Vegetables Guide (Kickstart Plan)
Whether you’re looking for ways to add more veggies into your daily intake or sneak them into your diet (or your kid’s diet), here are some helpful tips and tricks:
1. Incorporate veggies into every meal
It is possible to get your veggies in at breakfast with 1 pan meals like omelettes, scrambles and hashes or breakfast smoothies. Varying up your vegetable options can bring new flavors and texture to your breakfast each morning. Some of our favorite options for breakfasts include spinach, bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, asparagus, mushrooms and avocado.
2. Undercover Veggies
If you’re looking to lower your carb or calorie intake, swap out grains, bread and noodles with veggies. For those who need more time adjusting to the taste of veggies, mix these into regular rice or noodles and gradually adjust the ratios till you’re eating more veggies than carbs. Here are a few veggie swaps we love.
Bread & Wraps → Use leafy greens like lettuce or collard greens to make wraps
Rice → Try riced cauliflower or broccoli
Noodles and Pasta → Try spiralized vegetables like zucchini, butternut squash, carrots and sweet potatoes for noodles.
Mashed Potatoes → Swap potatoes with cauliflower or mix them in with potatoes.
Tatertots → Make them with riced cauliflower and broccoli or buy them in the frozen aisle.
3. Think Vegetables first and aim for colorful bowls!
Build a color, diverse bowl like this Veggie Bowl with Farro and Egg
Change up your approach to building your plates/bowls. Start with veggies instead of the proteins and carbs. Build a bowl with a few varieties of vegetables and let grains and carbs be your sides instead. Here’s a good formula:
1) Choose a leafy green option - spinach, arugula, spring mix, romaine lettuce, kale, bok choy etc
2) Select a non-leafy vegetable option - brussel sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, beets etc
3) Add a protein
4) Add a grain or starch - brown rice, farro, quinoa, sweet potatoes, butternut squash
5) Finish off with toppings of colorful vegetables - shredded carrots, red cabbage, picked onions, strips of bell peppers, edamame, corn, cherry tomatoes etc. The more colorful your bowl is, the better! See our vegetable color list below for a helpful reference guide.
4. Incorporate Salads into Your Meal Routines
Need to get more veggies in your life? Make one meal a day a salad!
5. Obliterate (I mean blend or puree) your Vegetables
If vegetables aren’t your thing yet, blending them into a fruit smoothie or puree in soup is an easy way to mask the flavor and get those nutrients in. Pureed cauliflower and carrots are a great way to add body to your soup instead of cream. Check out the recipe above for a creamy creamless soup!
For smoothies, try one of these veggie options: spinach, kale, cucumber, ginger. To mask the taste of vegetables, we recommend throwing in some of these delicious fruits – pineapple, mango and bananas.
6. Sneak Your Veggies In
There are multiple ways to sneak your vegetables into your meals if you’re not a fan of them. Blending and mixing them into your current daily foods help cover up the taste and texture of vegetables. Here are some ideas:
Smoothies
Incorporate finely chopped veggies into things like meatloaf, chicken nuggets, pancakes and oatmeal. Good veggie starter options to try are spinach, carrots and zucchini.
Fry or bake them into delicious treats – you’ve heard of carrot cake, make zucchini bread.
Make them the way you make your favorite foods. Instead of fries, try zucchini or asparagus fries. Instead of potato chips, try kale chips. Instead of mashed potato, try mashed cauliflower.