Veggie recipes for fussy children ...

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So dd has decided she wants to be vegetarian. Which is OK in theory (I'm veggie and have been for years, so I know what I'm doing) but she eats a reasonably limited range of food - particularly vegetables. Plus she's reluctant to eat eggs (unless they're boiled) or cheese (unless it's on top of pizza or lasagne).

She doesn't have any particular reason for wanting to be veggie (think it's just because I am, tbh) and I suspect it will fizzle out pretty quickly, but I have told her that, as long as she tries some different foods, she can go veggie.

And now I'm stuck because most of the things I like, she will turn her nose up at. She won't eat anything even slightly out of the ordinary, like peppers, courgettes or squash, and has refused things like omelette for a long while. I don't cook with Quorn or meat substitutes for myself, and would prefer to avoid them for dd, if I can.

So I'm looking for suggestions for veggie meals I can do for her. And I wondered if I could pick other veggies' brains about their children's favourite dishes.

Thanks ...

what about a plain risotto?
baked sweet potato with cream cheese
roasted tomatoes on ciabbata
DS has plenty of quorn and stuff like that so can't really help much more (He is veggie at nursery only) but we eat quite a lot of veggie stuff anyway

Baked rice is yummy - with chopped red onion

Veg rissotto is OK, she'd eat that. Not sure about the roasted tomatoes (no meal was complete without a tomato until she was three, and she's refused to eat one even since!) but she likes ciabatta, so I could do something along those lines ... hmmm.

How would the baked rice work then? Haven't come across that before.

Most of my fairly fussy veggie children's favourites have been already ruled out by your list! Mine all particularly like cheese, egg, quorn.

IME if you have fussy-ish veggie children, quorn is terribly useful. Otherwise, any of the main "meat substitute" sausages and burgers - soya, say - tend to go down well with the fussier veggie children I know.

Apart from that, you could try:
Baked beans.
Chickpeas (in hummous, felafel, or just out of the tin).
Peanut butter
Nut roasts (but my fussy one won't eat that sort of thing).
Cashew nuts either on their own or in stir-fry (again, my fussiest wouldn't eat this).

I was shocked to find that my DC like puy lentils, cooked with some onion and garlic with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

They will also happily eat pasta with soft cheese and broccoli.

My DS was a vegetarian for a year(his choice). He reverted back after tasting duck confit while we were on holiday in France.

baked rice - boil rice until cooked (fry a couple of chopped red onions in olive oil and garlic) then put onion and rice into an oven proof dish and drizzle with a bit more olive oil
bake until crisp on top

How about wild mushrooms? These are so tasty on toast or ciabatta
what about roasted aubergine ... layer it with cheese sauce and tomatoes and bake

cous cous with loads of chopped herbs in - serve with a soup to bulk it out

what about red lentils? Or anything lentilly ...

I may have to give way on the Quorn. I suppose there are worse things she could be eating.

I don't think she'd go for nut roasts but again she's promised to try some new things so I could be wrong. She likes raw nuts but hasn't really had them cooked before.

She likes chickpeas ... I'm sure I could find some nice ways of doing them for her.

She won't eat cous-cous, RS ... but the baked rice sounds nice. And she's a big fan of mushrooms so maybe mushrooms on ciabatta would go down OK ...

Thanks.

Raw nuts and chickpeas sound hopeful. You can do loads with chickpeas.

None of mine are totally wild about lentils, which is a pain cos I love them and they're easy. but dd1 and dd3 will eat dahl etc if they're hungry and not much else is offered. And even fussy dd2 has recently decided she likes "lentil roast" at school dinners - because it comes in a pastry crust and she can't taste the lentils.

eh? I've clicked on this and there are no posts but it says on active conversations that there are 8 posts?????

spooky?

TECH! Where have all the conversations gone???
HEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!

Ruby, that was really odd wasn't it? Glad it wasn't only me!

We all enjoy:

veg korma with chickpeas (nice sweet taste with coconut and almonds in so plenty of protein and calories)

Veg kebabs with tofu

Wraps / pittas with hummus / felafel / salad

Veg stew with beans in

Nut and rice roast with the nuts ground fine, makes a smooth rather than crunchy texture

these are all things you could adapt to include the veg she likes

I don't think the lack of egg / cheese / quorn is a problem, but you need to be looking at good vegan nutrition and she needs to be agreeing to eat beans / lentils / nuts / seeds in some form on most days of the week

Simple favourites in this house include:

Lots of pasta dishes -whizz the tomato sauce with lots of veg and/or lentils. Topped with different cheeses depending on the type of dish

Soups seved with crusty bread- lentil, mixed veg, mixed bean

Curry

Puff pastry squares topped with things like tomato, asparagus and cheese served with new pots and salad

TBH my 2 will eat most things and are quite adventurous (at the moment anyway). Just keep persevering!

I agree with that, Franny. She's agreed to try lentils and different beans, which is a start - but I don't know whether she'll like them much or not.

I don't eat tofu but I could try dd with it. She won't eat curry but we could try something along those lines but without the heat in it.

The puff pastry things sound nice, Betty.

I would be quite pleased on the sly if she really did want to stay veggie, but she has to start eating a whole lot more things if it's going to work!

I second risotto (to which you can add any kind of vegetable). mine like all kind of soups as long as there's pasta (I suually break spaghetti into smaller pieces for soups) and lots of parmigiano reggiano.
pasta salads, with tomatoes and mozzarella are usually welcome here as well.

The korma is not hot at all, just mild and creamy

I did sort of bodge a recipe together but basically you fry the onions and spices, add veg, chickpeas, some of the veg cooking water or some stock, then add creamed coconut, raisins and ground almonds near the end when everything is tender

Another nice pasta sauce is creme fraiche, pesto, butter beans and fresh nutmeg. Grated parmesan on top.

Not too exotic tastewise so could be OK for her.

That sounds nice, Franny.

As does the pasta sauce, Betty.

Thanks

Couple of suggestions:

Puff Pastry Pizza
Take a block of pastry roll out thin. Place in oven to dry off - need to put a few fork holes in it first. When dry cover in grated cheese and whatever veggies they will eat - mushrooms, garlic and asparagus is very good and then place back in oven until golden. Serve with salad.

Veggie Toad in Hole
Place olive oil in bottom of cooking tray and any veggies they will eat, such as courgettes, mushrooms, onions, leeks and cover with batter - bake in oven