Asparagus. As a kid I gagged trying to eat it. Lo and behold, found out Mom was feeding us canned. Learned as an adult that I LOVE fresh asparagus that isn't over cooked! Even love it raw in salads. Oh, my.

I still have trouble with 'leaves' especially when they're cooked (I'm a freak about texture), but my conversion story is pretty much ALL the vegetables. Hated most as a kid and I love most now. Especially when they're all roasted and delish. Don't get me wrong, carbs still rule my world, but I don't hate on veggies like I did as a tot.

Fennel - I am not a fan of licorice and to me that was all that I thought fennel tasted like. Then last summer I braised some and what a shock that it was a lovely sweet flavour. Then I went really crazy and ate it raw in a salad and was even more shocked to find out it was quite good. I think I have eaten more fennel in the last 6 months than in my entire life.

Spinach. It was always a mushy nasty green pile until one day I discovered fresh, raw spinach salads and then started cooking with wilted spinach. One day I joined a CSA and used my spinach know how to introduce kale, chard and the like into our diets at home. Hooray greens!

Mushrooms. I always hated mushrooms. I hated the texture (they reminded me of snails, kind of squishy and slimy, and about the same color), the flavor, and the fact that it was fungus! I refused to eat anything with mushrooms in it. However, after a few years of being a vegetarian, I found myself forced to suffer through many a portabella burger when there was no other option at restaurants. A few years ago, I began actively trying to LIKE mushrooms. I snuck them in to dishes. Kept trying to like them. And then one day-- BAM! I loved them. And now I eat them all the time.

I will also say I had the same experience with vegetable sushi. I thought it was the grossest thing ever and now I can't get enough of it!

Onions. When I was little I would meticulously go through my spaghetti sauce, picking out every little piece of onion I could find. I would finally be ready to start eating about the time everyone else was finished. I don't remember what turned me around, but now onions are a major staple in our house, and they get cooked into most dishes that I make. But, I will say that despite my love of sauteed/roasted/caramelized/grilled onions, I still can't handle raw onions, and you will find me picking them out of salads and hamburgers.

Brussels Sprouts. I think i had only ever been served frozen brussels sprouts as a kid. When I had roasted fresh brussels sprouts as an adult - a revelation! Growing some in my garden now!

Sauerkraut.

I used to hate even the smell of it, but one day when used as a topping to a baked sweet potato-- i just loved it! cannot get enough of it now.

Brussels sprouts for me. My mom used to cook the frozen ones to a sulfurous mush, so I avoided them like the plague until a few years ago, when a roasted (fresh, not frozen) sprout recipe seduced me into trying them again--I can't tell you how many times since I've just roasted up a panful and had a big bowl of them for dinner. I toss them in olive oil, salt and pepper--no fancy additives like bacon or duck fat needed!

Beets. My mom (and grandma - who I realized as an adult that her house "smelled like grandma" because it smelled like boiled beets!), yes, she used to boil beets. Open a can of beets, put it in a pot & boil. For a long time. Then serve hot in a bowl with butter and salt. EWW!! HATE THEM!! Then as an adult, someone brought a roasted beet salad and it was like HEAVEN. I asked the person who made it how exactly they cooked the beets. They bought them fresh (!!) from the Farmer's Market. Trim the leaves, season with olive oil salt & pepper, wrap in foil and roast in oven until done. Cool then peel skin off. THEY ARE DIVINE!

I later learned that pretty much any veggie I didn't like as a kid (we were always served canned or frozen veggies that were boiled) is great when you buy it fresh (DUH!) and roast it.

I even like brussel sprouts now!

The only veggie I still do not like is eggplant. That's a texture thing for me that I just cannot get past.

Beets. Couldn't stand 'em as a kid. Now I can't get enough of them! I order a beet salad wherever I go. And during last year's blizzards in NYC, I offered hot bowls of borsch (with brisket!) and sour cream and dill, to anyone who braved the storms to get to my house.

Beans. Growing up in an extremely Tex Mex city, beans are everywhere. And when I was a child I ate some didn't like it and vowed to never eat them. Flash forward to when I was about 17 a stomach that was screaming FOOD now. My mom stopped by to get a breafast taco and my usual was bacon and egg BUT they were out. (they are usually pre made and wrapped). So my mom came back with 2 egg/bacon/refried bean tacos. I was annoyed & she said its really good just EAT IT! So I did and I was like WOW. This actually does taste really good.

The next time we went to eat at a Mexican restaurant I finally tried the free bowl of Frijoles a la charra and LOVED it. Now I only go to Mexican restaurants where I know I get the free bowl of beans. MMM so good.

