Hidden veg meals

[Pigletpoglet]

Autistic DD14 has a bit of a crap diet due to sensory stuff. She wants to eat more veg, but it literally makes her gag - can only manage peas and fresh sweetcorn. She can eat it blended up in sauces, but so far we've only come up with a tomato pasta sauce and a curry sauce.
Any other ideas? She's quite good with flavours - as in a bit of spice, herbs etc. She likes meat and most carbs. It's just the flavour and texture of veg that's the issue...

We need to get lots of greens into my son diet for iron. We add spinach into lamb meat patties, add spinach into bolognese, and generally add it into what ever we can. Would she notice it in meat meals?

Can you blender broccoli and hide it in pesto sauce? Broccoli is apparantly one of the healthiest vegetables.

Smoothies my DD has spinach in hers google the
Mixes you can buy frozen for ideas.

Spinach or kale pesto
Mash root vegetables together with potato

I’m really similar to her. Has she tried vegetables cooked in every possible different way? I could always eat (some) vegetables raw and still can’t eat any “properly” cooked veg, so might be worth experimenting.

Make this www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/aubergine-lasagne/

My supremely fussy 16 year old absolutely loves it.

Blended cauliflower in cheese sauce can’t be tasted. If she’s not averse to the colour then blended broccoli works too.

Soup
Smoothies
Would she try veg roasted..it tastes so much nicer imo than boiled...roasted broccoli is lovely

What about smoothies? A green smoothie is a nice breakfast, or you can do all sorts (carrot and mango, etc.). What about juices? Will she eat soups if they are blended?

And are raw veg okay? Like crunchy ones in salads or with a dip/dressing?

If she's good with flavours you hide all kinds of good stuff in a decent slow cooked chilli. Otherwise if it's texture she struggles with then make some smoothies packed with fruit and veggies and just add enough liquid to make them easily drinkable (and make sure they're blended adequately, I'm good with textures but sometimes finding a lump of strawberry in my otherwise smooth smoothie makes me )

Or frittered veg...grated veg mixed with a batter and fried in little patties, served with ketchup...my favourite!

Can she manage soup?

Meatballs we do with the tomato-ey pasta sauce and have with spaghetti, but I hadn't thought about spinach in the meatballs themselves - that could work!
I'll definitely try some home-made pesto with greens in it - pesto is a staple.
I don't think potato will be a strong enough taste to mask the root veg though.
She eats raw and cooked peas, fresh sweetcorn and raspberries, and that's pretty much it in any kind of raw form. Even grated or chopped up really small veg is a big issue, so blended seems like the way to go...

Ooh also, we bought some frozen 'chips' the other day that are actually beetroot, parsnip and carrot. Haven't tried them yet so don't know what they'll be like but worth a try?

I imagine you have, but If it's texture have you tried changing the cooking time at all? I hate for example broccoli or sprouts that have been boiled to mush, but adore both if they're just lightly steamed and still crunchy. I steam broccoli florets in the microwave for no more than 2 minutes, just enough to change the colour but not enough to render them squishy.

Also, this is really important but under rated. When you can't / don't eat much QUANTITY of veg, focus on the QUALITY and what nutrients you can get for the intake you can have.

So for example, always buy organic (especially for the dirty dozen veg, look this up if you haven't heard of it), steam and don't boil so that nutrients don't leach out in water. Always add a little fat to help absorption of the nutrients you are getting.

One of the reasons we need much more than five a day is because the quality of the veg we do get is now so inferior for some of these reasons.

Look at pairing foods where the nutrients help absorb each other.

Will she drink smoothies / soup? Some veggies go really well in both these.

Cooking time doesn't really help - MIL is also autistic and struggles with overcooked veg, so we've done as many variations as possible...
Never heard of the dirty dozen til now! At least peas and sweetcorn are on the 'clean 15'.
She will eat homemade tomato soup, so I should hide a bit more blended veg in that and freeze some portions. I was also thinking about making meat pie with some veg blended into the gravy?
Healing - that's really good advice about buying better quality veg. Usually we fry the veg up til soft, then blend them in tinned tomatoes in some kind of sauce. Does that make it pretty much useless to put them in, or is there still some nutritional value there?

I batch cook a tomato sauce with everything in - usually includes the ropey stuff from the fridge too! It generally includes: mushrooms, red onions, leeks, celery, tinned tomatoes, peppers, carrots, courgette, aubergine, butternut squash or sweet potatoes, garlic and mixed herbs. You can roast or make on the stove (onions and herbs first). It all gets blended afterwards as I have a fussy five year old who says he doesn’t like half the stuff in the sauce if cooked in other ways?!

I then use this tomato sauce as a base for spaghetti bolognaise, lasagne, as a sauce over pasta (veggie pasta sauce), as the sauce on pizza (Pitta pizzas are really easy), chilli and cottage pie.

If I make mash, it’s root veg mash and I’ve now started adding onion and mushrooms to my bistro before blending it.

Whilst it’s the same tomato sauce as a base, once you’ve added the herbs and spices it does change the flavour.

I have a little laugh when my son picks off the peppers and onion from his pizza, just leaving sweet corn and he hasn’t realised how much veg he is actually consuming.

Vegan banana pancakes go down well here - banana mashed into mixture and we serve with strawberries, grapes etc. I also do blueberry muffins.

I try everything as my partner would happily eat a meat and not add veg to it. This way I sneak in a lot before we add anything else.

Would she eat guacamole? We use the chunky recipe from bbc good food, but make it smooth. It’s lovely.

We've just had cauliflower rice which is surprisingly agreeable if she would normally eat rice.

I grated courgette into red pesto and my ds who has sensory issues (asd) didn't notice

What about roasted veg pasta sauce as you say she likes tomato sauce with pasta? I make one for my veg averse baby with aubergine, courgette, peppers & onions, roasted in the oven then simmered with a tin of chopped tomatoes then blended.

I grate courgette and finely chop mushrooms (with a hand chopper/blender) to put in mince for lasagne, bolognese, chilli, etc. The kids have no idea they're even there.

I find spiralized butternut squash texturally very similar to spaghetti when coasted in a tomato sauce. Spiralized courgette is pretty good too. You have to almost undercook the courgette to leave it with a ‘bite’ like spaghetti. When it is all mixed up with the sauce it looks and tastes pretty similar.

Vegetable hummus type dips could be worth a try. I’ve made beetroot and butternut squash ones in the past.

Or what about crispy textures? Vegetable crisps? Or fritters/pakoras?

Banana pancakes?

Spinach gnocchi?

Sweet potato falafel?

I don't think veggie chips or spiralised pasta will be a goer, although I will give them a try. I think the veg might need to be better disguised. She doesn't each guacamole or dips, so they're probably out. She might try salsa with nachos... Actually could try nachos with a chilli with blended veg in it...
The tomatoes pasta sauce is our go to - only way to get any veg in her. We've agreed a pizza night once a week, and she's going to cook, so that's another way to use the sauce. Oh, and she likes olives!

Has she tried lentils? Either green / brown lentils as a substitute for / bulking out mince dishes or red lentils hidden in a sauce. I think that counts as a portion of vegetables.

It's so tough blending stuff with all extra washing and prepping!
Have you tried edamame beans? - they look peas like and taste similar. We went from frozen peas and sweetcorn to edamame then chopped french beans. Then more pulses like lentils etc. Sugar snap peas and baby sweetcorn a winner too after leaving them on the table for the rest of us to snack on for years while I was finishing at work.
It gets easier!