Hidden veg - cheese sauce

[Beansandneedles]

Hello! Any recommendations on veg I can 'hide' in cheesy pasta bake/white sauce?

So far we've had success with cauliflower, peeled courgette and sweetcorn as blended they are all the same colour as a cheese sauce! But someone else just suggested parsnip and it got me wondering what other veg I might have forgotten about/overlooked.

This was totally the topic I was a dick about pre-motherhood. 'Pfft, all this effort hiding veg, why aren't people just honest with their kids?!'...oh to still be so niave and optimistic. Now I'm fully embracing the sneaky life 😂

We're building up to tomato based sauces where I'd have a bit more wriggle room with the colours. For now, needs to blend invisibly into a white sauce.

Celeriac?

If you used red Leicester, you could hide carrots in it 😉

I really like this

https://cookieandkate.com/butternut-squash-mac-and-cheese/

Red Leicester cheese opens up carrot and sweet potato.

Alas I have tried this!! We're s-l-o-w-l-y expanding her palette! Maybe red leicester will be on the cards one day.

Have one DC who will eat practically anything as long as it isn't spicy, and one who seems to live off air and cream cheese bagels...

I've added celeriac to the list, thanks :D

Onions, mushrooms?

White asparagus might work.

Peppers are quite good - especially the sweet orange and red ones.

Pizza & Fajitas were also a good way to combine cheese and not completely hidden vegetables that still got eaten.

Aubergine if you remove the skin?

If you can get yam they're whiter inside than sweet potatoes. I think some can be purple though so you'd want to avoid those ones!

If you can get them past the colour then my very fussy autistic teenager loves my green cheesy pasta. I blend wilted spinach (and sometimes kale) until it's super smooth and mix with cream cheese and loads of grated cheese so it tastes just like normal cheesy pasta but it's just green. They really weren't sure at first because of the colour but once they tried it they were fine.

I hugely sympathise though, it's been hard to find meals they'll eat that have veg in them.

Radish, very laborious to peel

Celery, swede, turnips, onions, carrots, yellow peppers. Yellow/orange tomatoes? Spinach has hardly any taste but the colour might put them off...

Would she eat any white/creamy soups? Like cauliflower cheese soup? Or leek and potato?

Beans, like cannellini or butter beans, could also blend into a white sauce and are very nutritious albeit not veg strictly

Agree that green cheesy sauce was a hit back when my two were fussy (Annabel karmel Popeye pasta)

oo beans is a great idea!!

Never had much success with soups sadly, but I think because we don't do them very often so the unknown element kicks in. Definitely something I'd like to do more of though esp in winter as I love a soup!

The white part of leeks? But you'd need to really cook them down otherwise she will definitely notice them. Cheesy sauces are harder because they're also more subtle flavours. Thank god for bolognaise around here - you'd be AMAZED how many veg I can shove in there! .

But just seconding the sugestion, if she does eat pizza, that it's a great way to add. if she's especially fussy, buy pizza bases and make a tomato sauce with blended veg in there, then you can add your cheese toppings. With DS, he wasn't as fussy so I just used to plop vegies on under the cheese and he'd happily eat them, but then, he's still a dream eater now except for some irrational issues I sometimes have to work around.

Thanks for these suggestions! Has made me have an idea for an experiment. Will make a batch of the white cheesy pasta, and another smaller batch of the same but with added spinach, then we can compare the two for taste and see how that goes. Bit of experimental fun in the kitchen, where really they should taste the same, just look different. Might work! So far anything green is instantly rejected. Unless it's grapes!

I did a lasagna this week which had tomatoes, carrots, kale, spinach, onion, and...I feel like maybe broccoli in it? Got the kids helping me cook it (felt risky showing them the 'hidden' stuff but ultimately I want them to realise they like all this stuff!) and they both ate the lot, so we are improving. Last time we did that she refused to eat it. And pizzas she's been known to eat the cheese off the top, scrape the sauce off and just eat the base....she's a determined little thing! But we are getting better. Light at the end of the tunnel for sure.

Smoothies has been a win too. Nowadays DD'll even drink the ones with 'leaves' in, aka spinach! We don't do them all the time, but it's a good one to have for weeks where it's been tricky to get fruit and veg down the hatch in more direct ways.

I know white cheesy pasta passes the test even on the most wilful weeks where she's somehow surviving on porridge and the aforementioned bagels, so just like having that up my sleeve if needed :D

Hope the experiment goes well!

Will she eat nuts and seeds - brilliant source of nutrients albeit again not veg. These could go in porridge or add chopped toasted nuts to white / creamy sauces. Or even try adding ground almonds instead of flour to a white sauce (never actually tried this but it works in some creamy curries so…?)

FYI I was a very fussy eater as a child - I also did the pizza scraping thing! - I now eat everything and am quite adventurous with food. Eating at friends’ houses was helpful as I recall, as I was embarrassed to refuse meals and tried things I wouldn’t have at home. This may have been older though.

I'd say you're actualyl doing pretty well then. It might be worth trying my dad's theroy - all vegetables taste better in cheese sauce? So you could do a dipping taster section with the cheese sauce? Some broccoli, some cauliflower, some carrots, some baby corn, even a spoonful of peas? I'll take cheese sauce on everything over the ubiquitious ketchup!

All veg also taste better with butter and a little salt.

I like this plan!! Will give it a go :D

Yes writing out this thread has actually made me realise how much better things are even from the start of the summer holidays. Stuff changes so quickly!

Not whole, but I'm definitely up for adding them secretly to the porridge and see how that goes. Have been adding a spoon of flaxseed in to try and up the protein which has had limited success. Doesn't like anything on her porridge, not even fresh or dried fruit.

Didn't know ground almonds could go in a creamy curry sauce either, looking forward to trying that one :D

Flaxseeds are undetectable in smoothies, FYI!

I chop onion, leek and celery very finely and sauté, then use that as the base for making the sauce. Also button mushrooms? Not a vegetable but bacon in the mix makes it even more delicious and may disguise the veg further . I use this sauce on pasta or cauliflower.

Yep chicken korma has ground almonds in it… it does have tomatoes too though so wouldn’t quite fit the “white” requirement but the taste is more creamy than tomatoey

Update: parsnips was too strong a flavour!