... to ask for tips on cooking with more vegetables?

[Jourdain11]

Just that, really! I want to figure out how to incorporate more veg into dishes we cook rather than having veg side dishes which the kids don't eat. I am actually vegetarian and I like eating vegetables not mixed into things (if that makes sense) but I desperately need more vegetable-inclusive recipes so that the children eat more of them. This is my NY resolution!

Things they will eat include...
Macaroni cheese with veg cooked in (broccoli, spinach, etc.)
Pasta with tomato sauce, with extra veg in (peppers, onions, carrot)
Veg soups - i.e. Leek, carrot, pumpkin, etc
Stir fry (but bits of disliked veg always get left)
Thai sort of curry (ditto)
Lentil and tomato bake with mash potato and cheese topping - they are amenable to mash with carrot or sweet potato mixed in also.

But that's pretty much it and my imagination has failed! Does anyone have suggestions, or any recipe book which might be useful...?

Not much help, but anything made with mince always has a finely grated carrot added to it.
Aubergines brushed with oil, grilled until beginning to brown can be chopped 8nto lots of things for good depth of flavour.
Any non green veg is improved by roasting!

Mash cauliflower in with potato to go on top of a cottage pie or serve with sausages.

I have made pasties using sweet potato / squash in the pastry, filled with vegetables and cheese. My little one is extremely fussy but ate these happily.
Definitely hiding cauliflower in mashed potato and finely grating carrot / courgette into mince works a treat. DW is resistant to veg but for the sake of our health and budget every bolognese is heavily padded out with grated veg

I used to put pureed pumpkin/butternut squash in the cheese sauce when I made macaroni cheese when mine were small.
It made it nice and sweet

Do they refuse to eat the side vegetables because they don't like them or how they're cooked? Because I think that it's perfectly reasonable for children not to like plain cauliflower or whatever and want a bit of butter of flavourings on them. Having said that, using flavourings works for DS but not for DD....!

Cauliflower and broccoli cheese.
Risottos with whatever veg you like - we quite like a roasted butternut risotto or a pea risotto
I keep seeing suggestions of mashing carrot/butternut/sweet potato and mixing with cheese sauce in macaroni cheese but haven't tried it myself
Vegetable lasagna? I do mine with roasted butternut, tomatoes, aubergine and onions but if they're not into chunky vegetables do a thick tomato based sauce with lots of finely chopped veg and just leave whatever vegetable they do like a bit chunky?

"Red pesto" - I did this quite a bit when DC were smaller. Roast a big tray of whatever vegetables you like but aim to have about half tomatoes. Be generous with the olive oil and add some garlic. Once cooked, blitz with some cream cheese (and, if you like, some walnuts to up nutritional content). Serve with pasta or as a thick sauce with meat/chicken. I froze it in portions to use as needed.

Thanks for the suggestions!

I think the veg are nicely cooked and not plain, but they obviously don't agree!

Risotto is a good one; I can actually do it well and always intend to, but never do...

I should also try lasagne, but I need to actually check out a recipe because I don't do it habitually.

They all have some odd things they will eat. DD2 will happily consume a bowl of steamed sweet potatoes, green beans and broccoli, dressed in nothing but olive oil, salt and pepper DS likes rice and spinach mixed together, accompanied by cottage cheese. Very odd - and if you give him the rice and spinach separately, the spinach remains uneaten!!

I find the pinch of nom recipe books good for versions of recipes with lots of veg in. They are officially diet cook books, hence the lots of veg, I use normal fat / sugar versions of things and serve with carbs on the side. Things I've done have included meat balls with veg hidden in them and some sauces where you pad our with veg. They have loads of recipes up for free on their website pinchofnom.com/ .

We still end up eating a lot of broccoli, peas and carrots though, everything else has to be well hidden....

@CrabbyCat

I find the pinch of nom recipe books good for versions of recipes with lots of veg in. They are officially diet cook books, hence the lots of veg, I use normal fat / sugar versions of things and serve with carbs on the side. Things I've done have included meat balls with veg hidden in them and some sauces where you pad our with veg. They have loads of recipes up for free on their website pinchofnom.com/ .

