Recipe ideas for getting hidden veg into a toddler please!

[Sonolanona]

Until he turned 2, DGS was an awesome eater of veg. Over the last few months (now 2 1/2) he has gradually refused more and more until..well he simply won't eat any veg he can see.
While he's unlikely to keel over , DD and I would like to get SOME into him even if it's by stealth for now. He does still eat fruit but even that is becoming a bit hit and miss.. given his way he'd live on marmite on toast .

I'm going to batch cook a load of pasta sauce as I can whizz a ton of veggies in there and he loves pasta, but I'd love some ideas of other ways to get veg into him..that he can't see :)

He likes curries, and quite strong tasting foods (will eat fish curry, but not keen on meat) but he will refuse (or pick out) even the tiniest bits of visible veg.

Any quick, simple ideas please?(Simple as I don't have a lot of time but look after him a few days a week) Thanks!

Home made pitta bread pizzas. You can wizz up carrots, peppers, onions, sweet potato, courgette, in a tin of tomatoes. Get DGS to concentrate on what topping he wants and slather it in grated cheese. (Thank weighwatchers for this idea)

I used to make special “monster mash faces” for my friend’s son – he was about 4 though. It was green and orange. In it went broccoli, peas, carrot and sweet potato all mashed together. I’d do 2 scoops of monster eyes and a sausage or fish finger for a mouth (sliced up for a toothy effect) and beans or spaghetti for hair and a beard. We even progressed to sprout eyeballs. Bonus points if I could find a purple sweet potato or grate red cabbage into it.

You could easily grate cauliflower, carrot, white cabbage and wizz up sweetcorn to add to the curries and do sweet potato chips with it.

Hopefully it will just be a phase his tastebuds are going through, or he does actually like the veg, just not the look or texture of them at the moment.

Make curry sauce with onion, sweet potato, butternut or carrots, spinach and broccoli and blend to a fine puree over fish

Pasta sauce with tomatoes, onions, red and yellow peppers, courgettes blended smooth is good on pizza bas with melted cheese on top

Try tempura veg. Finely sliced butternut squash and tender stem broccoli dipped in cornflour batter and shallow fried in hot oil until crispy. Cooled and served as finger food.

I used to disguise loads of veg in meatballs and cottage pies but if he doesn't like meat that's no good.

Dips! It's amazing what a toddler will eat when it can be dipped.

Add them to mash or blitz into gravy (I once passed off broccoli as herbs).

Cook loads with extra water in a casserole. Blitz to make a thick gravy.

cook gently, chop finely, add a little cheese and stir in beaten egg. Fry into patties. Elizabeth David says left over white sauce with veges formed into patties and breadcrumbed before frying makes a croquette.

Macaroni cheese www.myfussyeater.com/one-pot-mac-cheese-with-hidden-veg/

Risotto www.bitterlemonfood.com/post/roasted-red-pepper-risotto

Sweetcorn pancakes thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/sweetcorn-and-chilli-pancakes/

Cauli nuggets www.littlegannets.co.uk/recipes/cauliflower-tots

Mine believed that chopped spinach was "herbs" for years. Well into their teens because I didn't think to say anything. I still have a bag in the freezer and add it to most things with sauces.

Soup?

My DS is 3 and the same . I do things like Bolognese and chilli and blend veg in the sauces. He's a big fan of pizza so I do pitta/wrap pizza put veg in the sauce and then grate courgette under the cheese. I also do pin wheels with courgette, carrots etc.

He also likes a wrap heated on the frying pan with cheese, apple and courgette in . Chicken nuggets with broccoli.

Mine had a long phase of refusing any veg except raw carrot and cucumber batons, but would eat smooth tomatoey soups - something like tomato and red pepper made with onions and carrots and also red lentils,

Soups with cheese toastie to dip

At that age my two used to "steal" their veg while I was cooking. I was Farmer McGregor and they were the sneaky rabbits pinching the raw vegetables as I chopped them for dinner. They still try it as very cool teens 😂

I make this soup:
1 onion
1 red pepper
1 can chopped tomatoes
.5 tsp sugar
Simmer until veg is soft and blitz till smooth.
Add water with dissolved salt-free chicken/veg stock to thin down to desired consistency.

Cheese toastie to dunk in it. Seems to go down very well with veg refusing toddlers.

I used to mash a sweet potato in to baked beans

Oh and my dd loved frozen peas… still frozen at that age! In a bowl, in front of the telly!

We grate carrot and courgette into mince when making shepherd's pie, lasagne, mince and tatties, spaghetti bol.

I grate carrot and courgette into mince chicken/meat mixture that I either cook in tomato sauce as meatballs or fry/grill as burgers.

Honestly since getting a proper blender there’s not a single sauce I don’t add extra vegetables to. I just blend up whatever’s in the fridge, it rarely impacts the taste and it’s blended so smoothly you can’t tell it’s there. Curry, stew, pasta, spaghetti, cottage pie, pies, mash potato, pizza sauce, soup, gravy, tagines, hummus, pesto… basically anything even vaguely saucy can have veg hidden in it. Courgette is a great one because it’s basically flavourless but I have tried just about everything and I’d say the only ones that don’t work are sprouts, cabbage and cauliflower because they’re quite strong flavours. Although cauliflower is lush in anything cheesy or in curry.

You can cook swede and mash it up and mix with mashed potatoes in a Shepherds Pie.

Peppers, courgettes, onion, blended up with tomatoes in Bolognese.

Homemade vegetable soup with cauliflower, potato, carrot, onion and swede. Blend it all up smooth in the soup.

Thank you everyone! That gives me some ideas to try :)
I can see the home made pizza topping would work . Not sure he would touch mash as he doesn't even like potato in any form.. he's always been a bit sensory about food ,, prefers dry and crunchy, but until recently he would happily eat onions, courgettes, red peppers etc...now.. nope! I'll continue to offer him visible veg as well with dips.

I have an allotment and next year will be growing all the usual veg so am hoping that he will be keen to try again when he's 'helping' me garden :)

Make the dips from veg too, hummus, salsa, guacamole, baba ganoush, mashed butter beans and sweet potato etc