English peas, sort of. I disliked them as a child, learned to like them as an adult, but I crossed them off my list again a few years ago. Life is too short to eat peas, if you don't like them.

And Faith, I had to laugh about your sweet potato story. I adored baked/roasted sweet potatoes, and always prepare them so there will be a crispy skin to eat at the end.

1. Marinated pumpkin with cloves and allspice (a local classic) - sweet, a little spicy, soft stuff. Turns out when not too sweet and still with a little bit of knack in it it's actually good.

2. Onions - again because it tastes sweet in most ways. Love it if it's marinated or in combination with potatoes or cheese. Sort of edible in other ways, but never a favourite.

3. Boiled carrots - the sweetness again. The marinade for canned carrots used to be horrible - almost texture less either bitter or too sweet cubes. Nowadays the available variants are actually tasty and less sweet. Especially canned baby carrots with peas. Goes well into potato salads.

I was on a mission, as an adult, to learn to like all of the vegetables that I hated as a child, most especially brussel sprouts. I have found that roasting a vegetable almost always cured whatever about it that ailed me.

Eggplant. As a kid my dad used to taunt us with it and I was convinced it was nasty. I'm not sure if I ever tried it. Now as an adult I love it! Can't get enough of it. I think it was eggplant parmesan that changed my mind.

The revelation of savory sweet potatoes. Only ever had them baked with butter (blah) or Southern-style with the sugar and marshmallows (I can barely choke down a courtesy bite) growing up. But with savory warm spices--I can't get enough! Otherwise, I agree with Jodi Anderson--roasting cures most veggie blahs!

I've found it's usually the cooking or prep method that turns me off veggies.
Dad taught me to choose shiny bright cooked spinach on the cafeteria line.
Mom taught smaller is better and sweeter in cooked Brussels sprouts.
The proverbial salad bar beets turned me off the nice veggie. Pickled or Harvard style still have me running away, but raw or steamed brings me back.
Radishes- always served raw on salads in my region. Too hot and spicy for me. If you slice them paper thin and toss in olive oil and your favorite seasoning before grilling, they turn sweet. Yes really. And thin= cook faster and cook until the centers look like cooked white onions; translucent.

I've had a longtime hatred of beets.....My entire life, I hated them --- loathed them --- for their sweet earthiness and bizarre texture. I always wanted to love them, though, for their empirical beauty, and when my partner and I got together, I discovered that as much as I hated them, that's how much she loved them. Every autumn, I'd see them, resplendent as jewels at the market, calling out to me, but I just couldn't do anything about it.

Until I hit 40.

And for reasons that I will never understand, I was pushing my shopping cart through my local market one day, and stopped DEAD at the beets. Right there, I envisioned a room temperature salad of roasted beets, shaved fennel, orange segments, red pepper flakes, and sliced red onion, tossed with feta. I called Susan from my cell and said "Guess what you're having for dinner tonight?"

From that point forward, I love and make beets in every permutation: in risotto, as a thin-sliced vegetable Napoleon, in salad. But never, ever in borscht --- my grandmother made it, terribly --- which is probably why I hated it for so long.

There you have it.

Bitter melon. Actually, it's more of a reverse conversion. I keep tasting it in hopes that I'll like it and it hasn't worked yet. Still tastes yuck! There's nothing else I have an aversion to.

Beets. Like most of these stories, the loathing came from bad preparation -- canned or boiled. Blech. But once fresh roasted beets came across my plate, I was sold.

Haven't had the same revelation yet with Lima beans, though.

Uh.... Vegetables? Lol. As a child I hated pretty much all vegetables except corn, broccoli with cheese sauce, white potatoes, and tomatoes in non-chunky spaghetti sauce (or ketchup) form. Oh, and dill pickles with sandwiches and baby carrots with tons of ranch dressing.

I have since learned to adore just about every vegetable except green peppers (though I like red peppers). And maybe beets, but I've only ever had pickled beets, so I can't be certain. But stuff like green cabbage, squash, mild greens like spinach or collards or kale, onions, chunky tomato sauce, green beans, parsnips, cooked beans, etc. I now love them all. Lots and lots.

I have a rather silly sweet potato story - as a baby my mom swears I loved sweet potatoes but hated white potatoes. As an older child it was the exact opposite - I detested sweet potatoes but lurved mashed white potatoes. Now I love them both! Especially sweet potato cake or sweet potato fries with homemade spiced tomato ketchup. But not with marshmallows. Pecans and brown sugar? Heck yes. Marshmallows? Nope.

