The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 2 plus 5 letter word AL DENTE
I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
A
L
D
E
N
T
E
More clues leading to the result AL DENTE
- Bald men, scratching heads, finally taught me how to cook pasta
- Dip in alcohol fit for diner
- Firm to eat and drink to get around depression
- Firm to consume beer to control depression
- Depression confined to beer firm
- Ready to consume drink, eating dip
- Heat and leave simmering? Have a ——, not overcooked
- Talented cooks taking time to get perfect consistency
- In feral den, teen’s cooked but still firm
- Study by foremost of tasters in beer firm
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Maybe like vegetables" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case maybe like vegetables = al dente.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.