How can I get DS to eat more fruit and veg?

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DS (23 mo) will not eat fruit or veg if he can see it, apart from the occasional banana. If I chop up pieces of fruit and put them on his plate he just leaves them on his plate. Same with veg, if he sees it on his plate he always leaves it.
I give him pureed fruit and he loves that, so I know he likes the taste. I also hide different veg in pasta sauces and he really enjoys that too.
I'm starting to accept that he's just not a child who enjoys eating fruit and veg, but I'm struggling to get 5 a day into him.
Can anyone think of other ways I can hide fruit and veg?

Smoothies? If you can't be arsed to make them, the Innocent ones are nice and count to your 5 a day.

I have taken to leaving a plate of chopped fruit on the kitchen table.

If I ask if they want fruit it would always be no, but someone's making it disappear

give it when he is really hungry and there are no other options, don't make a fuss. present it as a special treat, or allow him to choose a new fruit/veg at the supermarket each week? mine didn't get any desert unless they had made a decent stab at eating their dinner. don't make too much fuss though.

as someone suggests leave fruit/veg within their reach so they can help themselves. i had to hide the fruit bowl in the end as they gorged themselves.

i wouldn't try and hide it too much in other things myself, as he needs to get used to eating and liking it.

do you have a garden - could you grow something together?

I make veg muffins which Ds loves. I do mushroom, spinach and cheese or carrot, apple and raisin mostly. I will pretty much stick anything in that's lying around the kitchen though and it all gets eaten.

I second the smoothie idea - we have 'breakfast juice' most mornings - a banana, some apple juice and whatever fresh or frozen fruit you have. At the moment we are finishing off the autumn blackberries but often use supermarket frozen fruit. A stick blender is your friend (and a sieve at times)
It gets at least 2 portions into my two first thing in the morning and they love it. Reduces the parental worry as well and takes the pressure off the 5-a-day a bit, especially with stubborn, fruit avoiding DS

smoothies for fruit, soups for veg. I still offer it chopped up everyday, DN only just started eating it and he's almost 3!
feeheart I like the idea of veg muffins

If he tires of smoothies get an ice lolly mould (Ikea do good ones) and freeze smoothie mix to make ice lollies.

Add puréed veg to all sauces. Freeze in cubes then add as needed. Also cut veg up small and add cheese sauce.

I feel your pain OP. Mine is 16 months and will eat fruit like there's no tomorrow, but won't touch vegetables unless covered in grated cheese.

Although taking bonzo's approach, I made a big batch of "hidden vegetable sauce" from an Annabel Karmel cookbook yesterday - basically a carrot, two sticks celery, a leek, 4 field mushrooms, an onion and some garlic, sweated, then blended with two tins chopped tomatoes and a squirt of sundried tomato puree has made about 8 portions. So far he's eaten it twice over pasta and once over rice, so fingers crossed...

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll go with the smoothie idea, as we get loads of fresh fruit and veg for free as my dad is a wholesaler (which makes DS refusing it even more painful as we have so much!).

I will try smoothies with breakfast. I'll also try the muffins... feetheart do you have a recipe? I think I'll continue with hiding it, while still offering it chopped at the same time. Thanks all.

My DS, 24 mo, is similar in that he will not eat bits of cucumber, apple, grape or anything of that texture off a plate when raw. He will, however, eat a bit of any veg if I load him up a forkful of food & the veg is part of it IYSWIM.

Another thing he loves is roasted veg - carrots, parsnips, butternut squash, sweet potatoes etc. I think he thinks they're chips! Also cauliflower cheese is very popular.

For fruit, I add fruit puree to weetabix, porridge or rice pudding, plus he loves bananas. Don't forget too that fruit juice counts as a fruit portion! DS also loves dried fruit - eg apricots - as well as raisins.

Maybe it's the texture and the amount of work it takes to eat something like an apple hence eating puree and banana.

Maybe try wedges of potato, carrots, parsnip and sweet potato.