Dick Adams wrote:

> One of my doctors gave me a laundry list of things to do and
> to not do. One was to eat less salt. Another was to eat more
> fruits and vegetables.
>
> It would be difficult for me to eat less salt. A year or so ago
> I salted a very bland piece of salmon and my wife commented that
> it was the first time she had ever seen me salt food. We had
> been together over 25 years when she said that.
>
> I am eating more fruits and vegetables. My usual condiments are
> black pepper from a grinder, ground garlic, ground hot peppers,
> and hot pepper sauce. I recently switched from regular Tabasco
> to their Chipotle variety because it has more of a flavor that
> I like. What is happenning is that I am finding vegetable dishes
> to be bland in spite of these seasonings - even through pepper
> sauce!
>
> What I would appreciate are some suggestions as to condiments
> that bring out the flavor of cooked vegetables and URL's for
> recipes that have distinctive flavoring.
>
> Dick

I would say that the first thing to do is to stop using the pepper
sauce. All those hot and spicy condiments are killing off your taste
buds. It's no wonder you're finding other foods bland - they are in
comparison. It's like someone finding lemonade to sour because they
take four sugars in their tea. Since I know it'll be hard to go cold
turkey (capsaicin (sp?) is mildly addictive), start by cutting down, or
by having alternate meals without.

Next is to buy the best vegetables you can afford, defined by freshness
and quality (there's a tautology for you, best defined by quality). You
want crisp, healthy looking vegetables, but (there's always a but)
don't just accept what the supermarket tells you are good-looking veg.
Organic food can often look inferior, but because it isn't speed grown
and pumped full of water, it will often have a far superior taste. Best
of all, grow your own, organically if you can. If you do, then you'll
find that different varieties of vegetables taste differently (you
already know this about apples, I would guess). By growing your own,
you can find varieties you like best and be sure of being able to eat
them.

Cooking: Don't. Oh, all right, if you must, but as little as you can get
away with (in some cases, e.g. parsnips, that will still be quite a
lot, in others, e.g. green beans, a few minutes (3 or 4) in as little
water as possible or steamed will be great). Don't boil veg in great
saucepans of water and then tip it down the sink - half the flavour
goes out with it, as well as being dreadful for your carbon footprint.
Roasting will also retain a fair amount of flavour and introduce some
new ones by caramelising the sugars in root vegetables.

john