Sneaking in vegetables

I love vegetables, so don't really think of sneaking them in, but one idea is one-pot meals.

Soup with vegetables seems like it should appeal even to non vegetable lovers, same with stew. Add additional vegetables to a chili. I make a meat sauce for pasta that has a ton of vegetables, depending on what I have on hard (common to start with a base of carrots, celery, onion, common to add peppers and mushrooms, I like to add zucchini and spinach (spinach goes in at the very end) -- not saying put in all these, start with a few to experiment with, and of course there's the base which is tomatoes.

A stirfry is another idea -- rice (or try half cauliflower rice) and pick a meat and sirfry with a bunch of vegetables that seem appealing (I really like broccoli as part of a stirfry).

Pasta -- rather than a meat sauce, it's also easy to start by sauteeing some vegetables in olive oil and then add some meat (shrimp can be delicious) and mix into the pasta with some kind of cheese and maybe some pinenuts. There are millions of possible combinations.

I'd also just keep trying things and different ways of cooking them.

Mention of breakfast reminded me of another one -- omelets. I'm a huge fan of vegetable omelets.

lemurcat2 wrote: »

I love vegetables, so don't really think of sneaking them in, but one idea is one-pot meals.

Soup with vegetables seems like it should appeal even to non vegetable lovers, same with stew. Add additional vegetables to a chili. I make a meat sauce for pasta that has a ton of vegetables, depending on what I have on hard (common to start with a base of carrots, celery, onion, common to add peppers and mushrooms, I like to add zucchini and spinach (spinach goes in at the very end) -- not saying put in all these, start with a few to experiment with, and of course there's the base which is tomatoes.

A stirfry is another idea -- rice (or try half cauliflower rice) and pick a meat and stirfry with a bunch of vegetables that seem appealing (I really like broccoli as part of a stirfry).

Pasta -- rather than a meat sauce, it's also easy to start by sauteeing some vegetables in olive oil and then add some meat (shrimp can be delicious) and mix into the pasta with some kind of cheese and maybe some pinenuts. There are millions of possible combinations.

I'd also just keep trying things and different ways of cooking them.

Lots of good ideas here. I've done all of them when dating men who weren't big on vegetables. They'd mention to others that I was getting them to eat veggies by "sneaking" them in to one pot meals. And they all liked my stir fries.

Also, lots of posters here have said while they don't care for the canned vegetables they grew up with, they do like roasted vegetables, so that's something to try. I love the basic roasted root vegetables - potato, sweet potato, carrot, but will sometimes expand my range by adding in something more exotic like parsnip, rutabaga, or beet. I toss them in a little oil and salt, pepper, and whatever spices strike my fancy and roast until done. Onion cooks a lot faster so when I'm adding that I do it half way. (Or you can add whole peeled shallots like in the recipe below.) If you want to add bell pepper, that should also be added later.

I do them basically like this:

https://www.kcet.org/food/weekend-recipe-perfect-roasted-root-vegetables

But this recipe looks interesting:

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/183620/savory-roasted-root-vegetables/

I mix peas or corn or diced pepper or carrots into rice, barley, or qinoa. Mix zoodles with spaghetti. Mix sautéed greens or cabbage with pasta.

Soups and chili are great for adding veggies. And roasting veggies tossed with garlic and oil.

If you like tomato sauce... 1) that's a veggie and 2) topping other veggies with a little tomato sauce and parmesan cheese is usually yummy.

Also, you can puree some veggies in a blender or food processor and mix them into sauce/gravy/creamy sorts of foods. Good candidates are white beans, winter squash (especially good in mac & cheese, IMO), cauliflower. Puree, mix with the ricotta cheese, layer in lasagna (batch prep lasagna & freeze, if you have freezer space). Mix into cream soups. Putting veggies in a crustless quiche sort of thing is good, and easy (also freezes well).

I like to dice up zucchini, yellow squash, onions, and ocra and stir into my spaghetti sauce. It's not really "sneaky" unless diced really small but still good.
Finely diced broccoli goes great with cheese rice or any rice dish really. I use 10oz bag yellow rice cooked, 4oz sour cream, and 4oz cheddar for this
Also not really sneaky but butternut squash and onion make great enchilada filling. U can use the old El Paso chicken enchilada dinner kits and follow the instructions on the box but sub the butternut squash and onions for the chicken for an easy dinner
If you like oatmeal, shredded zucchini goes well with it without adding much of a flavor change. I think zoats are great with cheese.
I like green bell pepper mixed in with refried black beans.
I know it's technically more fruit than veggies but I've puréed salsa and cooked with it to please picky kids before.