Vegetables are a food that we all need to consume. I know, it’s hard. I didn’t eat vegetables as a child, and if I did, it was from a can. Which may be better than anything, but it took some time to appreciate the flavor and health. Vegetables are tough.  I know I had to start out by figuring out how to hide vegetables in other dishes. They can be difficult to cook correctly to give good flavor. If you dislike vegetables or even have a hard time getting kids to eat them, here are some ways to include more in your and your family’s diet. 

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How To Hide Vegetables

The best way to learn how hide a vegetable is to steam and puree it into something that is already flavored well or by consuming a juice. Vegetables can also be hidden in other ways such as the vehicles for sauces or food, or just replacing the extra grains and pastas. 

I don’t think we need to discuss the health benefits of vegetables. I’m not sure anyone would argue with me that they are unnecessary to our health. They have vitamins and nutrients that we all need, plus the extra bonus of antioxidants.  Vegetables have a whole range of nutrients from folate and vitamin K in leafy greens, to vitamin A in carrots, to the fiber in all of it. The vibrant colors of vegetables give us a good indication to their nutrient content. The more colorful, the better.

How to Get Started:

The list of vegetable options range from easy to do, to harder. The best place to start when learning how to hide vegetables and introducing into our diets is to throw them in a smoothie or make juice. You can mix other ingredients in that make a taste less obvious. You can drink it up quick, until you’re ready to tackle another vegetable. 

If you enjoy a certain vegetable, then serve it on the side of another dish. Truly sometimes all the vegetable needs is a little salt, pepper, and butter.

Ideas for How To Hide Vegetables

I’m going to give you options on how to hide vegetables in various ways. There’s example recipes underneath, but then you have an idea of how you can use it to be creative. Or, google “zucchini noodles” and then see what other recipes you can find. 

Smoothies & Juices

The easiest place to start is to hide any leafy green vegetable in a smoothie or juice. You won’t taste it. It’s so easy. I just throw handfuls of spinach in any smoothie I make. You could also use kale or any green. Some people like to add cucumbers or zucchini as well. Did you know pumpkin is a vegetable? That counts too. 

Juicing takes out the fiber in vegetables, but you’ll have the vitamins. Just make sure to get fiber from another source. 

Examples:

• Spinach
• Kale
• Beets
• Steamed carrots
• Butternut squash
• Pumpkin puree
• Avocado (though that might be a fruit? Still healthy.)
• Cucumber

Recipes:

• Healthy Chocolate Peanut Butter Shake
• Pumpkin Pie Smoothie
• Strawberry Banana Beet Smoothie
• 8 Easy Juice Recipes to Get You Started Juicing

 

Sauces & Soups

It’s so easy to learn how to hide vegetables in sauces or soups. Just steam and puree them. Or chop them really small and not notice.

Ideas for Sauces & Soups:

• Blend cauliflower with potatoes for a potato soup

 

• Chop up sweet potatoes to add to chili
• Add chopped zucchini to traditional chicken soup
• Steam and puree a beet into tomato sauce

• Saute spinach or other greens into ANY dish.
• Add steamed broccoli to your mac and cheese or your alfredo sauce

 

Recipes:

• Baked Quinoa Mac and Cheese 
• Veggie Packed Vegan Cheese Sauce 
• Meat Sauce with Hidden Vegetables 
• Cauliflower Chowder

Baked Goods

We’ve all heard of zucchini and carrot muffins and breads. Be careful, though. Those tend to pack a lot of sugar. Find recipes that don’t have refined sugar. Also, some people put kale in cookies?

• Healthy Zucchini Bread
• Carrot Cake Mini Muffins
• Paleo Pumpkin Bars
• Chocolate Chip Kale Cookies

Replacing Grains

This is not to intend to say that all grains are bad, but adding vegetables will increase the nutrient density. And for some for some people, though I don’t recommend, less calories and carbohydrates. It’s basically another easy way to get more vegetables in. We want to get more vegetables in and it doesn’t matter so much how many grains we get in.

• Pancakes 
  • GAPS Intro Pancakes (With Butternut Squash)
  • Red Beet Pancakes
  • Spinach Oatmeal Pancakes

• Buns
  •  How To Make Sweet Potato Buns
  • Use a regular potato for a bun, too
  • Grilled Eggplant Bun Burger

• Noodles
  • Spaghetti Squash
    • How to cook spaghetti squash in the oven
    • Chicken Alfredo Spaghetti Squash
    • Easy Spaghetti Squash Boats
  • Sweet potato noodles
    • Sweet potato noodles with garlic and kale
  • Zucchini noodles
    • Garlic parmesan zoodles
  • Cucumber noodles
    • Cucumber noodles with spicy sesame dressing
  • Carrot noodles
    • Carrot chicken ramen noodles

 

• Rice
  • Cauliflower rice chicken burrito bowls
  • Cilantro lime cauliflower rice
  • Broccoli fried rice with shrimp
• Lasagna
  • Eggplant parmesan lasagna
  • Zucchini lasagna
• Wraps
  • Use a big leaf of lettuce for a taco shell
  • 30 minute enchilada lettuce wraps
  • Chicken lettuce wraps
  • Collard green wraps

Other Ideas

There are countless other ways to learn how to hide vegetables. You can stuff them, throw them in things like pizza, you can use them as a base for any recipe, such as cabbage for stir fry. See ideas below!

• Stuffed veggies
  • Ground Turkey Sweet Potato Stuffed Peppers
  • Sausage and Apple Stuffed Acorn Squash
  • Crock pot chicken taco stuffed sweet potatoes
  • Sloppy joe baked sweet potatoes
  • Spinach and artichoke stuffed mushrooms
  • Stuff a baked potato with literally anything
• Pizza
  • Eggplant pizzas
  • Barbecue chicken pizza with sweet potato crust
  • Top pizza with a chopped leafy green

• Use half veggie/half meat
  • Peppers chopped up in taco meat
  • Steamed broccoli florets in sloppy joes
• Embrace the cauliflower
  • BBQ Cauliflower Wings
  • Honey Garlic Baked Cauliflower

 

• Love the Cabbage
  • Simple Stir Fry
  • BBQ Pork Skillet
  • Unstuffed cabbage roll soup
• Appetizers
  • Spinach Balls
  • Cucumber Bites
  • Rainbow Veggie Pinwheels
  • French onion and proscuitto stuffed mushrooms – My favorite!

 

Question for you:

How do you like to hide vegetables OR how do you like to enjoy them?

Useful Tools For Veggie Hiding

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Fresh Idea: Make sure to get your nutritious vegetables in, even if you have to learn how to hide vegetables!

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