How to get more veg into our meals?

[shelldockley]

During the week we have quite a small repertoire of meals that we eat regularly, quick and easy, mostly:
Chilli con carne with rice
Spagetti bolognaise
Different types of stews from the slow cooker, with mash

The chilli and spag bol generally have peppers and tomatoes in.
Stews usually have onions and carrots or tomatoes.
I don't think this is enough veg, isn't the rule that half of your plate should be veg? Not including mash I'd say it's less than a quarter. How can I up the veg count? Can anyone think of anything healthier I could replace the mash/pasta/rice wth that would still go with the meals? If you were on a low carb diet, what would you have instead?

serve salad with the chilli & spag bol
serve another veg with stew (eg broccoli, green beans)
chop up more veg in the bolognaise sauce & the stew - mushrooms, courgettes, celery
there are some good one-pot recipes with lots of veg in

If you make a batch of Jamie's very veggie sauce (from his school dinners thing years ago) you can freeze it in portions & use it as the base for chilli & spag bol

Olive oil
1 butternut squash (peeled and grated)
3 courgettes (grated)
3 carrots (grated)
2 red peppers (chopped)
3 small onions (chopped)
6 cans of chopped tomatoes
2 bay leaves
large pinch oregano

Put enough olive oil in a LARGE pan to cover the bottom. Put in all the veg and fry gently for 5 to 10 mins. Add the herbs and the tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Simmer for 30 minutes to an hour. Blitz to a puree with a hand-blender or processor.

For those we do

Chili - peppers , tinned tomatoes, onions, kidney beans . Peas thrown in the rice , watercress on the side.

Spag Bol - Tinned tomatoes , courgettes, carrots , onions , mushrooms . Rocket on top.

Stews - Serve with either a side of green veg , or add in carrots , parsnips, swede, kale, sweet potao. Add something like carrots , cleriac, swede to mash , or stir in peas or kale.

With chili con carne, I always serve with tortillas, homemade guacamole and fresh tomato and sweetcorn salsa rather than plain rice. Also don't forget that any beans you add to the chili count as veg.

For the spag bol, I add onions, leeks, finely diced celery and carrots and make sure that the veg once cooked is about half the total volume. Also serve with salad on the side if you want to go the extra mile.

We don't often have stews, but if we did, we'd have a green veg on the side even if it was just some frozen peas. Other option is to replace the normal mash with other mashed veg (eg swede, sweet potato).

Hide more veg in the chilli/bol - carrots/courgettes/celery etc - I get all these into things, the courgettes and celery virtually "melt" to nothing in the two hour cooking time. Also, serve a green/tomato salad with bolognese and chilli, serve a green veg with your stew.

Try Hugh F-W's VEG recipe book - lots of the recipes on the Channel 4 website. Seriously good some of them and soooo cheap compared to meat. We are confirmed carnivores, never ever thought I'd get DH to agree that a meal without meat was "ok" but his stuff is yuuuuuuumy

Oh mashed swede, utterly heavenly, my children go wild for it ! In fact, just working out my burns night supper and swede is top of the list!

Mashed swede with stew, with butter and lots of black pepper in - all the kids I've served this to go mad for it.

I always put loads of veg in my pasta sauce and then if there's someone fussy I blend it before adding it to whatever it is I'm cooking.

I agree about the HFW veggie recipes, there's some lovely stuff there.

I use bulgar wheat or cous cous or make a bean or lentil salad for something different to normal rice. Mashed cauli is quite nice too.

