10 tips for diverse vegetable meals

Vegetables are easy to use, when thinking of preparing everyday meals. They can serve as a base for soup, they are great with cold cuts and cheeses or as a second course. Various frozen vegetable mixes are a great source of nutrients, especially during seasons when it is more difficult to have fresh vegetables. Choose the ones, which are more natural, prepared with traditional methods, without artificial colouring, flavour or preservatives.

1. Disguise – combine finely chopped vegetables with your favourite dishes. Add mushrooms or peppers to an omelette or scrambled eggs. Fresh spinach can be used in lasagne.

2. Make soups – it is easy to disguise vegetables in soups by blending them in. You can get ready-made soup and add frozen or canned vegetables to it. 

3. Raw vegetables – the choice of vegetables, which can be eaten raw, is really vast: carrots, celery, kohlrabi, radishes, tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli, white and red cabbage, fennel and many more.

4. Dips and sauces – you have a great choice here. You can eat raw or cooked vegetables with dips such as tzatziki sauce. The sauce can be also made with vegetables or legumes, e.g. hummus or salsa. By adding sauces, you will enhance the flavour of vegetables.

5. Do it the Italian way – the dishes of the Italian cuisine, such as pizza and pasta are ideal for various vegetables. You can get for instance a ready-made margarita pizza and let the children decorate it with their favourite vegetables.

6. Drink – vegetable juices, e.g. tomato, carrot or mixed vegetables. These count as vegetable servings! Everyone, who has a juice extractor at home can make vegetable juices and try various combinations. You will surely invent your own recipe for great vegetable juice.

7. Grilled – grill the vegetables together; try different methods of vegetable preparation: grilled corn on the cob, or a vegetable kebabs with mushrooms, zucchini, peppers and aubergine.

8. Al dente – The way we cook vegetables, plays a key role in preserving their flavour. Vegetables, such as broccoli, carrots, or zucchini taste better when they are firm. They preserve more of their valuable vitamins when they are al dente. You can also stir-fry your favourite vegetables in a wok in a very a short time.

9. Surprise – we hide vegetables in unexpected or surprising foods. For example, grilled peppers in a turkey breast sandwich, or pita bread stuffed with minced meat and cabbage. 

10. With cheese – vegetables can be also casseroled with cheese. Cheese is rich in fat, but it tastes great. Therefore, dishes served with cheese taste twice as good. There are some great vegetables for casseroles such as broccoli, spinach, tomatoes, peppers, Brussels’ sprouts, cabbage, beans and leeks.