If I were to depend on raw vegetables to meet my daily requirement for good health I would be a pretty big failure! If they are cut and in front of me, I will eat some, and not dislike them, but if I am honest, they really don’t excite me. I have found ways to increase the amount of vegetables I am eating, and you might be surprised to find out that some of these options provide benefits that eating raw veggies don’t.

Increase your vegetable intake:

Create a Routine: Starting your meal with a salad, putting out veggies and dip to snack on while prepping a meal, or updating that Friday night dinner tradition with one of the following ideas will use the power of routine to increase the likelihood of benefitting from nutrient-rich veggies.

Be a Little Sneaky: Adding veggies to sauces, casseroles, omelettes, guacamole etc. is a simple way to add some veggies to your meal. Onions, carrots, mushrooms, spinach and bell peppers are a good place to start. When our kids were younger I used the cookbook by Jessica Seinfeld called “Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food” to find some yummy recipes that hid all kinds of high nutrient vegetables within kid-approved meals. As adults, we can benefit from the same strategy.

Make it the Foundation: Using cauliflower “flour” when you make your pizza crust or substituting with cauliflower “rice“ as the base to your favorite Chinese dish is delicious! Making veggie based soups is an excellent way to get a lot of vegetables in one serving. Another creative way to eat more veggies is by making zucchini lasagna or using veggie noodles.

Blend With Smoothies: Fresh, leafy greens such as spinach or kale are common additions to smoothies. If you really want to create a powerhouse smoothie try Dr Rhonda Patrick’s smoothie here.

Celebrate Them: Bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, zucchini and tomatoes make for a great kebab! Grilled veggie kebabs shout party! Another option is to invest in a wok for some stir fry, and enjoy the sight and smell of avocado oil, yummy seasonings and a great mix of vegetables! When I do this I find it almost impossible to not take a picture!
Make it Convenient: When you head to the grocery store look for a tray of veggies and dip, already prepped cauliflower “rice” or even zucchini “noodle”, and frozen-ready-to-toss-in-a-smoothie-broccoli. Convenience will have you far more likely to serve veggies! Although they will cost more, it is likely to be a worthwhile investment.
Play with your Food: Choose a new vegetable to experiment with each week. Consider trying jicama, turnips, eggplant, bamboo shoots, collard greens, parsnips, water chestnuts, or any other veggie that is ‘new’ to you! Plant a small vegetable garden. It is a lot more fun to eat the veggies if you grow them!

Should I Boil, steam or eat them raw?

To get the most bang for our buck, we will want to think about not only ways to increase the likelihood we will eat more veggies, but we will want to know the impact our prepping will have on them. Even if they’re packed with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants when we buy them, some cooking methods are better at preserving the benefits than others.

Limit the water: When you cook vegetables in water, you lose nutrients, so use less water. Therefore, steaming and microwaving will preserve more nutrients than boiling or blanching. The one time you don’t need to limit water is if you plan to use the liquid in your soup. According to Fine Cooking “Similarly, if you want your vegetables cooled, don’t plunge them into an ice bath; like hot water, cold water can also leach nutrients. Instead, cook vegetables for a minute less and then spread them in a single layer on a baking sheet so they’ll cool quickly at room temperature.”
Use Some fat: Surprisingly, including some fat can increase your bodies ability to benefit from the veggies. Beta carotene, vitamin D, and vitamin K are all fat soluble, for example. Fat will also make them taste better, which will likely result in you eating more!
Add Some Citrus: As you might remember reading in my blog on Iron, vegetables like spinach, broccoli, and kale contain iron, but it’s in a form that’s difficult for our bodies to use. Vitamin C, found in citrus fruits, will increase the absorption of iron, so add some lemon, lime, orange, or grapefruit juice to your oil and vinegar salad dressing or your next stir fry!
Think about How You Prep: To avoid breaking down the cell wall, and washing the nutrients away, wash uncut vegetables, and then cut. Try to keep the peels on when it is an option, because there are a lot of key nutrients just under the peel. The sooner you eat after cutting the less likely light and air will destroy nutrients. Finally, cut larger, uniform pieces to ensure that you avoid overcooked pieces and losing important nutrients.

You might have noticed that some of the recommendations counter others. For example, buy pre-cut, but if you wait and cut just before you eat you will gain more benefits. Consider the trade offs. If you are unlikely to cut the veggies before they go bad, then the convenience will give you more nutrients than tossing your veggies. Pick a couple of the above ideas and give them a try! There is no need for a perfect plan. If we wait for perfect we will never start.

What are you going to start with?!

Wendy Dellis is a certified wellness coach. She joins years of training and work in the area of behavior change, experience as a fitness instructor and run club coordinator with a passion for adventure and people. She lives in Minnesota with her husband, Jay, and two sons.

The information contained on this page is for general information purposes only. Nothing here should be construed as medical or healthcare advice, but only topics for discussion. No physician-patient relationship exists; please consult your physician before making changes in diet or lifestyle.