching their noodles.”
“Ok,” I said as I made that note.
“We love all beans, so maybe Mexican?” she said, obviously unsure of the kids approval.
“Ok, then let’s go through my veggie list. I’m going to start with my most hated list. These are veggies I have found over the years that are some of the most unpopular,” I said while getting out page two of my interview sheets, this one titled “The Most Hated”. Carrie seemed nervous.
“I’ll read these off and you can answer “yes” or “no” or “I don’t know” if you have never tried them. Sound like a plan?” I said while looking around at the group. I got a nod from everyone with the eight year old looking the most excited.
“Beets?” I asked. “NO!” exclaimed everyone. “Asparagus” and another “NO!” followed by a few Eeew’s. “Okra?”. “What’s THAT?” exclaimed the boy, his mother quickly saying, “No, I don’t think we would like that.” I ended up going through the list of 15 or more veggies and getting a firm NO on each one. We then moved onto the last two sheets of the questionnaire. These two sheets had all the other common vegetables as well as fruits. From potatoes of every color to everything in the onion family to tomatoes, corn, peas, carrots, cruciferous vegetables as well as greens. Almost 90% were NO’s. I was at a complete loss.
We then got to beans and grains. Unbelievably, they loved all beans, lentils and grains. From kidney, cannellini, black beans, adzuki, pinto, and limas. For the grains it was the same, they loved them all but especially quinoa, basmati and brown rice. They did also like tofu, which was a huge relief to have something else to work with.
I was starting to panic inside wondering what I would make for these people, but keep a smile on my face to show I had this. “Ok, Ok..I can work with this,” I said brightly. I then asked what their normal, everyday go-to’s were, what they ordered when out or the rare occasion when they cooked at home. “Well, we usually order out,“ Carrie said. “OK. So, what do you order when you order out?” I asked. “Well, we enjoy Indian food, but we just get dal with rice usually. Sometimes we ask for plain sauces, like tikka masala on the side for the rice. We also like italian, like I said, but that’s usually plain pasta, with sauces on the side. The kids will eat the sauce like soup, but I never touch the pasta because of the carbs. Mexican food always work well for us. Refried beans, tacos with tofu or beans, black beans and rice burritos, Spanish rice, a little cheese on top. I dunno, things like that?” she said looking around at the kids.
I was making mental menus in my head and taking notes at the same time. This was one of the most challenging families I had encountered in my career, but I accepted the challenge.
I cooked for them once a week for six months. It was one of the most difficult menus only because of how boring it was for me. Beans, rice, tofu and plain pasta were on every menu. Mexican food, Mexican food, Mexican food… Indian food, Indian food, Indian food… I started worrying about the health of this family and their not eating any real vegetables, so I started infiltrating soups and sauces that were primarily pureed veggies, but not telling them. There were no food allergies, so it was fair game to try. I started a maneuver I dubbed “Stealth health”. I would puree sweet potatoes into tomato soup or add some to a tikka sauce for them to get more vitamins in each meal. I would make tofu meatballs, adding nutritional yeast and pureed onions. In the lentil loaf I always added pureed spinach and carrots.
The family seemed to love everything and I got rave reviews on each menu, but then the day came that Carrie emailed me some bad news. She let me know she had lost her job and wouldn’t need my services. Occasionally, she would email to ask me for a recipe, say, for my lentil loaf, but I told her that I didn’t have one as I would make it up on the spot. I often wonder how Carrie and her family made out after my departure and if they went back to their veggie-less world of beans, rice and pasta.
Until next week, Thanks so much for following along on this journey! If you enjoy Secrets and Spice please make sure you subscribe to get each weeks story emailed directly to you. Also, if you would like access to any of my recipes please consider a paid subscription. It’s one of the perks of becoming a paid supporter. (it’s only $5 a month or $50 for the year)
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Thank you again,
- Shirlé
**All names, places and occupations have been changed to protect the identity of all clients.
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A Shout Out to this Weeks Paid Supporters:
A very special shout out to the following paid subscribers:
Robinlee Garber, Chef Lynn Warlick Wells, Jake Brokaw, Miyuki Furtado and Spanky Wilson, . A special shout out to new paid subscribers Myra Ruppe Schwartz, Lisa Deemer Sethi and Claudia L Sanders, Laurel Estabrooks and Leela Montella,! Thank you all soooo much for your support!
-Leela is a person I have known since kindergarten. She has made a lovely life for her and her family and I love watching her kids success stories.
-Myra is an old NC friend who I recently got to see here in beautiful Lisbon with her partner Scott. Maybe someday they will become expats in this fair land.
-Robinlee is a childhood friend and all around renaissance woman, living and playing music in Chicago.
-Chef Lynn is a fellow Personal Chef buddy and owner of Thyme Well Spent, Personal Chef Service, based out of Greensboro NC. When not cooking for clients or food styling for cookbooks, she can be found hobnobbing with tastemakers and culinary shakers all over the country.
-Jake and his wife Brigitte have long been huge supporters of my cooking and are also huge supporters of the arts in Baltimore, Maryland. Jake also has an Orthopedic practice I have had to use a few times.
-Miyuki has been a lifelong friend and bandmate of mine from days long past. He’s also one of the best fathers and husbands I know and has raised one of the coolest kids, his daughter Mino along with his sweet wife Tricia. Miyuki currently plays music in his Alt-Country band, Divining Rod. You can listen to Divining Rod out on all music platforms. (Chef Lynn, I think you would LOVE his music!)
-Spanky has been a huge supporter of my cooking from my NC days. When not fire fighting you might find Spanky hiking the Appalachian trail.
-Lisa has been in my life since the early 90’s. She’s a huge music supporter and a lover of all things delicious.
-Claudia is an old friend from my days in North Carolina. I met Claudia at a pig pull back in 1998, when I first moved to Chapel Hill. Since then, Claudia has started a successful Personal Chef business, Good Intentions Personal Chef Service in the Hillsborough area, as well as serving the Durham and Chapel Hill area.
-Laurel Estabrooks is a new expat friend, recently becoming a Portuguese resident. Parabens!! Someday I hope to meet up face to face. Muito Obrigada Laurel!!
Thank you all sooo much for supporting me in this endeavor. I am truly grateful for you.
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