We still end up eating a lot of broccoli, peas and carrots though, everything else has to be well hidden....

Thanks, I keep meaning to check that book out! I have masses of book tokens to use up, too...

Funnily enough, peas and carrots and broccoli are the ones that get eaten separately in our house too. Peas and carrot together, with a bit of butter and chives; broccoli just steamed with olive oil. By DD2 and DS. DD1 won't touch any of them!

I’d recommend The Green Roasting Tin book for single tray meals involving plenty of veg. It’s probably our most used cookbook.

I used to make gravy for my DD out of pureed veg plus stock. She never noticed.

@NorrieTheMouse

I’d recommend The Green Roasting Tin book for single tray meals involving plenty of veg. It’s probably our most used cookbook.

Another book I've kept meaning to look at!

I have all the roasting tin cookbooks, the green roasting tin is quite adventurous in terms of the veg it uses. I find the Roasting Tin Around the World one the most picky kids friendly. The bonus of tray bakes is that you can make two tins and therefore two versions of a meal very easily - I tend to add carrot / other kids friendly veg to the kids tray and cut down massively on things they don't like like peppers. You can see a list of all the recipes in each roasting tin cookbooks here if you search for Rukmini Iyer, www.eatyourbooks.com/library?q=Rukmini%20iyer . Her recipe names are very descriptive so it should quickly give you an idea if it's the sort of thing you'd have a chance with or not.

I make falafel using a mixture of chickpeas, red onion and either butternut squash or sweet potato. Similarly veggie burgers.

Cheesy leeks topped with breadcrumbs and baked.

Cauliflower, blanched, rolled in egg and breadcrumbs then baked. Also tasty if you add seeds, nuts or spices to the breadcrumbs.

My two can’t get enough of carrots, peppers and cucumber with houmous, even with a cooked meal

My veg lasagna isn't really a recipe. It's just lots of roasted veg cut in chunks - butternut, aubergine, onions and tomatoes. I sometimes also make a separate tomato sauce on the stove and add the vegetables to that (just to make it go further). Then layer up with a regular cheese sauce and the lasagna. You can toss some layers of spinach in too or use less sauce and do half cheese sauce, half spinach/ricotta mix.

Chilli Con Carne (sw have a great recipe with lots of peppers, also obviously use quorn)

Pinch of nom have some good recipes which you could adapt to be meat free Singapore fried rice has carrots, peas, shallots, pak choi.

I sometimes make curries and chuck in some peppers or courgette

I also make like vegetable pastas where I put all the leftovers into a pasta

Homemade soups?

Of how about roasting veg with some balsamic vinegar?

What do they think of asparagus? Long stem brocolli?

I always add chopped carrots or courgette to the cooking water when cooking pasta.
courgette is pretty inoffensive grated into sauces or omlette, even cake.

Most curry dishes can be made with a veg base sauce and adapted to whatever curry you’re cooking. link to veg base curry sauce

If they wouldn't need it to be "hidden" spinach can be wilted into most tomato pasta sauces with limited impact on the taste and texture so might be a way of squeezing some extra in?

Worth investigating baked risottos if you like a risotto but the faff level puts you off. They need a really good stir once they're out the oven to get them creamy, and they aren't as good as a stove top one but they're about 30% of the effort for 80% of the outcome so it's an acceptable compromise for me.

Would any salads work? E.g. carrot salad, with toasted pine nuts can be quite tasty and might go okay alongside some stuff? Or a blue cheese, pear and lettuce one? I don't know if they'd be child friendly enough but they might be more exciting than a standard side dish?

DD2 and DS are good with spinach, actually - so wilted into more things would be good. DD1 is fussiest, but the grated courgette idea is definitely worth a try. I actually used to make courgette fritters, which everyone liked, but they kept setting the smoke alarm off!

I love salads, so I personally think those sound gorgeous. They're all a bit apathetic about salads though, as in they'll pick away but not have very much of it. I am actually very good at salads, so it is a sad waste of my talents!

I'm thinking I might try some of the Hairy Bikers vegetarian recipes - homity pie, etc