Lots of adults quietly don't like vegetables. The usual advice, "just eat more salad", doesn't help. What helps is changing which vegetables you start with and how you cook them.
🥕 Start with the mildest vegetables
Some vegetables are naturally sweet or neutral. They're the easiest place to start:
Strong-tasting ones like Brussels sprouts, kale or bitter greens can wait. You may never need them.
🔥 Cook them a better way
Roast them
High heat (around 220 °C / 425 °F) with oil and salt caramelizes vegetables and makes them sweet and crispy.
Blend them into sauces
Carrot, zucchini and red pepper disappear into tomato pasta sauce.
Hide them in favourites
Finely grated carrot or zucchini in meatballs, burgers, muffins or fried rice.
Add a dip
Raw carrots and peppers with hummus, ranch or a yogurt dip.
Drink some
A smoothie with banana and a handful of spinach tastes mostly of banana.
Small portions win. A few pieces of vegetable you actually eat beat a full plate you push around. Grow the portion over weeks, not days.
🥗 Easy meals with vegetables built in
- Fried rice with peas, corn and carrots
- Pasta with a blended tomato and vegetable sauce
- Chicken and vegetable soup, blended smooth if you prefer
- Sheet-pan chicken with roasted sweet potato
