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I've always liked veggies from when I was young too! However, my mom made real Caesar salad and let me try it when I was pretty young (elementary school age) and I remember thinking it was an absolute revelation and that I could eat that dressing on just about everything happily. So finding a full fat dressing that your daughter might like and seeing if that'll help her get used to veggies might be the ticket.

Would she maybe like asaparagus grilled or roasted with a lemon mayonaise? You could trying making the mayo together - she could whisk while you dribble in the oil or vice versa.

I always liked everything my mother made - she was an awesome cook. On our birthdays, we were allowed to pick our own menu. As far back as I can remember, I had asparagus, steamed clams with drawn butter and sliced tomatoes (the tomatoes were also my bedtime snack). When I got older, I added lobster or crab to the party. Those are all still favorites. I don't know if she did anything special, but they were always fresh and delicious. I loved her roasted carrots too. My own children are vegetarians, so I probably did the same as my mother without realizing it, or maybe we just have fewer foods we dislike genetically? My children tell me now that they hid the lima beans in plant dirt when I wasn't looking, but they eat them now.

I have always loved veggies, but I only really enjoy most of them steamed w/o salt, butter, etc. I don't care for veggies raw, except for lettuce and carrots. I hate onions, because I can't stand anything that is strong tasting - probably the reason why I don't care for garlic.

It's all taste for me. I've never been a texture-sensitive person...I enjoy slime, crunch, powdery, and chewy all the same.

I don't have kids, but I've always thought that if a child is introduced to something at an early age in a pleasant manner (not yelling and shoving it into their mouth), they'll like it or grow to like it.

This is going to sound crazy, but there wasn't a kid at our playdate who didn't like asparagus when my mother in law steamed it or boiled it and dressed it with Chinese Black Bean and Garlic sauce! I think it's the saltiness in the sauce...but my daughter HONESTLY snatched my cooking chopsticks out of the wok and started licking them off when I wasn't looking!

Tara is only emailed more because people haven't found this website yet :) You are a much better read. And I still hate asparagus.

I pretty much grew up liking veggies with some exceptions. To this day I still can't eat broccoli or cauliflower (albino broccoli). I never really liked mushrooms either, but it was more of a texture thing and I've mostly gotten over that.

When I was growing up, vegetables usually consisted of iceberg lettuce (which was really just a vehicle for croutons) and frozen veggies that were often microwaved beyond recognition. Yet, I still found most vegetables reasonably tasty. I just didn't discover how much I liked them until I learned to cook them correctly. When you compare frozen microwaved brussells sprouts to fresh roasted ones . . . well, you can't because they are completely different.

When I was a baby, squash baby food was my favorite ever, & I loved mushrooms. I avoided broccoli like the plague. I also disliked salad a lot.

I mostly had to start eating veggies when salads or veggie trays were placed in front of me in social situations, & I learned to love them! Ironically, broccoli is my absolute favorite veggie & I put it in everything. Squash I can only eat when it's well seasoned or disguised, & anything with mushrooms in it? Forget about it!

I grew up liking vegetables (and our were always just steamed, sometimes sauted...no cheese sauce, butter, or ever salt in sight), especially the ones that grew in out backyard like tomatoes and summer squash.

I've read that kids not liking vegetables has something to do with taste buds. If I remember correctly, the theory is that children have way more taste buds than adults. Probably in line with the "super taster" idea, the flavors of vegetables are much stronger to kids, and therefore distasteful. So maybe Iris will like asparagus as she gets old and her taste buds mellow out.

Oops, I misspoke. It looks like it has more to do with bitterness than prevalence of taste buds.
http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/news/ng.asp?id=69461-bitterness-vegetables-taste

I'm 22, have been dating my bf for 2.5 years, and met him 3.5 years ago. To quote him, "you didn't eat vegetables when I met you." I remember my mother being a good cook, but I now realize that it isn't that hard to do meat & potatoes and casseroles! I blame her (love her, but blame her) for my late turn on to veggies.

I didn't really get into cooking until my sr. year in college when my best friend started dating a chef (he is a good friend of mine now). I was the only one with a car, so I would drive to the grocery store, we would shop together, and then I would watch him cook. I learned how to improvise, use ingredients in new ways, etc from him, and I've learned that vegetables I had never eaten under my mother's roof (eggplant, artichokes, asparagus, summer squash) are now some of my favorites.

As for the simpler things my mother did cook (tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower), she just cooked from frozen or canned and never added much flavor. I didn't like tomatoes until I started roasting them. I now eat pretty much everything and make it a point to eat vegetables at every meal (I slip a lot, but I still try!) and I enjoy it, a lot. I think you have to teach your kids about the different ways you can prepare veggies and work in other flavors to make them interesting - what my mother never did!

I second the idea that your daughter may like asparagus more as she ages.
My palate changed drastically during my teen years. Certain foods made me totally nauseous as a child [cilantro and lox being two of them] but are now necessary staples.

Give me cilantro or give me death!

Actually, I had an early aversion to red meat, but I, like many children, feared many, many vegetables. I blame this on the 70s-era tendency to either overcook everything or serve it completely raw. Either one could inspire morbid fear in even the most hardcore vegetable lover. Also, I partially blame the 70s era style of parenting that said not to force any foods on your children that they rejected.

For about 4-5 years I ate few vegetables other than corn, potatoes, onions, and well-disguised broccoli (80s style quiche, cheese sauce), along with the occasional thousand-island drenched iceberg lettuce. Ah, and artichokes. I could be convinced to eat steamed artichokes, but probably because we could drench it in lemon butter.

However, starting in my teenage years I started to realize that not all vegetables were terrible, and cafeteria meat in the Midwest generally is, so by 19, I was a full-blown vegetarian. Now I'll eat anything, including brussels sprouts, as long as they're prepared decently. And most restaurants have learned how, and even some home cooks have figured it out.