How to Sneak More Vegetables Into Your Food (Without Even Noticing!)

Everyone knows the importance of incorporating more vegetables into their diets. Between the government’s campaigns to encourage people to eat their “five a day” to frequent studies demonstrating the health benefits of vegetables, one thing is clear: just about all of us could use more vegetables on our diet. Diets containing plenty of vegetables (and fruit) may reduce risk of cancer, contain essential vitamins and minerals, and may protect against heart disease and stroke.

However, despite it being widely known just how beneficial vegetables are, the vast majority of Americans don’t eat their share of vegetables (in a study between 1999 and 2002, only two-thirds of participants met daily recommendations!). Maybe it’s out of habit, or not knowing how to prepare them and having the fear of the new or unknown. Maybe they dislike of the taste or simply have fussy little ones. Whatever the reason, don’t fear! We’re here with a guide to help you sneak more vegetables into your food without even noticing!

Stir Veggies Into Pasta Sauce 

Pasta sauce doesn’t have to be just tomatoes and herbs! Try sneaking some zucchini, carrots, broccoli and mushrooms into it. When heating up tomato sauce (or making it from scratch), just add some chopped vegetables to the sauce and cook until they’re done. Check out How to Make Fresh Marinara Sauce.

Bid Farewell to Your Regular Mashed Potatoes

Plain mashed potatoes are so 2013. Add cauliflower or turnip instead of just the spuds. Or for extra nutrients, add some color! Make it Irish-style and add kale to make colcannon. Or, try mashed sweet potatoes and carrots and leave out the white potato altogether.

Plan a Dinner That Stars Veggies

Here’s a meal makeover for you: Replace a burger with one made out of vegetables! Instead of having fries with it, bake wedges of sweet potatoes and turnips, or you can make fries out of eggplant slices! When you put fries of any kind of the table, we know hungry eaters will reach for them, whether they’re made from potatoes or chickpeas.

Add Spinach to Soup 

Spinach makes a great green addition to most soups – it cooks down, so you can add in a lot of it and it will wilt down to a much smaller quantity in your soup. Combined with tasty ingredients like beans and root veggies, you may hardly notice the spinach is there.

“Beef Up” Chili

Next time you’re making chili, why not try add some extra vegetables into it? Add sweet potatoes, zucchini and carrots; don’t just stop at the celery and tomatoes.

Transform Veggies Into Cheese 

This is the ‘sneakiest’ one of all … Make a cheese sauce for pasta or nachos out of zucchini, cauliflower or even eggplant! You won’t be able to stop eating the cheesy goodness and you won’t even notice you’re eating a vegetable-based sauce.

Prepare Vegetables in a Different Way

Last but not least … this isn’t really a way of sneaking vegetables in, but if you (or your kids) aren’t a fan of vegetables, try preparing them in a different way than how you normally make them! Make sure, whatever you do, that you get your hands on the highest quality vegetables you can find and afford! Buy local and organic, if possible. Then, prepare them in a different way. Instead of boiling vegetables, for example, try them: raw, steamed, sautéd, roasted or grilled. Brussels sprouts, for example, might be the quintessential foodstuff of people’s nightmares, but they taste completely different when roasted as compared to steamed or boiled. Go on, try them oven-roasted! You might just find you love brussels sprouts after all…

Image source: How to Stay Satiated on a Plant-Based Diet