Meal examples for someone who struggles to eat vegetables

FiliMillz

Hey guys, would just like to know what examples of meals do people eat who struggle with eating vegetables? Any recipes would be welcomed

lynn_glenmont

Do you want meals/recipes that disguise the vegetables and/or prepare them in ways that might be more palatable, or are you looking for meals/recipes that don't have any vegetables in them?

Can you provide any more details on "struggling" to eat vegetables? Are there any veggies you (or your friend, if "asking for a friend") like, and in what ways do you/they like them?

You will get better answers if you provide more parameters on what the problem is.

iowalinda

I try to bulk up my meals with veggies. An example is adding broccoli to spaghetti or mashed carrots to mashed potatoes.

lorrpb

I add chunked up squash to pasta sauce and chili, but I don’t struggle to eat veggies. Vegetable soup. Zoodles. Roasted veggies are good too and are a different flavor profile than traditional preparations. Not sure if these suggestions address your issue.

FiliMillz

Apologies lynn, So basically I'm not the biggest fan of vegetables, I dont enjoy them..taste or texture. I am more than happy to try disguise them in other foods or even prepare them so that they are more appealing. At the moment blending is proving to be the only way to consume them for me but would like to try any helpful meals/recipes

Thanks for all the input guys, appreciate it!

RAinWA

Roasting is my go to for all vegetables (my husband is picky about veggies and even he will eat most of them roasted).

There are about a gazillion ways to prepare veggies. Start with the ones you do like and try different preparations and then start adding in different vegetables.

corinasue1143

I make a soup. Caremellized onions, cause I love them, hamburger meat cause it makes good broth, releases a lot of flavor, some veggies that sound good. You can add a little potato and/or corn if that’s what you like. I like green beans, carrots, peas. Sometimes I add leftovers, like a few pinto beans, or half a leftover sweet potato. Enough water to cover and salt to taste. It all ends up mostly tasting like beef and onions.
ETA. Simmer a while. Better the second or third day.

lynn_glenmont

FiliMillz wrote: »

Apologies lynn, So basically I'm not the biggest fan of vegetables, I dont enjoy them..taste or texture. I am more than happy to try disguise them in other foods or even prepare them so that they are more appealing. At the moment blending is proving to be the only way to consume them for me but would like to try any helpful meals/recipes

Thanks for all the input guys, appreciate it!

Thanks for the explanation. I think people have already covered a lot of approaches to this, so some of these may be repeats:

1) in pasta sauce (either tomato-based or fat-based): winter or summer squash, spinach and other green leafy veggies, carrots, beets. Since you have texture issues, I would recommend pureeing as opposed to grating or shredding

2) in macaroni and cheese (similar to the pasta sauce in terms of pureeing and mixing into the cheese sauce, but I would recommend cauliflower, sweet potatoes, or winter squash) (I prefer it baked, and I think the veggies disappear better if you bake it, rather than just stirring the cooked pasta into the cheese sauce). This approach should work for any kind of "saucy" casserole.

3) soups -- pureed vegetables (winter squash, white or sweet potatoes, carrots), thinned with chicken broth. If you find you don't like the flavor, you could try seasoning with ginger/nutmeg/cloves/allspice/cinnamon, to get a pumpkin-spice flavor going, or with chili powder/cumin/ground chipotle/hot sauce/lime juice, or melting cheese into the soup.

4) hot cereal (oatmeal or other) - I like pumpkin (you can buy it canned; I get the kind that it is just pumpkin, but if you could try the kind that has stuff added for pumpkin filling), but other winter squashes would work as well. Cook and puree if using fresh or frozen, then stir into your cereal. Add fruit, cinnamon if you like, and whatever sweetener you prefer if you need to cover the flavor of the veggies

5) savory cooked grains or mashed potatoes -- I like peas, but given your texture issues, you might have to puree and sieve. For vegetables that puree more easily, look to carrots, turnips, parsnips, and winter squash

6) smoothies -- if you have a good blender (I use an immersion blender), you can make a good handful of leafy greens like spinach nearly disappear in a fruit smoothie. You'll have to try it to see if the small bits of green cause texture issues for you. I've also used frozen roasted beets and avocado in smoothies, and they just give you a creamy, thick texture. If fruit isn't enough to cover the flavor of the veggies, you could try nut butter and/or chocolate.

