Smart Ways to Sneak Vegetables in Your Child's Food

The struggle to make your children eat vegetables, especially vegetables that are not potatoes, is perhaps the biggest struggle parents face, in terms of their child’s nutrition. Vegetables are an integral part of a well-balanced diet, something which is very necessary for healthy and timely growth in children. Often, these vegetables carry nutrients that cannot be easily substituted. Since they cannot be easily substituted, they become irreplaceable in a child’s diet for appropriate growth.Most of the children hate eating vegetables. There are many reasons why a child may not like vegetables, maybe they don’t like the taste, maybe they don’t like the texture, maybe they don’t like the way it is cooked or seasoned. Regardless, vegetables are important and parents try to feed their children vegetables whatever way they can. Sneaking vegetables in the foods that they like is one of the best ways to make them eat vegetables. They may not like certain vegetables on their own, but when you try to add veggies to their favourite dishes in the cooking process, they might give it a try and even like it.Every mom wants to feed her child the healthiest and most nutritious foods. Making your child eat fruits and vegetables can be a Herculean task, as they are fussy eaters. Children love their junk food, but mothers have to make sure that they have healthy meals. It is not impossible to set a healthy diet for your children, but it does require consistency, persuasion and support from the other family members as well. Children generally refuse to eat their vegetables in the way they are usually served, which is why moms need to get creative to make dinner hassle-free for their kids.A big reason children why children may not like certain veggies is because maybe they don’t like the way they are traditionally cooked. So try switching up the way you cook and serve certain veggies. A lot of children hate broccoli, but that may be because broccoli is often served to children boiled as parents think that is the only way to retain most of its nutrients. But other ways of cooking broccoli retains its nutritional integrity as well. Maybe sautè the broccoli with a few other veggies the child likes in a sauce, or even add to a portion of pasta. Even roasting broccoli is a good way to enhance the natural flavour of the broccoli. This is just an example, but trying alternate ways to serve veggies to your child, especially veggies they do not like, is worth a shot to get healthy veggies in your child’s diet.Take a quick look at the smart ways to include vegetables in your child’s food.1. Juices and SmoothiesMany times children hate the texture of a vegetable but not necessarily the taste or flavour of it. For example, as a child, I hated string beans because of their texture in dishes even if I did not hate their taste or flavour. So I would always try to mush it and then eat it. It would make no sense for your child to miss out on a vegetable and its nutrients simply because the texture is an issue. A way around it is to make smoothies with veggies, as smoothies eliminate the texture from the equation entirely. Although smoothies are generally associated with fruits, a vegetable smoothie works just as beautifully.If you feel that a vegetable smoothie is too heavy on your child’s stomach, you can blend fruits and vegetables together to create a nutritious smoothie.Look out for vegetables that are naturally sweet such as carrots, beetroot, ginger etc. Mix and match with options such as spinach, berries, green mangoes, kiwi, pineapple along with other fruits and veggies to give your child that healthy dose of nutrition. There are thousands of recipes online, each resulting in different and unique flavours and made up of different nutrients. It will become very achievable for parents to ensure those parts of nutrients that their children’s diet lack, to be fulfilled this way. Classic options include the green smoothie, the avocado and veggie smoothie and the carrot smoothie.Smoothie bowls are all the rage nowadays, and they look very attractive as well. They look like they are very fun to eat and can trick your child into thinking they actually love the vegetables they disliked earlier. It could make for a very fun yet healthy and nutritious snack.2. Tasty SaucesSauces are a great way to compliment veggies, or even make the veggies not very favourable to your child a little more palatable to them. Making sauces can give you the opportunity to whip up your child’s least favourite vegetables. While they may not like certain vegetables, when served with a sauce with the flavours they like, it would help them ignore the flavours they don’t like and focus on the flavours they do. Take a dish they already like and substitute some of the non-vegetarian (if they have) ingredients in your sauce with mushrooms and other vegetables. Chop up other healthier vegetables into unrecognisable pieces and add them to sauces just at the end of cooking to maintain their health quotient and taste. Cauliflower, onions, spinach and carrots are some vegetables that you can add to the sauces you are making which would not change the flavour of the sauce but add tons of health and nutritional value. Another way you can add vegetables to sauces without affecting the flavour of the sauce is to whizz up all your veggies in a blender into a smooth consistency and then add that to the sauce so that your child cannot pick out the pieces she does not like.Alternatively, you can make a dip with your child’s favourite or not-so favourite veggies into a healthy dip to enjoy with garlic croutons at snack time. Garlic croutons are very easy to make as well. You can even use bread that has dried out and may not make