Non-meat sources of iron - any good ideas?

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My young teen DD has recently stopped eating red meat and chicken, although she still eats fish. I make sure we have fish for dinner twice a week but othwise her diet is pretty much vegetarian. I think she is ok for protein as she eats eggs, yoghurt, nuts and tofu but I am a bit concerned about her iron.

Ant really good sources that I may have missed.?

How about leafy green veg and fortified breakfast cereals?

Green leafy veg all the way.

Can you get a nutribullet? She could make herself smoothies with spinach and nuts in - might be an easier way to get it down her without needing to eat mountains of green leafy veg each day.

One tip is to combine those leafy green veg (correct me if I'm wrong but beans are also a good source) with food rich in vitamin C; one helps the absorption of the other. So accompany that spinach omelette with a glass of OJ and she'll be fine (BTW egg yolks are pretty good for iron as well).

What you need to watch out for is vitamin B12 which can be low in bad veggie diets. Marmite is a good source of this but it's a bit, well, Marmite. Otherwise, mushrooms and fortified bread and cereals.

Beans!

Spinach. My DD puts spinach in her smoothies. She bought an inexpensive blender to make them in and they seem to taste nice (but look like blended bogies).

Also lentils, nuts and seeds. I have been veggie, eating lots of greens, beans and lentils and never had issues with iron (regularly give blood so have it tested then) 👍

Spinach is great, as doesn't add a huge amount of flavour, but is high in iron... We get through 2 bags a week as I finely chop it and add it to most of our evening meals. It shrinks down so small once chopped its barely noticeable, and just looks like part of the sauce/herbs. In veggie chilli/Bolognese/curries/pasta sauces etc, you won't even know it's there and will make a huge difference to iron intake. Can add it to omlettles, paella, soups, stews, cauliflower cheese, as a topping on pizza, added to salads. Also, if she will, drinking a glass of orange juice with her evening meal will be really beneficial, as it helps the body absorb iron far more efficiently.

Thanks. She loves spinach and broccoli so maybe I just need to up the amount she has. Thanks for all the suggestions.

Spinach :) I buy bags of frozen spinach (it goes much further as it's already wilted and squished into cubes) and always throw a handful into curries and chillies as I'm not massively keen on plain steamed spinach.

Lentils, dried apricots, shellfish, pumpkin seeds and black treacle (could put in ginger cake) are all high in iron.

My teen dd is the same with her diet, have recently discovered she likes lentil Dahl so try and make that once a week. Also lentil soup is nice.

Lentils are an amazing source of iron.

Eggs have pretty much the same iron content as chicken and only half that of beef. It's not something to panic about.

@untamedtoad how big are those 2 bags of spinach. Even if 200g, that's not a great deal and about 13mg of iron in total. For a family.

You could make lentil pie

Chickpeas are high in iron, I discovered today and are also naturally gluten free.

Cook in a cast iron skillet

Chocolate.

Was also going to say chocolate!

Watching with interest. Our 14 year old DD has also stopped eating all meat and fish.
She refuses to eat fruit. Her preferred diet of choice is largely beige. Favourite foods chocolate, chips, margarita pizza, egg, baked potato, beans on toast, basmati rice, homemade lentil and veg soup if it’s blended, toast, fresh bread and halloumi cheese. She will eat sweet corn and certain boiled veg I.e potatoes, carrot, broccoli, cauliflower and runner beans,

@pickachew, we get 500g bags from our greengrocers.... He does them for £2.50 each or 2 bags for £4, so a bargain. They're absolutely huge, I don't see how much more spinach I could get into us to be honest! And obviously that's alongside lots of other vegetables too. X

Vitamin C helps with the absorption of iron. I've heard caffeine can inhibit absorption so try reducing that.

The Spatone iron enriched water sachets are possibly an easier option. You can put them in cold drinks but they are particularly effective in a glass of orange juice because of the vitamin C.

OK, that is a lot, @Untamedtoad

I was horrendously anaemic thus tear. My dr told me beetroot has the most iron in it which surprised me (I'm also veggie)