How to Make Vegetables More Appealing

1.  Spice & Sauté 

One brilliant way to enjoy vegetables is to spice them up. Fill them with flavour, don't force yourself to eat 'em bland. For instance, you could chop up green and red peppers, mushrooms and diced onions and add a chopped jalapeno pepper.  Sauté with olive oil, garlic, and herbs of your choice such as basil and thyme. Then enjoy by pouring this little dish on top of freshly cooked rice. A whole lot more appetizing... 

Sautéing your vegetables with herbs and spices will infuse flavour into them and create a delicious aroma too. 

2. Dip them

Another way to make vegetables more appealing is to use a dip or dressing. Many vegetables taste great with dipping sauce, such as carrots or broccoli paired with hummus. All you have to do is wash your vegetables, then you can eat them straight away with a healthy dipping sauce of your choice. Here are some of my favourite choices:

• Tzatziki sauce, which is often made up of strained yoghurt, cucumbers, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, dill and parsley. 
• Homemade ranch sauce, which is essentially a salad dressing made with a combination of garlic, onion, buttermilk, salt, onion and mustard, mixed into a mayonnaise based sauce.
• Lemon-Parmesan sauce - the ingredients are pretty self-explanatory, lemon juice and parmesan cheese along with salt, pepper, olive oil and a pinch of sugar.

There are so many tasty dipping sauces to be discovered. Here is a list of some great ones if you're looking for inspo. 

3. Great in a smoothie

Vegetables taste particularly great in smoothies. You can add mostly fruits to get that special sweetness, and then a handful of green to add even more nutrients. Greens are easier to eat when they're hidden in a tasty smoothie, and honestly, when blended up, you can't really tell! It literally eliminates that bitter taste that usually makes us shy away from vegetables. I discovered this myself a while back.

Kale is fantastic for smoothies as it provides so much protein, and as for fruit, I like green smoothie mixtures with pineapple, orange, blueberries, and even a kick of ginger. 

4. Secrets in the sauce 

I'm a fan of vegetables that are hidden if you can tell from this example and the previous one. It's refreshing simple to sneak in your daily vegetables through sauces that you have with carbs at meal times. For instance, spaghetti bolognese tastes great when you add vegetables like celery, carrots and bell peppers into the bolognese sauce. Just chop them up, throw them in, and let them simmer to bring out the delicious flavours that will compliment the main ingredients of the dish. 

Meals that are quite saucy in nature are perfect for this technique - think curries, casseroles and soups too. Sneaking vegetables in is not that much extra effort, and it helps adults and children alike to eat healthier. 

5. A side of veggies 

Another way to psychologically make vegetables more appealing is to have them as a side when you're eating your favourite comfort foods, like pizza and burgers. Adding a side of sweetcorn and peas or fresh iceberg lettuce to these meals shouldn't be that difficult because the main dish is already one you love. In fact, adding a side of vegetables is a way to achieve a bit more balance and you'll feel better about yourself even on those 'cheat days'.

For a healthier change, you could swap your usual side of fries with a side of veggies. If you're feeling adventurous you could even make your own vegetable-based fries using ingredients like turnips, sweet potatoes or butternut squash. The meal will still be satisfying, but you'll be getting your veggies in too.

6. A little experiment 

The best way to make vegetables more appealing is to find out what vegetables you like best and how you like them. This might simply mean exposure to more vegetables and trying out recipes that show you fun and unusual ways to  prepare them.

When you try out different cooking methods and recipes, you'll discover whether you like a certain vegetable eaten raw, boiled or roasted, for example. Varying your vegetable choices will definitely make your meal times more interesting, it doesn't have to be Brussels sprouts every day ;) (unless that's your thing). 

Trying to choose what vegetables to cook up? Here is a cool list of 56 of the most common vegetables as well as their nutrition profiles, so you can check out the benefits of your favourite veggies as well as new ones you want to try. 

Thanks for reading! How do you make vegetables more appealing in your diet? Comment below!

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