“Eat food. All you want. Mostly meat.”-Michael Eades, on twitter, making fun of you know who.
I like vegetables as much as anyone I suppose. I try to stick mostly to the low starch low sugar ones, of course. My mainstays are mushrooms, eggplant, squash, spinach, broccoli, green beans, asparagus, tomatoes, etc. The usual suspects. Usually take them slathered in butter. I mean, who would eat this stuff if it weren’t for butter? And salt too. And pepper. And garlic. And sometimes basil. Nutmeg. Thyme. You get the picture.
But I also can just do without the damn vegetable. Like tonight, I’m probably gonna be on my own for dinner, and I’m not sure if I can be bothered to scare up some sort of plant matter to go with my steak (sous-vide flank steak, btw).
But I might have some sausage with that steak. Yessiree.
I know, I know, everyone thinks you need vegetables, you need those magical phytonutrients, blah blah blah. You need fiber, blah blah blah (I dont buy the fiber argument, but that’s probably a subject for another day).
Personally, I think maybe there’s some stuff in some vegetables that are good for you, but that’s not why I eat them. I eat them simply because I like them. Spinach goes nice with steak. So do mushrooms. Asparagus goes great with fish. And steak. Especially when coated in olive oil, salt and pepper, wrapped with bacon, and grilled.
For me then, the true role for the vegetables on your plate, and more importanty, in your mouth, is to provide a flavor and texture that compliments and contrasts nicely with the whatever meat/fish your enjoying.
Armed with this definition, I hereby declare that sausage is indeed a vegetable! It may not grow on trees or in the dirt, it may actually just be a mix of pork and spices in some sort of suspicious casing, but I’ll never hold that against it.
It’s a vegetable dammit!
I will not be persuaded otherwise!
