How to Enjoy Vegetables Better

Besides the great taste of meals you make with vegetables, you also get some incredible health benefits from consuming them, as they are rich in nutrients and antioxidants that can boost your health and combat disease. Vegetables are also beneficial for weight management due to their low-calorie content.

Because some people find vegetables uninteresting, it`d be great to explore some creative ideas to encourage yourself to consume more veggies. Keep reading to find out!

15 Ways to Enjoy your Veggies

Veggie-Based Soups

Soups are a sure way to consume lots of vegetables. You can make broccoli spinach quinoa soup to increase your intake of fiber, vitamins, and minerals. You can also try:

• Ribollita
• Kitchen sink soup
• Green papaya fish soup
• Kale, tomato, and white bean soup

Zucchini Lasagna

Here is another creative way to eat more veggies. You can try pasta-free zucchini lasagna. It`s a super nutritious meal that you can make by layering lasagna noodles with sauce, meat, and cheese. It’s super tasty and high in carbs. If you want it to have lower carb content, you may replace the lasagna noodles with strips of zucchini. Zucchini is a particularly rich source of B vitamins, vitamin C, fiber, and trace minerals.

Veggie Noodles

Besides being easy to make, veggie noodles are a great way to incorporate more veggies into your diet. They contain low carbs, hence can serve as an excellent substitute for high carb foods.

Add Veggies to your Sauces

Try adding extra vegetables to your sauces and dressings to increase your veggie intake. This particularly works great for picky children. If you’re cooking sauces such as marinara sauce, you may add some veggies and herbs to the mix. Chopped onions, bell peppers, carrots, and leafy greens like spinach will work perfectly in this mix.

Cauliflower Pizza Crust

Cauliflower is quite versatile, as you can add it to rice it, make it into a pizza crust, roast it, stick it in a stew, or puree it. You can substitute a regular, flour-based pizza crust with a cauliflower crust. You could try combining finely chopped and drained cauliflower with almond flour, eggs, and some seasonings. You can even get creative by adding your own toppings, such as tomato sauce fresh veggies, and cheese.

Did you know that a cup of cauliflower contains just 5 grams of carbs and 26 calories? Yes, and that`s in addition to its vitamin, fiber, mineral, and antioxidant content.

Blend into Smoothies

Smoothies serve a delightful snack or even breakfast. Green smoothies are particularly packed with nutrients, especially when you add some leafy greens to them.

So you`ve only got to combine fruit with milk, ice, and water, blend it all, and add some veggies for the most nourishing and tasty experience ever.

Frozen zucchini, beets, avocado, pumpkin, and sweet potatoes are great in blended smoothies. You should try these sumptuous combos.

Did you know that a cup of spinach contains more than a day’s requirement of vitamin K and half of the recommended amount of vitamin A for a day`s consumption? Now you know! Act on it.

Add Veggies to Casseroles

Adding extra veggies in casseroles is a sure way to increase your veggie intake. Besides adding bulk and texture, they also add taste in more amazing ways than you can imagine.

Casseroles blend well in meats, cheese, potatoes, and vegetables. You can also have them with rice or pasta. Traditional casseroles are unarguably high in calories and refined carbs. You can reduce calories and carbs in your casseroles by using veggies instead of grains. Some of the best veggies for this meal are mushrooms, celery, carrots, or broccoli.

Veggie Omelet

Are omelets and veggies not such a great combination? Here`s how to prepare this super-nutritious meal in a few minutes:

• Pour some beaten eggs in a pan with a small amount of butter or oil.
• Fold the eggs around a filling of vegetables, meat, and cheese.

There`s a wide range of veggies that can work with: spinach, mushrooms, bell peppers, onions, scallions, tomatoes, and bok choy all work fine. You may try any of these omelets:

• Moringa omelet
• Vegan chickpea omelet
• Spinach, goat cheese, and chorizo omelet
• Waffle omelet with tomatoes and peppers

Savory Oatmeal

You sure can enrich your oatmeal with some veggies. Mushrooms and kale in your oatmeal will give you a hearty and warm meal, as they are high in protein, vitamin D, and vitamin B12.

Lettuce Wrap or Veggie Bun

Lettuce wraps are not only rich, but a sure way to consume more veggies. You can also use them to make low-carb sandwiches and bunless burgers.

Did you know that some other types of veggies such as sliced sweet potatoes, portobello mushroom caps, tomato halves, halved red or yellow peppers, and sliced eggplant can make excellent buns? You should try them!

Grill Veggie Kebabs

Veggie kebabs are packed with nutrients and flavor. To enjoy this delight, put any chopped veggies of your choice on a skewer and cook on a grill. Onions, mushrooms, zucchini, bell peppers, and tomatoes work well for kebabs.

Veggie Burger

Thinking of a replacement for heavier meat burgers? Try veggie burgers, as they are more nutritious with their vegetable content.

You can make them by combining vegetables with nuts, eggs, nut flours, and seasonings. You may also add sweet potatoes and black beans to your veggie burgers.

Add Veggies to your Tuna Salad

You probably didn`t know that you can add chopped vegetables to your tuna salad to increase the flavor and nutrient content. Some of the common additions are cucumber, spinach, onions, carrots, herbs, grapes, red peppers, artichokes, tomatoes, olives, shallots, and parsley.

Add Veggies to Guacamole

You can make this avocado-based dip by mashing ripe avocados and sea salt with garlic, lemon, or lime juice, and additional seasonings. But that`s not all.

There are some vegetables that you can add to your guacamole to have a wholesome meal. Bell peppers, tomatoes, garlic, and onions are some healthy options for your guacamole.

Blend Veggies with Meatloaf

You can make your meatloaf veggie-rich. Yeah, make your meatloaf beyond the regular combo of ground meat, breadcrumbs, eggs, and tomato sauce. Why not add some chopped vegetables to your meatloaf? Try some bell peppers, spinach carrots, onions, and zucchini.

Ever heard of a fully veggie-based meatloaf? Sounds funny, right? Well, sounds nutritious too, you know? You only need to use carrots, onions, chickpeas, and celery. Chickpeas are a healthy replacement for meat.

Vegetable Facts you Should Know

• Bell peppers are usually sold green, however, they can also be purple, red, or yellow.
• Most of the nutrients in a potato are right below the skin layer.
• Did you know that a hornworm can eat an entire tomato plant by itself in just a day?
• They consume more tomatoes in the United States than they do any other fruit or vegetable.
• Tomatoes are high in the carotenoid called lycopene; regular consumption of foods with carotenoids can lower your risk of cancer.
• Other vegetables that are high in carotenoids include spinach, sweet potatoes, carrots, and collard greens.

Now that you Know…

You can remake loads of your meals by adding vegetables to them. As you have seen, there are so many ways to add vegetables to everyday meals. Besides adding color to your meals, they also add flavor and enrich your body immensely. Who knew veggies were this versatile? Well, now you know! Making veggies a regular part of your food consumption means that your consumption of fiber and antioxidants will increase drastically.