Rice is Not a Vegetable

Sometimes I wonder about what people believe is a vegetable. I was at dinner with my parents a few weeks ago and my dad asked for vegetables instead of a potato. The waitress said this was fine. When she brought his plate he asked where his vegetable was. She motioned at the large (probably more than 1 cup) pile of green speckled rice on his plate. My dad seemed confused so the waitress told him that the vegetable was "broccoli rice". Now there are times at restaurants when my dad complains and I would like to become invisible, but this time he was so right. There was probably about 1 tablespoon of broccoli in this rice.

I also see a lots of bagged fried snack food trying to get people to believe they are vegetables. There are pea crisps, fried green beans, carrot chips, and root vegetable chips (yams, sweet potatoes, etc.). Granted these foods started out as vegetables, albeit starchy ones. But frying or baking these in large amount of oil really takes away the spirit of the vegetable. These are now foods that have almost all of their calories from fat whereas vegetable are usually very low in fat. Keep in mind, if it looks like a snack food and tastes like a snack food, it probably is a snack food.

Keep in mind that vegetables are plants that grow naturally from the ground-- with proper conditons and care. Fresh: raw, grilled, baked, roasted or steamed vegetables are the most nutritious and therefore the tastiest. I have no problem with frozen vegetables, and even canned vegetables (but watch out for the salt)are much better than no vegetable at all. But surely rice is not a vegetable.