V is for Veg-tastic

Getting your family to eat to all their vegetables isn’t always the easiest task. If it isn’t the kids kicking up a fuss then it’s the adults who still won’t eat the peas you serve with Sunday dinner.

We all know by now that vegetables are a hugely important part of our diet. They are chock full of vitamins, nutrients and all sorts of goodness that keeps us going. While we’d all love our veggies to taste like chocolate, sadly this is a pipe dream so we have to eat them as they are.

Luckily, there are a lot more interesting ways to eat your greens than simply boiling or steaming them, which can actually make them more delicious – that’s right, you could actually find yourself liking sprouts! There are also a few tricks you can use to hide veggies from big and little kids so they won’t even know they’re eating them.

To help you get more vegetables in your diet without having to resort to kale smoothies, here are some more fantastic Tefalphabet tips to try out in your kitchen:

Everybody loves a good dollop of buttery mashed potatoes, whether your topping a cottage pie or serving it up with sausages and gravy. But who said that mash only needs to be made out of potatoes?

Try boiling up some other veggies and adding them to your potatoes to include more nutrients and make it a bit heavier. Things like swede and sweet potatoes work really well and add a delicious flavour your family is sure to love.

You can even get rid of the potatoes completely by giving mashed parsnips or cauliflower a try. Simply season like you would your standard mash and you’re good to go!

Pasta and noodles are pretty much kitchen cupboard staples as they can be whipped up into a huge number of meals. However, they’re also pretty starchy and aren’t a great replacement for your greens.

Try swapping them out for veggie noodles to ensure your meals pack a healthier punch. You can turn so many different vegetables into noodles or spaghetti, including butternut squash, carrots, sweet potato, courgette and pumpkin.

Not only is it quick and easy to do – you can use a spiraliser to make spaghetti and noodles or just a vegetable peeler for ribbons – it also takes no time to cook them, which means they don’t lose a lot of their nutrients.

One of the quickest and easiest ways to sneak in more vegetables without your family thinking twice – hopefully – is to simply add them to sauces. Cutting your veggies up finely and just adding them to sauce as it cooks means they’ll soak up plenty of flavour and add more substance to a meal.

From pasta, to stews and curries, basically any sauce has room for some greens. Try stirring some spinach into your chicken tikka, adding broccoli to your pasta bake or throwing absolutely everything you have into a casserole. If your family likes the meal usually, they probably won’t even notice.

Even if people aren’t hungry for vegetables, there’s a pretty good chance they’ll be hungry for cake. Who can say no to a gooey chocolate brownie or a light and sweet cupcake?

Sadly, cakes aren’t the healthiest things on the money so living off of them alone is probably not a good idea. You can make them healthier, though, by trying a veggie cake recipe, which swaps out some of your standard ingredients for nutrient-packed vegetables.

There are loads of different options but courgette cupcakes, sweet potato brownies, and carrot cake are great places to start, especially as they are super easy. We’re not saying they’re as healthy as eating the veggies on their own, but it’s a start!

To find out what other great ideas we have that you can use in the kitchen, check out the other letters in our Tefalphabet.