7) baked goods -- Grated carrots and zucchini (courgettes) in frosted layer cakes, tea breads (loaf cakes raised with baking powder or soda, generally not iced), muffins (like cupcakes/fairy cakes, but usually denser and darker). You could try parsnips or rutabagas in recipes that call for carrots.

BelleRequin

Are there any you like? Are you trying to increase for the micronutrients or the fibre? Depending on the macros you want, you might be able to get many of the micros from fruit and fibre from nuts/seeds.

There's a lot of vegetables I don't like. But I do love bell peppers, onions, tomatoes and carrots- they go in a soup with ground beef and a lot of chipotle and cumin, and I get 100% of vit C & A in one serving. I don't like brocolli- but I tolerate it pureed with sautéed red pepper and onion in a cream soup with cheese. Sweet potatoes can be a great alternative to normal potatoes- I much prefer them with garlic and basil than with cinnamon related spices.

And avocado can hide really well in a smoothie, so long as you're using a blender. Spinach can be harder to hide, but personally, I think the flavour works well with mango; though with enough cocoa you can hide it too. But, pumpkin is also a vegetable, and I do like it with cream cheese, cottage cheese, stevia and cinnamon in a smoothie- it's a lot like a pumpkin cheesecake smoothie then.

acpgee

Things I do to hide vegetables for children (and grown up children, I guess)

Vegetable fritters
https://www.taste.com.au/recipes/zucchini-pea-mint-fritters/27a27e0c-8adb-44b3-9f85-f65bb77357c7

Bolognaise sauce with diced onion, carrots and celery which you won't notice because of the meat.
https://leitesculinaria.com/84057/recipes-marcella-hazan-bolognese-sauce.html

Vegetable lasagna
https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/ratatouille_lasagne_28209

If you haven't tried roasting vegetables, you might like that better than boiling or steaming
https://www.thekitchn.com/roasted-vegetable-cheat-sheet-265019
https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/harissa-and-maple-roasted-carrots

Also stir frying vegetables is nicer than boiling or steaming. Stir frying veg with meat, Chinese style is a good way to consume more veg and stretch meat.
https://omnivorescookbook.com/szechuan-dry-fried-green-beans/
https://thewoksoflife.com/chicken-snow-peas-stir-fry/

Also google bruschetta and pan amb tomaquet for some uses of fresh tomato that I can't imagine a vegetable hater would object to.

acpgee

This is a vegetable side that I have successfully fed to vegetable haters. It's my mother's frozen pea side designed to go well with asian food.

Heat up a tablespoon of butter. Throw in 1-2 clove of minced, pressed, or grated garlic. When the garlic starts to colour throw in 1-2 large handfuls of frozen peas. The smaller and younger the better. Add a large pinch of salt and a tiny pinch of sugar. Serve when peas are fully defrosted and warmed through. Peas should remain bright green.

Kupla71

I chop up a whole bunch of spinach and cook it in my pasta sauce. It reduces so much it practically disintegrates.

ponycyndi

I eat baby food, lol. For realz though, they have it blended so smooth and sweet tasting, and it comes in a pouch with a straw so it's a great snack four when I'm on the go. And there are endless combinations of different fruits and veggies.

corinasue1143

Zucchini tots. Zucchini is mild tasting and easy to hide the taste.
Grate zucchini, press out all the juice you can. Add an egg, your favorite seasoned bread crumbs (I like stove top stuffing in the blender a minute) and a little bit of mozzarella. Either bake in mini muffin pans at high heat, or make into patties and fry til very crispy. They are crispy like a tater tot on the outside, cheesy on the inside, hardly notice the zucchini.

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suzesvelte

corinasue1143 wrote: »

Zucchini tots. Zucchini is mild tasting and easy to hide the taste.
Grate zucchini, press out all the juice you can. Add an egg, your favorite seasoned bread crumbs (I like stove top stuffing in the blender a minute) and a little bit of mozzarella. Either bake in mini muffin pans at high heat, or make into patties and fry til very crispy. They are crispy like a tater tot on the outside, cheesy on the inside, hardly notice the zucchini.

This reminded me that one of my current fave meatballs is a recipe made with 500g turkey thigh mince and 200g of courgette (Zuzzhini) with an egg and some herbs/seasonings etc - it's amazing how the veg blends in and adds bulk to the meatball without really being noticeable.