"Bad" vegetables

Some people seem to think that because you're a vegetarian, you must love all vegetables. That is not the case with me. There are a few vegetables that I simply can't stand -- and unfortunately for me, they seem to turn up in quite a few vegetarian dishes.

My dislike of peas -- or as I sometimes call them, "little green pellets of Satan" -- is a running joke among my friends. I'm not sure why I don't like them; maybe I had a run-in with strained peas as an infant. I actually quite like snow peas, but any other kind makes me wrinkle up my nose in disgust. I can stomach them if I have to, but most of the time I pick them out of a dish.

But far more than peas, I hate olives. Luckily for my many olive-loving friends, as they always get my cast-offs when they appear on my plate at a restaurant. The mere taste of an olive -- God forbid that nasty olive juice infects the rest of a dish -- can ruin my palate for an entire meal. I'm not sure I could choke down more than one if my life depended on it.

Another hated vegetable is green pepper. Red pepper, I'm fine with. But green pepppers are, well, gross. Alas, they seem to be included in every grilled-vegetable sub in existence, which necessitates a special order or picking them out if they show up unannounced.

I've actually never had brussels sprouts, but somehow just looking at them, I know I'd hate them! I should have one just to see, because it's not nice to judge what I've never experienced, but looking at them and smelling them, I just never want to do it.

Over the years, though, I've learned to love several vegetables that I used to not like. I remember in high school sniffing that "I don't eat little trees" when presented with broccoli and cauliflower. Now I eat them all the time. The same with mushrooms -- once hated, now one of my favorite vegetables.

I'm also not a big fan of polenta. It's OK, and I can eat it if I have to, but it's just not something I care for. It's not as widespread a vegetarian staple as tofu or tempeh, but I have been unhappily confronted with it as the only vegetarian entree on a menu.

Are there any vegetables or vegetarian staples that you simply can't abide? As a vegetarian, is it hard for you to avoid them?