6 ways to make vegies taste even more delicious

To help you get to 5 serves of vegies a day, here are our top 6 ways you can quickly and easily transform veg into delicious dishes that you can’t get enough of!

1: Dress them up

Whether you are cooking winter vegetables or summer salads, dressings are something easy to drizzle on top to make them taste great.

• Try our Caesar salad dressing or our Nicoise salad recipes for an all-purpose dressing.
• When roasting winter veg such as potatoes, onions, pumpkin, brussel sprouts and zucchini, enhance their natural flavours with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.  Try this balsamic baked vegetables recipe.
• Sprinkle a bit of cheese like parmesan or cheddar to add flavour or try vegies in a white sauce to make them creamy.  Do both with this cauliflower and broccoli mac’ n cheese and get the added benefit of some bone-building calcium.

2: Add them to a smoothie

You would be surprised with what goes well in a smoothie. Some popular smoothie vegetables include carrot, beetroot, spinach, celery, cucumber and avocado.

Why not try this delicious green smoothie that gives you 1 serve of veg in each glass!

3: Season them with herbs and spices

Herbs and spices have the power to transform any food and bring out the flavour of vegetables.

Fresh herbs like basil, parsley and mint are great in salads and can be sprinkled over cooked dishes before serving.  Basil is a perfect match to tomato-based dishes and mint can make lentils and beans delicious.  Dried herbs and spices can be added to bring out the flavour while cooking – try rubbing cauliflower with ground cumin, or pumpkin and potatoes with rosemary before baking.

For more inspiration, try this Mexican pasta salad flavoured with cumin and coriander.

4: Cook them in different ways

With so many colours comes so many opportunities…

• Turn your vegies into chips!  Try these baked vegie chips
• Stirfries taste great when you add onion, baby spinach, capsicum, carrot, mushroom, bamboo, baby corn, broccoli and many more.  Why not try out vegetable stir fry recipe
• Try roasting potatoes, pumpkin, red onions, tomatoes, parsnip, and beetroot
• Turn vegies into dips like this hummus or carrot and ricotta dip
• Steaming vegies helps retain nutrients and flavour

5: Choose vegies in season

Lower prices aren’t the only benefit of buying in season veg, they taste better too.  If you’re unsure what vegetables are in season right now, check out what’s in season for winter, summer, spring and autumn.

6: Sneak a few extra veg into your favourite meals

An easy win when it comes to getting more veg in is to add a few extra vegetables to your favourite bolognaise, casserole or curry – you won’t even notice the difference.

• Try boosting the vegetable content in your pasta bolognaise with black beans, kidney beans, lentils, carrots, corn kernels, mushrooms or zucchini (to name a few)
• Casseroles go great with potatoes, carrots, leek, parsnip and onion
• For curry sauces – Add small, diced vegetables such as onion, capsicum, pumpkin, sweet potato, spinach, lentils, broccoli or any green vegetables for some extra colour and crunch
• Meat balls, sausage rolls, koftas and burger patties are other great vehicles for vegetables. Check out this lamb and veg meatball recipe

By Nick Thorne, Student Dietitian