Vegetables can often be ignored completely or, at best, seen as a necessary evil when it comes to our meals. We know we should eat them because they are good for us, but a lot of the time, we don’t like the taste - and that’s especially true for children whose taste buds haven’t yet matured.

However, they are so important that we need to include them in every meal if possible, and the good news is there are a variety of different ways to help you (and anyone else who might have an issue with veggies in your family unit) enjoy vegetables more. With that in mind, keep reading to find out what some of these ideas are so you can put them into practice and become healthier as a result.

Embrace Variety

One of the keys to enjoying vegetables more is to try a lot of different types. Just because you don’t like peas, for example, that doesn’t mean you wouldn’t like butter beans. Just because you don’t like cabbage, that doesn’t mean you would like parsnips. Each vegetable has its own flavour and texture, so it would be hard to realistically say there are absolutely no vegetables that you like, especially when there are over 1,000 different vegetables in existence.

By making sure you keep trying different types of vegetables, you won’t just be eating healthy food, but it could be that you find something you really do enjoy and that you can include in more meals, ensuring you get more goodness into your diet.

Try Different Cooking Methods

How do you cook your vegetables? If you only boil them, as a lot of people do, that could be the reason you’re not enjoying them, so it’s wise to try different cooking methods. Steaming is a great idea, for example, as this tends to keep a lot of the flavours in the veggies. Grilling vegetables gives them a lovely smoky taste and can even bring out their sweetness more. Or you could try cooking them in an air fryer; an air fried Brussels sprouts recipe could be exactly what you need to realise how great vegetables can taste and start to include them in your diet more.

If it’s the texture of vegetables that you don’t like, again, you can try different ways to enjoy them. You could blend them into a soup, use them in a stew, or mix them up with fruit and yogurt or juice to make a smoothie.

Pair Them With Different Food

Some foods just go together and work well, like salt and vinegar, orange and chocolate, and bacon and eggs, for example. The same is true of vegetables; there are some foods that work particularly well with various vegetables, ensuring that all the flavours combine to create a meal you’ll love.

We mentioned Brussels sprouts above, and they work very well with parmesan cheese, for example. Carrots are great with citrus fruits. If you add nuts, whole grains, dried fruits, or salad dressings to your vegetables, it might be that you can turn something you don’t like into something you really do.

Featured