Our Hope Drive community offers these tips on how to sneak more vegetables into every meals – especially if you’re cooking for picky eaters!

New research from Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report shows that 90 per cent of Australians aren’t eating enough vegetables. So, if you need to get creative, below are some ideas from Hope Drive listeners on how to sneak more vegetables into meals – especially if you’re cooking for picky eaters!

Winter is homemade soups and added legumes etc. to sauces and casseroles. Summer is salads – so many to try! – Rosemary

Mac & Cheese – Toss in 1 cup frozen vegetables and take 1/4 cup water out of the liquid measurement. – Adam

I make zucchini slice so zucchinis, carrots, mushrooms, corn. – Jacinta

Fabulous salads with lots of variety including diced salsa style, roasted veggies, tray bakes etc. They don’t all have to have lettuce. – Elissa

Veggies for breakfast – steam coleslaw, brussels and kale. Air fry sweet potatoes for snacks. Soups with any veggies for lunch. chickpea, lentil or bean stir fries, curries and/or burgers for dinner. – Larissa

Add grated carrot/zucchini/parsnip to lasagna/spaghetti sauce, Casseroles with heaps of veg added. – Fiona

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We get a fruit and veg box every week so we have to use up all the veggies before the new box arrives so we add veggies to everything. We often do baked dinners too so use lots of veg then. – Jess

I eat kale coleslaw for dinner. – Madan

Shepherd’s Pie. – Adam

Roast them and then you can purée them with other things like chickpeas and turn them into dips. – Kat

Fry zucchini in a knob of butter and a blob of garlic! Stir fry green beans in olive oil towards end blob of garlic and dash of sesame oil. Roast sweet potato, pumpkin, beetroot and carrot – with salt, pepper, olive oil, whole cloves of garlic and some rosemary. – Mieke

I sauté my green beans and zucchini with garlic salt. It changed my perception of veggies! – Crystal

Brussel sprouts – peel leaves off, in oven with maple syrup, serve with a pureed vegetable soup (that has a few Brussel sprouts in, with carrot, pumpkin, ginger etc.) – Lisabeth

Add kale and celery to fruit and juice them in a Nutri Bullet. You will hardly notice! – Maree

A person I know got very creative when his grandkids came over, they loved his fried rice, so he chopped up lots of veggies very finely & added them into his fried rice. – Chris

For little ones a grater goes a long way… always added carrot and zucchini to meatballs and Bolognese. – Kathrine

For picky eaters: Use a stick blender to disguise carrots and celery etc in the tomato/onion sauce to make Spag Bol. – Joyful

Hide them in soup or bolognaise – the only way my late husband would ever eat carrot. – Angela

Passata can hide all sorts of veggies – carrot, zucchini, onion/leek, eggplant, fennel, mushroom – and looks pretty with green peas thrown in at the end. – Michelle

I changed to being Vegan five years ago, so had to search up new ways to cook my veggies. There are so many amazing recipes out there. Search up vegan food and you will have veggies in abundance and cooked with so much flavour. – Vesna

Replace mince with chickpeas and lentils and season well! – Wayne

Instead of pasta or rice have salad and vegetables. – Sheree

Fresh vegies always taste good, use what is in season that way it’s at its best and much more economical. – Jasmine

Keep them in a ‘Swag’, keeps them fresh for much longer. – Sylvia

Veggies DO taste good, but you have to retrain your taste buds by cutting out overly salted and sugared processed foods. This is what I discovered after seeing a dietitian and having to up my veg intake. – Elizabeth

You can join the Hope Drive conversations every weekday between 3pm and 7pm, online, via our app, or over on our Facebook.

Feature image: Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash 

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In today's world real hope is hard to find. That's why Hope 103.2 exists: to bring the message of hope to our community through a family-friendly, safe listening environment.

We won't be quick to criticise or condemn. And we won't play on people's fears. Hope 103.2 will be ready to celebrate what's good in society and culture.

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