How To Get More Veggies Into Your Diet

How To Get More Veggies Into Your Diet

The importance of eating a nutritious and balanced diet is well known and one of the best ways to fortify your diet with additional goodness is to bolster up your veg intake. Vegetables contain a whole raft of vitamins and minerals and a veg-rich diet can help reduce blood pressure, lower the risk of heart disease, and improve gut health to name just a few benefits. So if you are looking to overhaul your health and get more veg into your daily diet here are some ways you can do it.

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Sumptuous smoothies

Smoothies can be a great way to get extra fruit and veg into your diet. Typically a smoothie is made by combining fruits with water and or yogurt and ice. However, vegetables can make a great addition to a smoothie without compromising on taste. Vegetables that work particularly well in smoothies are cucumber, spinach, celery, and kale. 

Veg up the classics

How often will you eat a spaghetti bolognese, chili con carne, or jambalaya? Chances are these sorts of meals form staple parts of your diet but you probably only add one or maybe two vegetables at most? These sorts of dishes, together with curries, casseroles, and stews are the perfect base for overloading vegetables. Vegetables such as carrots, celery, zucchini, peppers, and mushrooms all work really well in these types of dishes and not only boost your veg intake but help to substantiate your meal leaving you fuller for longer.  

Snack right

Instead of reaching for that granola bar or trail mix for your mid-morning snack why not substitute it with some fresh veg? Carrot sticks, cucumber, and celery sticks make for a great snack, which can be topped off nicely by dipping in hummus. 

Sneak into sauces

When you are cooking a sauce for your pasta or rice dish ask yourself if you can add veg to it? A great way to sneak in extra veggies is to grate the veg and add it directly to the sauce. This is a particularly useful trick when trying to get more vegetables into veggie adverse children. Grated carrots and zucchini are great for sneaking into sauces. 

Replace noodles, spaghetti, and rice

If you are looking to maximize your veg intake and lower your carb consumption simultaneously then this is the best way to do it. Replace your rice for cauliflower rice, spaghetti for spiralized squash, and your noodles for zucchini.

Think about your portions

When you are serving your meals think about what makes up your plate. What is the ratio of protein, carb, and veg? Try to make at least 50% of your plate to be comprised of vegetables. 

Frozen veg is just as good

When it comes to your veg there is no such thing as bad veg. To ensure that you are always able to fill your plate with vegetables keep a good supply of frozen veg in your freezer. That way should you be out of fresh veg then you will always have frozen veg to fall back on.