Cauliflower. I'm not a picky eater, I've tried jellyfish, chicken feet, squid in its own ink... the only thing I wouldn't touch was cauliflower. Until a few years ago I'd only had it on crudite platters and found it bitter and uninspiring, thought I hated it. Then I had it roasted and was *amazed* at how sweet it becomes. A little olive oil, a little salt and that's a meal!

I had the same sweet potato conversion! I'm Southern, and have assiduously avoided sweet potato casserole since childhood. But in Japan I had them roasted with butter in the winter and in wedges with soy sauce and mirin glaze anytime, and now I'm a believer.

In general I hated green vegetables as a child but slowly grew to like them over time. The sweet potato has been my most dramatic conversion.

Still hate the casserole.

Lentils were the gateway bean for me. I never liked beans, then I met the lentil and what began as a friendship turned into a long-term love affair. But I have to confess that I cheated. I tried other beans. Black beans were next. And as they say, "once you go black you never go back." Well, that wasn't entirely true. I went back to my lentils. But then there were pinto beans! First refried and then au naturel. Followed by cannelli and then great northern. But the second love of my life came much later when I met the Garbanzo Bean. He also goes by "chickpea." But whatever you call him, he is my lasting love. Sure, I go back and have lentil soup once and again (after all, that's how we met), and I'll slather my burrito with black and pinto beans. But I will make Garbanzo beans at times my entire meal. It began innocently enough, this obsession, in a Mediterranean salad. Garbanzos with tomatoes and cucumbers and basil and onions and balsamic vinagrette. But then I cast those other vegetables aside and simply ate my garbanzos with a splash of balsamic vinegar - solo - nothing to adulterate them. They are mine, and I love them, and I shall never give them up for another bean.

I ate almost everything as a child, but I hated icky slimy eggplant. Then I fell in love with baba ganoush, and only after devouring a plateful did I realize what it was made of.

I love eggplant now, although most of my efforts at cooking it myself are...okay at best. But at Indian/Thai/Italian/Middle Eastern restaurants I order it with a focus that borders on obsession.

I think I learned to like (not love) eggplant, last week, in a lovely fresh pasta sauce (thanks Jamie Oliver, yum).

I learned to love bitter greens besides spinach this summer: I toss it chopped in everything or saute and eat it over toast with a fried egg (now my favorite breakfast).

Carrots. I always thought they were ok, but never enjoyed eating them. As an adult, I never cooked them. And, I'll sheepishly admit that sometimes raw carrots make me gag. But, a few months ago I decided my family needs more vegetable variety and I was going to cook carrots. I turned to my tried and true resource - Bittman. Cumin was the answer. I LOVED those roasted carrots for their taste and simplicity. Converted forever.

Dill pickles. I have always offered whomever I'm eating with the pickle that comes with my sandwich. As a child I really liked the sweet gherkins that my grandmother would put into potato salad, and would happily munch on plain ones as an afternoon snack.

Not sure what changed it, but when I was at a restaurant about three weeks ago, the pickle started looking really tasty. In retrospect I'm not sure I'd ever even tried pickles - it was just the smell that had put me off. But now I'm completely sold! Love 'em.

Otherwise I've always been really keen on veggies!

I hated beets and asparagus as a child. My mom loved pickled beets (but also served boiled ones) and I found out later that she'd been serving us canned asparagus.

I was at a wine dinner one night and one of the courses was borscht. It was amazing. I can eat roasted beets now but pickled beets are still gag-worthy to me.

As for the asparagus, my best friend kept telling me that I just hadn't had good asparagus. I wasn't exactly convinced but she's a wildly talented chef and she'd never steered me wrong so I let her feed me grilled, fresh asparagus. I became a convert that minute.

i hated pineapples til met my boyfriend. he wanted to take me to hawaii and made me pineapples with cottage cheese. i was converted. i guess id convinced myself that i hated them for so long that i hadnt tried any since i was really little.

Winter squash....I have this thing, like the author, about "sweetness" in my supposedly savory foods. I'm not a fan of sweet potatoes either, for that same reason. But I joined a CSA last year, and vowed to eat all they gave me in each share. Last year I made a red chile flavored butternut squash soup, that was garnished with mint, that blew me out of the water. As a matter of fact, I'm making it again tomorrow, and looking forward to it, and a couple of weeks ago roasted a hunk of acorn squash from my latest share, and stirred it into curry-spiced risotto that was so good I almost licked the plate.

And hearty greeens (collards, chard, kale, mustard greens) also courtesy of the CSA. I made a caldo verde with collards recently that was seriously one of the best things I've ever eaten.

