Everyone's six least favorite vegetables

I had to laugh when I found this thread on ChowHound.com recently. I have been really trying to eat more heaithily, but I have to say, the pro-vegetable boosterism does get a little tiresome sometimes. So many people try to be encouraging about vegetables, which is great. But let's be honest: Everyone's tastes are different, and not everyone loves every vegetable.

Based on my highly scientific analysis of the data I found online and in questioning my friends, the five least popular vegetables are:

1. Garbanzo beans
The garbanzo bean's unpopularity is probably due mainly to the fact of its canning. No one likes cold canned beans, and garbanzo beans have the unfortunate honor of showing up on a lot of salad bars. As if you're supposed to scoop them onto your perfectly good salad. Does anyone ever do this? Gross.

Interestingly, I didn't find anyone saying they hate hummus, which is basically just ground-up garbanzo beans. It seems that the garbanzo bean hate is mainly a function of the presentation, not the bean's taste.

Image courtesy Flickr/Salim Viji

2. Kale
Even kale lovers acknowledge that kale is a problematic vegetable. It's like lettuce, if you made lettuce out of bicycle tires. Kale requires a lot of preparation to be even vaguely palatable. And at that point, is it even worth it? Is kale really so much more nutritionally viable than its more tender cousins like Swiss chard or green leaf lettuce? (Kale lovers are quick to recommend kale chips. I have made them, and they are not THAT good.)

Personally I think kale is like the modern equivalent of the medieval hair shirt. An unpleasantry that people put themselves through in public, so that they can feel better about themselves.

Image courtesy Flickr/treedork

3. Beets
I totally get this one, because until fairly recently, my only experience with beets had been the canned, pickled, crinkle-cut variety. The kind that lay there on your plate seeping a puddle of pink liquid that gradually creeps towards your other food, threatening to stain everything with its vinegar-y nonsense.

Fresh beets roasted in the oven are pretty good, I guess. But then I forget I ate beets and I go to the bathroom and I think that I am dying. Are beets good enough to warrant that five seconds of abject terror? Personally, I don't think so.

Image courtesy Flickr/sambeckwith

4. Spinach
Spinach makes the "least favorite" list for two reasons. First, because the oxalic acid in spinach leaves you with a feeling like your teeth are coated in fuzz. This happens even if you eat delicious tender young spinach greens, either lightly braised or fresh in a salad.

And second, because some of us have a horror of spinach born from a childhood being forced to eat shredded canned or frozen spinach. My mother used to serve it with red wine vinegar, if you can call "heating canned spinach and blopping it on a plate" serving it.

Ugh, what a nightmare. Frozen spinach is only good for one thing, and that thing is spinach dip.

Image courtesy Flickr/Jenn Durfy

5. Celery
Personally, I like celery. I'm not a fan of the strings that get stuck in your teeth, but I like the nice juicy crunch. I like sliced celery added to fresh salads, and I like to use celery sticks to eat peanut butter, hummus, or ranch dip.

Celery's detractors seem mainly to object to the vegetable's bright, bitter flavor. Personally I like it, I think it provides a nice little kick to complement the peanut butter. (Jam does the same thing with peanut butter, if you think about it.) But then again, some people are a lot more sensitive to bitter flavors, so I chalk this one up to individual taste profiles.

Image courtesy Flickr/looseends

6. Cilantro
If there is any vegetable in the world more contentious than cilantro, I haven't found it. I have never met someone who was like, "Cilantro is okay I guess." People either love it or hate it. Personally, I love it. When I make salsa fresca, it practically looks like salad, that's how much cilantro I use.

Interestingly, cilantro preference seems to be at least partly genetic. A certain percentage of the population lacks the gene that lets you taste the lemony fresh flavors of cilantro. To these sad waifs, cilantro just tastes like soap. Perhaps one day genetic therapy will be available to help correct this terrible genetic defect.

Main image courtesy Flickr/Joelk75