Upping your veggie intake is sensible way to improve the quality of your diet and support your health, yet many people struggle to consume the recommended daily intake.
Thankfully, there are various creative ways to incorporate more vegetables into your daily meals without drastically changing your eating habits.
1. Blend Veggies into Smoothies
Smoothies are a fantastic way to consume vegetables. Spinach, kale, and carrots blend well with fruits like bananas, berries, and mangoes, masking their taste while boosting the nutritional content of your drink.
2. Add Veggies to Sauces
Incorporating vegetables into sauces is an excellent method to increase your intake. Pureeing vegetables like tomatoes, bell peppers and zucchinis and adding them to pasta or pizza sauces can enrich your meals with extra vitamins and minerals.
3. Veggiefy Wraps
Using large leafy greens such as lettuce, collard greens, or even cabbage leaves in wraps (or even as wraps) and tacos is a clever way to add more vegetables to your diet.
Ditching the conventional wrap reduces your carb intake and increases your fibre consumption.
4. Incorporate Veggies into Baked Goods
You can sneak vegetables into baked goods like muffins, cakes and brownies. For example, you can grate zucchini, carrots and even spinach and mix them into the batter to provide a savoury flavour and additional nutrients without significantly altering the taste.
5. Mix Veggies into Ground Meat Dishes
Adding finely chopped or grated vegetables such as mushrooms, onions and bell peppers into ground meat dishes like burgers, meatballs and meatloaf is a creative and tasty way to increase your vegetable intake. This method also helps to keep the meat moist and adds extra flavour.
6. Substitute Veggies for Grains
Substituting vegetables for grains is another effective technique. Cauliflower rice and zucchini noodles are popular alternatives to traditional rice and pasta. These substitutions not only reduce calorie intake but also add more vitamins and minerals to your meal6.
7. Make Veggie-Based Dips
Create dips from vegetables, like hummus from chickpeas and spinach dip. They add additional taste and colour to snack platters and let you swop less healthy snacks like potato chips with raw veggies, which also helps increase your vegetable intake. You can also use these dips as a spread in wraps or on sandwiches.
8. Sneak Veggies into Breakfast
Starting your morning with a dose of vegetables can set a healthy tone for the rest of the day and sets you on the path to hitting your daily intake.
Adding spinach or mushrooms to your morning omelette or blending carrots and sweet potatoes into your pancake batter are nutritious ways to begin your day with a nutritional boost.
9. Snack on Veggies
Keeping pre-cut vegetables like carrot sticks, cucumber slices and bell pepper strips in your fridge for easy snacking makes it more convenient to reach for a healthy option. Pairing these with a healthy dip like hummus can make them more appealing.
10. Add Extra Veggies to Soups and Stews
Soups and stews are ideal meals to include more vegetables. Adding a variety of colourful options like carrots, celery and peas into your soups and stews not only enhances the flavour but also boosts the nutritional content of your meal.
Incorporating more vegetables into your diet doesn’t have to be a daunting task. By using these creative methods, you can easily increase your vegetable intake and enjoy the health benefits that come with it. Remember, the key is to make small changes that fit seamlessly into your existing eating habits.
Author: Pedro van Gaalen
When he’s not writing about sport or health and fitness, Pedro is probably out training for his next marathon or ultra-marathon. He’s worked as a fitness professional and as a marketing and comms expert. He now combines his passions in his role as managing editor at Fitness magazine.
Leave a Reply