Adding variety to side dishes at dinner

Francl27

Lounmoun wrote: »

http://www.persnicketyplates.com/buffalo-cauliflower/
http://www.ciaochowbambina.com/sweet-potato-fritters-sriracha-mayo/
http://www.melskitchencafe.com/summer-corn-salad/#_a5y_p=3883902
http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2009/01/recipe-for-roasted-green-beans-with.html
http://www.pipandebby.com/pip-ebby/2015/4/7/sauteed-cabbage.html

I'm drooling over the sweet potato fritters.

OyGeeBiv

Your list of starches is all white. Try sweet potatoes (orange or purple), red lentils, and tri-colored pasta. Replace white bread and rolls with whole grain something, or bread made with vegetables - zucchini, carrot, cornbread. Most supermarkets have really good breads in the fresh bakery department.

My kids have always loved raw veggies. I eventually stopped making salads most of the time and just put out a large platter of cut up veggies at dinnertime. Carrots, celery, grape tomatoes, snow peas, sliced jicama, cucumber, broccoli, cauliflower, canned olives, radishes.

For cooked veggies, my go-to easy one was glazed carrots. Or steamed broccoli & cauliflower with cheese sauce.

cessi0909

Have not yet read all the responses but we also have sweet potatoes, quinoa salads and sometimes wild rice mixes.
We are also big into roasting veggies! My kids (5, 7, 17) love when I buy heirloom carrots and/tomatoes or anything that's a new color

Iguessicandothis

Recently I had some leftover roasted cauliflower (I had roasted it with garlic, olive oil and a bit of Parmesan cheese) that I didn't feel like eating again, so I threw it into my mashed potatoes. Whipped together, I couldn't even tell there was cauliflower in there, and the extra seasoning made them taste great!

robot_potato

We do roasted veg with different spices, my kids will not eat peppers, onion or asparagus (which I love), but anything else is fair game. Our go to is rosemary and fresh pepper with olive oil. We also do fresh veg with dip, or build your own salad, which I like for my kids. We set up a variety of ingredients, adults eat everything, and kids have to pick at least 2 veg. My 10 year old goes for tomato and avocado, 7 year old likes lettuce/spinach and cucumber.

jarelary4

My kids ages 12 and 9 love baked broccoli. I take a bag of frozen broccoli and a packet of ranch dressing mix and toss them together while the broccoli is frozen. Then spread on a greased baking sheet and put in oven on 425 degrees until browned and a little crisp looking. Very yummy!

DanaLark

Basically...how do you roast veggies? I know this sounds dumb but I always just steam them so it is getting boring. I hate mushy veggies so tell me how to do it without it getting soggy please.

Jbell0213

My favorite side veggie is frozen green beans cooked with chopped sun dried tomatoes and some pine nuts. Really good.

OyGeeBiv

DanaLark wrote: »

Basically...how do you roast veggies? I know this sounds dumb but I always just steam them so it is getting boring. I hate mushy veggies so tell me how to do it without it getting soggy please.

Oh you're in for a treat! Basic recipe is to preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Wash and dry your vegetables (best if they're washed way ahead of time so they're really dry). Cut the veg into chunks if necessary. Toss in a bowl with a little olive oil and some kosher salt. Place the oiled veg in a single layer on a baking sheet or roasting pan (I like to line the pan with parchment paper for easy clean-up). Roast for about 15 minutes, until cooked through and a little crispy. Turn veg half way through if you want.

Vary this by adding herbs and spices if you want. You can also do it at lower temp for longer time (for instance if you're roasting a chicken at 350 degrees, you can roast the veg at the same time), but they get crispy best at a high temp.

Try this with broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes, Brussels sprouts, beets, carrots, etc. Asparagus takes less time but is wonderful when roasted.

For a real treat, roast garlic. YUMMMM. Take a whole head of garlic and cut off the top including a little bit of each clove. Drizzle with olive oil. Wrap the whole thing in aluminum foil, and roast. The garlic becomes soft. You squeeze out each clove of garlic and can spread it on bread. Did I mention YUMMMMMM? <fanning myself> Or you can use roasted garlic as an ingredient in many dishes (try it with homemade hummus!)

WinoGelato

Good post OP, I'm always looking for new suggestions! I have 4 and 7 year old boys and am not the most adventurous eater myself. We do a lot of mashed potatoes, noodles, orzo and rice for starches (I use the bags of pasta roni or ready rice quite often) and then frozen veggies when I need something quick. My kids eat raw carrots and sugar snap peas and most of the time they will eat them cooked as well. They love edamame, which surprised me.

I wish I had some great recipes that everyone loved, a lot of times I make separate components (leave the sauce off and don't mix things together for the kids) and try to serve them most of what we are eating but it's a miss more often than a hit. I have had good luck with red coconut curry chicken in peanut sauce.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sandra-lee/chicken-with-peanut-curry-sauce-recipe.html

mochapygmy

Everyone posted such great ideas.

Don't be afraid of brussel sprouts. I keep bacon frozen just for when I make roasted brussel sprouts and I eat the whole pound myself. Yum!

You can also check out making fried rice from cauliflower and using shredded cauliflower as a pizza crust. I have yet to try these but have heard they are amazing.

I also love kale and there are tasty green bean and kale recipes.

I also really like jicama raw with some spice and wee bit of salt. Really quick to peel and chop but it isn't quite jicama season yet.

Oh roasted parsnips! Roasted fennel/anise which mellows out so nicely. Basically almost all veg is better roasted

Someone mentioned varying the spices but also search for veggie recipes from other countries to really mix things up.

Elaine352962

Fabulous ideas on here, will definitely try them.

gramarye

Thanks again, everyone! Hopefully the next month will be full of more experimentation.