Still can't handle eggplant though (shiver). Nasty things they are.

I love my CSA for this exact reason- it forces (?) one to try those vegies that they've avoided and find ways to enjoy them... When we first got radishes last year, I was a little stumped... the only way I had ever seen anyone eat a radish was raw and usually dipped in salt... so I took one, quarted it and everyone in the family tried one bite dipped in salt... not a winner, but then I sauteed the rest and YUM! The bitterness decreased and brought out the sweetness of the radish.

My parents joined the CSA this year with us and it's been fun to see their reaction to things that we never ate growing up (kohlrabi, brussel sprouts, beets, okra, cauliflower, cabbage, squashes other than acorn... ) My mom's loved it- my dad, not so much- he tends to stick with his beloved peppers, tomatoes, zucchini and potatoes. But I give him credit- he tried the new ones this year!

Growing up I was like most kids who hated vegetables. My mom would make fresh asparagus, I hated them. My mom would serve canned beets at Thanksgiving I hated them. My whole family adored tomatoes, I hated them. I hated tomatoes so much I wouldn't eat tomato sauce on pasta... only parmesan.

Fast forward to now. I love asparagus.. grilled roasted, blanched.. I love it. I love roasted beets or beets tossed with goat cheese. I like tomatoes. I won't say that my tomato aversion is completely overcome. I still hate ketchup and I go extremly light on tomato pasta sauce, but I will eat caprese salad like it's going out of style. My only thing about tomatoes is they have to be homegrown. I refuse to buy any at a regular grocery store.

Butternut squash. Mashed with butter and nutmeg, it was one of my older brother's favorite foods growing up. I hated everything about it...the sweetness, the stringy texture... everything. It was actually the only food I could not eat. Lots of friends would try to convince me..."oh try it the way I make it"... and every time it would be mashed and sweet and disgusting.

But then one day a friend made the squash sage onion and gruyere casserole in Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. The savory and unmashed version of the squash was so amazing that it is one of my favorite fall meals now.

Definitely brussel sprouts. My mom made them for us once as a kid to, seriously, "show us how bad they were." They tasted like gas bombs. It was horrid. I couldn't even stand the idea of ever trying them again. However, after seeing recipe after recipe for them on food blogs, I finally decided to give them a try. And you know what? They were wonderful! I still have some residual fear, but I'm working on it!

Cauliflower. Same story as another reader above.

Faith, that's so funny--I was reading your post, thinking, "I remember when I first discovered sweet potatoes. It was at great-grandma-in-law's assisted living dining room." I can't believe you had the same experience. That was only last year for me, so I have some sweet potatoes to catch up on.

My pet hate has to have been brussel sprouts, then I found a recipe here in Germany, where they were taken apart, leaf by leaf ..... so, as the guy loves them, I did just that one Christmas and slowly was able to introduce them to our winter food plan.

For anyone who has problems with veggies. Here is a book that is enough to change anyone's mind Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi. For starters though, some of his recipes are available at the guardian website.

My biggest veggie no no is mushrooms. It was a texture thing. I never could get past it but I loathed them. I guess I still do, but I was given a big hot bowl of wild forest mushroom soup and almost died it was so good. The flavors were amazing! I got the recipe and ended up making it a zillion times myself at home. I came to find out how amazing mushrooms TASTE, I just don't like the texture, so blending them up in a soup is perfect for me!

I grew up with a major aversion to onions. I think it had something to do with the power I felt in refusing to eat them, but I also truly did not like them. It began to be a problem when I started learning to cook, since there are onions in everything! Then, when I was pregnant with my first daughter, it all turned around for me -- must have been the hormones -- and I started enjoying them. Now I cook with them all the time. We have caramelized onion and bacon pizza every week! :) But I still don't like them raw!

Hmm, I think I am the exact opposite. I used to be such a good eater, as a kid I liked asparagus and artichokes (bite-and-pulls, we called them), but we always ate them dipped in mayo. I one day decided I didn't like mayo (still not a big fan), and stopped eating those veggies. Ever since I don't like asparagus or artichokes, even prepared in many different ways! Asparagus always has a nasty bitter edge, and artichoke is just gross. So I guess I am weird!

I did, however, try avocado as a kid and thought it was the nastiest thing ever, but a couple years ago tried it again and now I love it (in moderation - after too much it starts to make my stomach turn!).

Tomatoes. I never could get used to the goo (boogers!) or the taste. BUT THEN, I had an heirloom tomato.

