Do the vegetables in Bolannaise ‘count’ ?

[FollowYourOwnNorthStar]

I’ve been trying to make a conscious effort to get more vegetables into my day, and one way has been adding more vegetables to stews and things like bolannaise.

Leave aside what exactly should go in a bolannaise sauce (another recent thread!) the vegetables I put in are grated onions, carrots and zucchini, then chopped garlic, baby spinach leaves, mushrooms and any tomatoes if I have them (always used tinned tomatoes too).

In doing so I reduce the mince/meat required for each person, so from a health perspective I thought I was making the meal healthy twice - less meat per serve and more vegetables. (It tastes delicious too!)

However my sister thinks that vegetables like this don’t ‘count’. That by grating and cooking them down so much, their nutritional value is pretty low and, whilst still an ok healthy meal, it’s not as good as I think.

I’ve tried to google the answer, but opinions are divided about eating vegetables cooked or raw with a case made for both sides or in favour of some but not others.

What does everyone else think?

However if you put 5 portions of veg in per person you might only be left with 2 portions per person once cooked off

If you want to count "portions" you need to check for the guidelines on what constitutes a portion. A sauce made with carrot, leek, onion and broccoli is unlikely to have a whole serving of each veg in a single portion of the sauce.

Veg is important for your health due to it's vitamin/mineral content but also due to it's fibre content. Overcooking the veg might reduce some of the vitamin content - although I think if you eat the liquid they are cooked in that mitigates the effects. However more veg - even stewed in a sauce - is always better than less!

No @BertrandRussell and @amusedbush, I didn't, and there's no need for the insults.

The big difference I had noticed was sat/seated. People on Mumsnet don’t use the word seated? "Seated" is what someone else does to you - the waiter will make sure you are seated at a table. It implies not just sitting but sitting in the approved place.

It definitely counts, but I guess each individual serving might not end up with very much veg, not enough to make up one ‘portion’. I generally serve mine with a side of green veg as well, peas, green beans or broccoli normally.

Of course they count

Actually, cooking the tomatoes increases the bio-availability of the lycopene.

I'm sure the smoothie thing is just because they assume you've just picked up a bottle from the shop. Surely, if you throw an apple, raspberries and fresh pineapple and blitz it in a nutribullet type thing, they don't become one fruit? I mean, yes, it might have a different constitution, it isn't going to require as much energy to break it down but it's all still there?

In reply to ‘sat’ versus ‘seated’: people on Mumsnet seem to invariably use ‘sat’ these days. As in, ‘I was sat’. This was previously a regional variation only found in northern England. I don’t know why it’s become so prevalent in the last 15-20 years.

I am old fashioned and say ‘sitting’ or ‘seated’, depending on context, which I deem to be correct. However, I seem to be very much in the minority in the UK.

However if you put 5 portions of veg in per person you might only be left with 2 portions per person once cooked off

That's not true, is it?!?

Well I agree with everyone else but have never understood why smoothies only count as one even though you might have lots of different fruit and vegetables in there

Mainly because of the fruit. It spikes your blood sugars and they didn’t want people thinking they could have 5 smoothies a day and think it was healthy.
When you eat fruit (as opposed to pulverising it) you get the added benefit of fibre and also the time taken to eat it - which means the sugars are released more slowly.
If you were to put, say, 10 strawberries, a banana, a kiwi, and some pineapple on a plate it would be very unlikely you would eat it in one sitting. However, drink the lot and your blood sugar spikes very quickly.

Cooking tomatoes increases the bioavailability of their lycopene, so they’re actually healthier than raw ones. If you cook the veg actually IN the bolognese sauce, you aren’t losing any vitamins into the cooking water either.
OP, your sister is wrong, and you’re doing very well at boosting your veg intake.
You could try liquidising some nice cooked green veg with spices to make healthy soups too. I love zucchini with cumin, coriander and a little turmeric, or lentil, carrot, red pepper and tomato with sumac, saffron, chilli and paprika. There are loads of other tasty combos. Enjoy experimenting!

another thing is to use turkey mince instead of beef, it's leaner. ANd has less impact on the environment.

Or don't use meat at all. If you use a large aubergine in small cubes and then whizz the sauce in a blender, it has a similar texture to meat and my kids didn't even notice the difference.

Oh, and lentils count as a vegetable so perhaps use puy lentils instead of meat and its even better. I love lentils.

And by the way, you can also spell it Bolognaise. This is the French spelling and was more common when I was a child. Everything culinary was Frenchified, at that stage.

Smoothies / juice don’t count as many portions because a lot of the fibre gets broken down and the sugars can be very quick release - they don’t want to encourage people to be drinking half a litre of orange / apple juice and thinking it’s healthy!
From a health point of view fruit juice isn’t really to be encouraged and probably shouldn’t count at all towards 5 a day but the government had to concede some things to supermarkets to get them to sign up to the 5 a day message.

However if you put 5 portions of veg in per person you might only be left with 2 portions per person once cooked off

thats not true, is it?

Of course it isn’t true. A serving counts as 80g. Which is about 3 heaped tablespoons of cooked veg.

BoudicasBoudoir yes, here in Australia we use sitting or seated as the past tense. It is interesting to hear it is a UK regional variation which has gained popularity.

I second using lentils. I find tinned green lentils particularly good as a mince substitute. I make a lovely shepherds pie with green lentils.

OP - fair play for trying to eat healthier.

It's probably an idea not to cook down things like broccoli too much. Maybe put them in shortly before you finish cooking?

Advice is to limit all smoothies and juices made from fruit / veg to 150ml / day. www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/5-a-day-what-counts/

Thanks everyone, I’m really pleased to hear the meal is as healthy as I thought, and I’m taking on board the recipe tips and digs at my spelling, and will try to improve both :)

If I remember 80g of veg = 1 portion. So weight of veg divided by no. of servings made would give you an approximate number of your 5 a day (so if I put 640g of veg in, and the recipe made 4 portions, each portion has 160g or 2 portions of veg). And however you count it, more veggies and less red meat has got to be a good thing!

@BoudicasBoudoir How British to translate an Italian word into French for English people We still love a bit of a Frenchifying!

We use green tinned lentils in bolognaise as well. Ups protein and means you can cut down the red meat which is better fit you in terms of fat.