Ideas for increasing vegetables in our diet please.

[Quooker]

I love vegetables, as does my family. However the teens seem to live on sandwiches and bowls of cereal during the day and I am trying to lose weight. Therefore I am looking for ways to up the veg in dinner dishes. We eat mostly vegetarian anyway, only 2 omnivores.

So for example I have made a bolognese sauce today with Quorn mince, but added a tin of lentils and an extra tin of tomatoes. I will freeze half for another day.

I also blitz a cauliflower each week to serve with or instead of rice.

Does anyone have any ideas like this that they care to share?

JUst make veg the star of the show, stuffed peppers or mushrooms.
Hearty root vegetable stews with pearl barley.
Vegetable stir fry with cashews
Sweet potato and red pepper curry
Baked butternut squash falafels
Jack Monroe’s carrot and kidney bean burgers
Vegetable and bean chilli
Shakshuka
Veggie shepherds pie with lentil and topped with mashed swede and parsnip.
You can grate extra carrots and cOurgettes into bolognaise or pasta sauces.
Broccoli and Stilton pasta bake
I love dry roasted cauliflower. I just blanch it, tip onto baking tray, sprinkle with curry power and nigella seeds, cracked black pepper and rock salt and spray with oil. Put in a hot oven for 10 mins.

Beans on toast or shakes for breakfast

These are really good. I make a batch for the freezer. I’ve made them as meatballs too.
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4507/mini-chicken-bagel-burgers-

Omelettes with stuff like spring onions, cherry tomatoes
Fajita/tacos with onions, peppers, guacamole and salsa
Cucumber, salad leaves, grated carrot in sandwiches
Add veg to everything. If I was making spaghetti bol I would add finely chopped onion, celery, mushrooms, carrot
Stews get the same but bigger sizes!
Sweet potato mash
Add a banana/berries to cereal
Roasted kale (dump a bag of the chopped stuff on a baking tray, stick in oven until crispy) and add some Nando's peri salt. It's like crack and I consumed a bag a day for months

I am LAZY with veg so as well as the above I often just tip a bag of that frozen steam veg on my plate alongside whatever I'm having as a way of upping it

Bologanse can take loads of veg like carrots, peppers, mushrooms etc
Try spinach in white/cheese sauces
Veg soups
Veg smoothies
Fruit in cereal/Porridge
Fruit juice
Wraps with chicken, lots of salad/cucumber and a sauce (bbq, hosion, sweet chilli) instead of sandwiches

Sweet potatoes chips/wedges instead of fries

I serve everything with roasted tenderstem broccoli
Adding grated carrot/courgette to Bolognese
If you made a quorn curry add peas

What sort of things do you cook it might be easier to advise

Load pizzas with extra veg toppings. If I buy a margarita pizza, I’ll add mushrooms and peppers.
Vegetable crumble www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1759643/wintry-vegetable-crumbles
Frittatas are a great way of getting extra veg www.bbc.com/food/recipes/fruitalia_91683
realfood.tesco.com/recipes/pea-broccoli-and-cheddar-frittata.html
These enchiladas are packed full of veg www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/veggie-enchiladas/
Put veg in burgers realfood.tesco.com/recipes/carrot-and-feta-burgers.html

Have veg for dessert! www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2534665/courgette-loaf-cake
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/749700/beetroot-brownies

Current favourites are

Chickpea, butternut squash, paneer and spinach curry

Courgette, pepper and carrot cooked with tomatoes and mixed grains topped with cheese

Veggie burger and sweet potato fries

Wraps with salad / protein

Pasta with spinach sauce / lasagne

Cottage pie with sweet pot mash

Ooo, fab Ricekrispie, can always rely on you for good ideas. I hadn’t eaten thought of desserts. That crumble looks good as well.

I make a nice fajita pasta. Chop up courgette, onion and peppers fry them off in a little bit of olive oil and add a fajita seasoning sachet. Add to pasta. 'Tis delicious and you don't notice there is no meat. You can add chicken if you like.

@daffydowndilys that’s sounds nice, what seasoning do you use?

I never notice there is no meat because I am vegetarian

Its lovely, I use an old El Paso fajita seasoning mix. You could probably add other veggies too.

Sweetcorn and black beans perhaps.

I make a large batch of Mediterranean veg baked in the oven on a Sunday, then split into pots for a single serving size, fridge and microwave a pot when needed - often use instead of rice/ potatoes with meat, or just add some chickpeas etc for a quick meal.

I don’t use fake meat substitute, so will make cottage pie using tinned lentils & vegetable - courgette/frozen peppers/spinach or kale

Chilli will be three different beans, chunks of aubergine, peppers, tomato

Artichokes is something I’m in the process of trying to incorporate into our diet - if you have any good ideas

Ratatouille is a great main dish served with sweet potato and broccoli ( which I just found out today has enormous amounts of protein)

Spiralizer. I love mine. Then courgette or carrot is 'noodles or pasta'.

Ivy, the artichokes in oil in jars are amazing on their own, mixed into salad, and no faff

That’s interesting about broccoli, we do eat that quite a bit.

I do have a spiralizer, but it’s not very good. Is it worth investing in a better one do you think? How do you cook courgette noodles?

I order a veg box then whatever is in there I design meals around them.
Can be a bit of a chore though!
At the moment I am having a lot of roast veg.

Madaunt- thanks 😊

I make a bolognaise with lentils, onion, carrots, celery, leeks, mushrooms, tinned tomatoes etc. You can also add aubergine, courgette, peppers.
I serve either in a halved and pre-roasted red peppers, or inside a sweet potato jacket, or with sweet potato wedges, and green beans and/or brocolli.

This veggie pie is great, and I top with half sweet potato/half carrot mash. Also serve with brocolli and green beans. (I don't bother with the breadcrumbs topping bit)
www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/vegan-shepherd-s-pie/

Another good tip is to do butterbean mash instead of potato. Just semi-drain butterbeans, leave a bit of the liquid in the tin. Tip into frying pan with dried thyme, garlic, lemon juice and heat through, then mash. Can enrich with butter/cream etc if you like.
Or do swede or sweet potato mash with any recipe instead of normal white potato.

Cauliflower mash is delicious and we love homemade vegetable soups, curried parsnip and apple, mushroom and leek, beetroot and coconut. There are so many, give it a google. Very filling and satisfying without too many calories.

Also, use layers of grilled aubergine in lasagne instead of/in addition to the pasta sheets.

You can top soups with roasted chickpeas instead of having bread/croutons. Just drain and roast on a tray with oil, lemon, honey, S&P and whatever spices you like.