I now have my own garden and started growing Cherokee Purple and Green Grape, and plan on expanding my tomato garden every summer from now on.

My favorite way to eat them? For the Cherokee's, bake up some ciabatta, a layer of mozz, salt and pepper, olive oil (maybe a slice or three of avocado); for the Green Grapes, slice a good many in half, throw in a bowl, olive oil, balsamic reduction, salt, pepper, and crumbled goat cheese.

Tomatoes. It was hard, but I taught myself to love them. Now I'm a total tomato snob! http://www.eatniks.com/2010/05/learning-to-love-tomatoes/

Okra. I could care less for the slimy, prickly and oddly shaped vegetable. The combination of textures creeps me out. Steamed, fried or even added to soup I don't want it. Maybe because I my mom over cooked them once and the image of the goo, oozing out has been forever ingrained in my memory. Eww.

I hated almost all veggies as a child. After I was on my own, I learned they don't have to be cooked to mush. My mom to this day cooks her vegs to mush and I still don't like them.

Like Krnstrn, I would literally gag when presented with asparagus when I was a kid. I didn't really need to LEARN to love it...just one day I tasted it again and BOOM I was into it.

A little bit different with Brussels sprouts. Oh, how I hated those vile little things. Until one day I ate them roasted versus steamed. That was the magic that it took.

Still violently hate green bell peppers, though.

Beets. Dear god, beets. I've always hated them. It's pretty hilarious and perfect timing that I came across this article, though.

Just this last weekend I bought beets on a whim and found a way to make them enjoyable - IN A DESSERT no less. I've documented it here for anyone interested:

http://yumandyummer.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/beets-for-dessert-golden-beet-and-white-chocolate-mousse-parfait/

Collards. OK, to be honest, I had never actually TRIED collards before, but green and slimey and... blech. But, then, I moved to Alabama.

At the Auburn farmers market was this vendor who sold washed and chopped collards and every week I would talk to him and every week he would try to convince the Yankee to try them. Finally, one week, I gave in and bought a bag.

I sauted onion and garlic, added sliced sausage and then the collards and served with Ume Plum vinegar and... OH MY.

LOVE. Deep, abiding, passionate love. I couldn't get enough of them and we ended up eating black eyed peas and greens and cornbread a couple of times a week. I tried to convert fellow Yankees in the area to the collard love fest and well... it didn't work so well. I was very confused, I mean, they were great! I even bought them and blanched then froze the greens in fear of not having access to them in the winter and the poor vendor became a bit fearful of the Yankee monster that he'd created...

And then, well, the little stick that I peed on came back "pregnant". Yup, collards were my very first food craving! My baby was born in Alabama and has collards and beans in her soul. Though, she still won't eat the greens, she does love herself some black eyed peas!

When I was in kindergarten, my mom made me eat steamed sweet potatoes every single day to help with my digestion. Back then, they were the last things I wanted to eat. I rather starve than eat them.

A few years ago, I resumed eating them and LOVE them, so sweet, filling and nutritious. Plus they are such a versatile ingredient. I think you naturally loathe the foods that are forced upon you, regardless of their taste.

Everything except mushrooms and potatoes, two of my favorite vegetables to this day, and cauliflowers and the whole onion family. I used to hate green leafy things before.

I used to despise spinach whereas now, I keep trying to find ways to serve it other than wilted as a side or stuffed into a piece of meat (besides green peas, it IS one of those vegetables that is really not suitable for the stuff other vegetables are suited for). Ditto for anything from the cabbage family: I would feel nauseous at the sight of anything remotely cabbage-like, but today, I can sometimes be found chomping on a raw leaf.

I don't know why I hated most vegetables as a kid and how I started loving most of them. The weirdest thing is that I grew up on my mom's fare, and I still often eat her stuff, which hasn't changed much over the years and while I used to hate most of her vegetable based dishes, I now love them all save for a few exceptions.

I still can't stand sweet potatoes as well as most root vegetables, although I love carrots and radishes. I also refrain from having anything sweet and think that the only way to use corn is on the cob, with no butter nor salt.

My utmost favorite vegetables are those that kids hate the most: spinach, broccoli, asparagus and mushrooms (although they technically are no vegetable). I hated tomatoes as a kid, now I try to taste as many varieties as possible to find a steady provider of favorite varieties, and I even grow my own. Something simple on a piece of crusty bread with a few tomato wedges is a favorite meal of mine.

I guess that the love of cooking inevitably leads to trying out new stuff and developing a taste for things we used to steer clear of is part of that game. It seems to be my case, or else, I don't see how I got to enjoy eating the veggies I used to flee.