Agree about trying out some vegetarian family meals. Chilli Non Carne is a great cheap stand-by. Use cans of mixed beans, peppers, onions, mushrooms and whatever else is to hand in a tomato sauce. Stuffed Peppers .... Halved peppers, microwaved until not so crisp, stuffed with rice or other grains, chopped vegetables, seasoning, a little cheese on top and then baked until cooked and golden. Beanburgers are very easy to make with mashed kidney beans, a little egg, some oats, grated carrots and plenty of flavourings like chilli powder, garlic andherbs. Frittatas... thick omelettes stuffed with tomatoes, potatoes, spinach and so on are nice with salad. Meat & Vegetable Kebabs are another quick one and can make a relatively small amount of meat spin out. Thread marinated chunks of peppers, courgettes, onions and mushrooms on skewers with a few chunks of lamb, pork or chicken. Grill gently until cooked through. Stir-fries are another quick-cook option.... fry thin strips of chicken, beef etc with shredded vegetables, beanshoots, mangetout etc. In our house will like various versions of Fried Rice..... stir-frying lots of veggies diced small with flavourings, a little meat, cashews or some eggs and then adding cooked brown rice and soy sauce to season.

Lots of fab suggestions thanks! I'll try padding everything out with more veg. We do have mashed suede/sweet potato sometimes so I'll try and have that more often than normal mash. I've had mashed cauli before and that's quite nice, I'll see how that goes down.

I like the look of Jamie's recipe, incidently, does anyone else have trouble chopping butternut squashes? I bought some new knives in the sales and they're still a struggle!

Will put Hugh's book on my list too, thanks!

yes re butternut squash - it's like chopping wood

eat less meat! Seriously if you stop making a piece of meat the central part of a meal it will make you think differently about your meals. We have spent the last year as what I call 5 day a week veggies and feel so much better for it and have tried so many new things. If you stick to the spag bol / chilli repertoire try using Quorn Mince - I defy you to tell the difference and you will reduce the fat content (and the negative effects of red meat eating) in a stroke!

Re butternut... once peeled, use the broadest knife you've got, preferably a cleaver. Narrow blades get wedged half way through.

Yes, the HFW book is great.

We serve everything with 2 or 3 portions of veg on the side unless it's a meal which is mainly veg-based. It's just habit now.

I use about four or five frozen cubes of spinach in absolutely everything especially:

curries
Spag bol
Chilli
Goulash
soup
pasta sauce.

It's about a pound a kilo (frozen section). If I asked my kids if they wanted spinahc they would all go "yuk" but they eat it almost every day.

Also, another vote here for a few whole grated courgettes. They melt into any dish with nothing but a few green flecks as evidence.

"try using Quorn Mince - I defy you to tell the difference"

[bleugh] you must have been using truly nasty beef mince, then. I have no issue with vegetarian food (I would choose it more often, but DH is big meat-eater) but I cannot stand "fake meat".

I won't use any meat substitute because if I want meat I will eat meat. We eat at least half a week veggie food and it's just so much cheaper. I saw on the guardian how the average family spend £25 each on food. We manage a lot less shopping in waitrose and ocado!

Chillis like someone has already suggested can be done with beans. In fact any meal with beans is cheap. We eat a lot of carbs so my food suggestions won't help. (Lots of noodles, pastas, risottos chez moi and they make your meat go further. And most you can also add veg to the dish) I think the river cottage veg book really helps if you want to say try a meat free day once a week.

I should word myself better. If you treat veg as a side, it will most likely be boring because you won't spend as much effort cooking it. The best way to increase veg intake is to have a veg main instead. You can still serve it with a little bit of meat which we sometimes do with simply marinated then grilled meat.

We usually have veg on the side of every meal, even things like spaghetti bolog and chili. We use frozen peas, sweetcorn, broad beans and soya beans so it's really no hassle to sling a bit in a pan and serve with the meal.

Sandwiches are always served with chopped tomato, cucumber, peppers etc.

Don't forget veg as snacks too. I am eating a lot of raw sugar snap peas at the moment, I love them!

oooh, talking of veg snacks, Aldi do cherry tomatoes on the vine & they are really delicious, even in January. We get through 4 or 5 packs a week

(quite cheap too - 300g £1.19 today, price varies though)

(& yes I know tomatoes are fruit really )