What are your favourite ways to enjoy fruit and veg?

[BurntOut1]

With spring coming in I am finding an urge to eat more fruit and veg. I can genuinely find it delicious (thinking honey roasted carrots, braised red cabbage) but I am looking for more ideas.

What ways of preparing fruit and veg do you have that are seriously delicious?

Particularly looking for salady or lunch/meal ideas,

I love the green roasting tin cookbook so should get that back out.

No diet talk please celebration of delicious food (which happens to be nutritious) only!

I love fruit and veg.

Here are two ideas.

Stuffed Portabello mushrooms. Straightforward, not too fiddly or time-consuming, not expensive, tasty, healthy, so ticks every box. Adapted a bit from this: www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/feta-stuffed-mushrooms-mustard-slaw.

Stalks should be removed and added to stuffing mix. Place mushroom caps on baking tray, oiled, brush/pour a little oil on caps, bake in hot oven for a few minutes. Recipe said gills down, I didn’t notice, didn’t matter.

Stuffing –for five caps, I used about 100g Feta, mashed up with a fork, quite a lot of chopped parsley (at least 2 tbs), 2-3 cloves garlic, chopped fine, several walnut halves roughly chopped, the mushroom stalks, also roughly chopped, salt, pepper, some burghul. The recipe said to boil the burghul for 8 minutes. Didn't need quite as long as that. Burghul could easily be replaced by wholemeal breadcrumbs or cooked rice. Mix all ingredients together, spread over mushroom caps (gill side up), bake for 10-15 minutes until heated through and lightly coloured on top.

I served them with stuffed peppers. The peppers (any colour, or a mixture of colours) were stuffed with an improvised mixture of cooked brown rice, fried spring onions, garlic, cinnamon and pine nuts, currants, parsley, lemon juice. The peppers were placed in a casserole where I had a thick tomato sauce (red onions, garlic, tomatoes, oil, salt, pepper, oregano, basil) and to which I had added sliced runner beans (raw). Casserole in oven for at least half an hour. Worked very well.

I love making a roasted vegetable tomato sauce, and serving it over courgetti with some feta & chopped pistachio on top.

What about a pear, Parmesan & blue cheese salad with plenty leaves.

Tomatoes chopped up with a drizzle of olive oil & some sea salt. Simple but perfection.

Asparagus dippers with soft boiled eggs

Steamed broccoli with Parmesan shavings

Cucumber, celery, spinach & pineapple smoothie

Frozen grapes.

Mango sprinkled with tajin.

Strawberries with balsamic

Oh these are making my mouth water and exactly what I had in mind! Much appreciated.

Portobello mushrooms are also lovely stuffed with bolognaise. I am vegan so do them with lentil bolognaise in. Really filling and a nice change from pasta

I’m big on veg, not so keen on fruit.
Love salads and eat them everyday.
I go with a base of iceberg, little gem, cos, spinach, pea shoots, grated carrot or water cress. Usually a couple of those combined.
Then add crunch with any of peppers, radish, celery(almost always!)
An onion element usually red onion or spring onion.
Sweetness from either cherry tomatoes, sweetcorn, Beetroot, or a fruit, apple, pineapple, pear, mango, cranberries all feature from time to time.
I also like to add a pickled veg like gherkins, beetroot or pickled red onion.
I often add a hot veg too, cauliflower dusted with spices, red onion, peppers, courgette, carrot, butternut squash, chickpeas etc all of which I season or add a spice or garlic to before spraying with a spray of spray of oil and baking.
Then a protein, flavoured chicken, tuna, boiled egg, chickpeas, ham, falafel.
I’m not a fan of oil based dressings so use balsamic vinegar.
Some times I add a sprinkle of seeds or some crushed riveta thins for a little extra crunch.

Other thing I make
Homemade apple slaw with a fat free yoghurt dressing
Grated carrot with poppyseeds and a lemon and lime dressing
Watermelon, cucumber and red onion salad
Homemade beetroot and horseradish dip with crudités.
Ratatouille
I also like bamboo shoots, water chestnuts and green bean stir fried with garlic.
Leeks cooked then seasoned, put into an oven proof dish, topped with Parmesan and breadcrumbs and grilled.

Ching He huang has a great cookbook called “Asian green” which is entirely plant based. Everything I’ve made from there has been delicious.

Indian food often has brilliant vegetable based dishes. I love pretty much any vegetable curry. This is a great biryani from a great site.
www.cookwithmanali.com/restaurant-style-vegetable-biryani/

I love chargrilled green veg. I do tender stem broccoli, leeks and spring onion chargrilled and then fry some halloumi dusted in paprika or cumin. When I flip the halloumi I add fresh chopped garlic, lemon juice and honey and let it caramelise. It's a popular lunch here and occasionally dinner.

Asparagus wrapped in parma ham and roasted in a hot oven with some cherry tomatoes on the vine and whole cloves of garlic - makes lovely snacky platter with some bread and perhaps some cream cheese or hummus.

Roasted cauliflower with cumin and a rice pilaf goes down well here.

Roasted asparagus or bbq.

Always roast more toms and peppers than we need then slice and add to omelette or salads.

Soy, chilli, garlic dressing for steamed green veg.

Coleslaw with asian style dressing and peanuts on top - have on the side with curries.

Coleslaw with oil and balsamic vinegar. Adding fennel is lovely.

Diane Henry or Xanthe Clay in the telegraph had a brilliant roasted veg dish with cauli, pots, chickpeas, pumpkin - then stir into spinach. Sometimes eat with sausages cooked with it all - sometimes just on its own or with couscous and yoghurt.

Pomegranate molasses over cooked roasted veg is delicious.

HFW Veg every day has some lovely ideas (some mighty strange ones too) but there's a few of his recipes on line.

I'm not massive on fruit or salad but I love roasted veg - I roast pretty much everything! Roasted broccoli/cauliflower/cabbage are great, done slowly on a low temperature in the oven with oil until golden/crispy then sprinkled with a bit of savoury seasoning. I often eat the leftovers cold as a packed lunch.
Roasted squash/sweet potato/red onion eaten cold with some feta is another good lunch.