very fresh sandwiches. Just cut the bread into bite-sized squares, heat a pan and drizzle some olive oil with minced garlic and toss the cut bread into the pan and continue tossing until the bread looks golden. If your child likes cheese, you can ex=ven add a little shaved/grated cheese on the croutons as soon as they are off the stove so they can melt onto the croutons. Serve that with vegetable-based dips or sides and they will not be able to stop munching on them! Begin with hummus, salsa and yoghurt based dressings.3. Baked and Roasted DishesIf you notice, children absolutely love nearly anything that is fried (usually potatoes). From french fries to any other fried treat you think of, children love it. But fried things aren’t very healthy. A good alternative to fried food would be to bake or roast them. Often vegetables are served either boiled or in a dish that doesn’t use a lot of oil or spice. Baking and roasting veggies often bring out the flavours of a vegetable without making it bland as simple boiling does.Vegetables can be added to almost anything that gets baked such as lasagne or even hot pockets, something which children love. Add finely chopped vegetables such as zucchini, sweet potatoes, carrots, peppers, brinjals and mushrooms to your nutritious recipes and substitute sugar with honey for making it a healthier option. The process of baking softens the veggies inside, which makes the dish easier to eat and helps them to blend in with the sauces. If your child does not like the texture of vegetables or is unusually fussy, you can always smooth the lumps.Even without sauces, you can simply coat vegetables in a thin layer of oil and dust some seasoning on it, form something as simple as salt and pepper to premade seasoning like barbeque or peri peri and stick them in the oven for roasting, they would come out very flavourful and the seasoning will make it taste suitable for your children’s taste buds. The flavours are similar to those used in junk food but on a healthier base.4. Shredded VeggiesChildren love pizzas, burgers and anything which is not healthy for them. A good way to sneak veggies they don’t like in these dishes is to shred the veggies and add them in. Therefore, add shredded veggies to almost anything starting from omelettes, pizzas, scrambled eggs and noodles. Shredding veggies also makes these veggies very thin. It would also be a good idea to shred veggies and then roast them, and since the vegetables are finer when shredded they would come out very crispy. You can use these crisped up vegetables to use as a topping on other dishes. For example, if you grate some cauliflower and mix it with some oil and salt and pepper (or any other seasoning premix) and roast it in the over, it will result in a beautiful golden-coloured crispy crumble that you can put on top of tomato soup instead of croutons, or on top of home-made healthy noodles. You can also shred zucchini into long strands using a food processor, and use them as noodles, topping it with some veggies based sauce. With the right seasoning, your child may even prefer this healthy version of noodles over the usual unhealthy one.You can also make veggie porridge by cooking plain oats with water and then adding your choice of shredded vegetables. Top up the porridge with an egg on top with a sprinkle of salt, pepper and some grated cheese for extra taste.5. Desserts can Include Veggies TooWho said veggies cannot be made into something sweet and delicious? Add some spinach or pumpkin puree to your pancake or waffle batter to make a colourful and healthy snack for your kids. Use honey or even jaggery instead of sugar to make these recipes healthier! You can also find various recipes online for making chocolate brownies with spinach, carrot cupcakes, beetroot fudge cakes, chocolate brownies with black beans and even sweet potato cookies.It may seem a little questionable, especially given that vegetables are usually associated with savoury dishes. But incorporating vegetables into dishes that have a sweet taste profile can be a lot more pleasantly surprising than you would expect. And oftentimes, the flavours of the veggies serve to bring out and enhance the sweet flavours of the dessert. You can even use vegetables in favourite drinks such as lassi or soy milk for a change.Culinary practices often use competing flavours to compliment each other, and it is done through a lot of trial and error and by adjusting the quantities. Adopt the same practice in your cooking process when you make food for your child. Try out various methods to figure out what is not only healthy for your child, but also one that makes your child appreciate vegetables as well. Sneaking veggies into dishes they already like is a good approach to get them to try out the veggies, but eventually, you will have to ensure the completion of their dietary requirements over their taste buds.In short, add your veggies into almost anything to ensure your child’s health without a fuss.Moms often have to get very creative with their ways to get their children to eat food that is nutritious and healthy for them. It is not easy to satiate their fussy eaters and provide for them at the same time. With a little knowledge of their child’s favourites and possible ways to feed them healthy, children will start loving veggies very soon and will start eating them by choice one day. Till then, we have to try our best and experiment with various recipes and multiple mix-and-match of healthy and tasty choices so that children eat what is good for them. Even if it involves tricking them every once in a while.Why do children hate eating vegetables? Which vegetables should be included in the diet of children? How to include vegetables in the diet of children? Discuss here.