Anyone with children will know that when it comes to eating, fuss is often high on the menu. As a parent you want your child to have a healthy, nutritious and tasty diet, but persuading them it is a good idea is a different matter.
If your child throws a tantrum when presented with a dish which has traces of visible onions or green bits, you can create recipes in which the vegetables are blended in so that they disappear. These include a hidden vegetable tomato sauce for pasta or a creamy tomato soup made with carrots and onions. You can also hide vegetables in other popular dishes like wraps, enchiladas or lasagne, or hide vegetables under grated cheese on a pizza. And if your child is on to you, you can double bluff by leaving a few chunky vegetables in the sauce for him to pick out, then he’ll never suspect there are still some remaining.
You can also make tasty mini-veggie burgers with grated carrot, leek, mushrooms, gruyere, soy sauce and thyme. And some children prefer their veggies raw, so carrot, sweet pepper and cucumber sticks with some hummus would make a nutritious snack.
Another idea that was popular with my three children when they were little was to make a vegetable stir fry with noodles and let them eat this with children-friendly chopsticks that are joined at the top. Frozen vegetables are good too — they are often more nutritious than fresh as they are frozen within hours of being picked. Frozen peas, sweetcorn and spinach make good standbys.
