Hidden veg recipes

[Starrydream]

Does anyone have any tried and tested hidden veg recipes please? Particularly looking for main meals but anything else would be good too.

We have a very fussy 8yo that simply won’t eat any veg whatsoever (since a toddler) - it’s offered at every meal but he rejects it all no matter how it’s cooked / presented.

He has recently started to like spag bolognaise but rejects it if he can see any added veg (we like to add mushrooms, onions, red peppers) so a sauce that include some veg (but you definitely can’t taste it) would be good please.

Stick blender is your friend. Eg if he tolerates a sauce with tomato and onion, blend the tomato with peppers, courgette etc before adding to onions.

I often make meatballs in sauce and blend the sauce which has a few veg in, tell them it's just tomato. You do need to be careful it's nothing too bitter or that leaves traces like skin, pips etc.

My 7yo is fussy and will eat raw veg much more than cooked - so if we have spaghetti bol she'll have raw carrot and celery, pick meat out of the sauce. Or stir fry she'll have raw pepper, corn, carrot etc while ours is cooked. Would that work?

Cauliflower blended in with coconut milk makes a good thickener to a curry and can’t be tasted.

Likewise if you steam spinach and blend it with a little bit of water, it can then be mixed into a curry / stew.

if he’ll eat carrots, you can steam parsnips / butternut squash / swede and then blend them together with a load of butter.

Courgette is another good one for hiding - can be grated into eg bolognese.

Soffritto passata is a good store cupboard ingredient for getting some decent blended veg into a tomato based sauce.

My fave quick hidden veg recipes are pasta sauce based! The quickest/easiest is roasting pre cut trays of Mediterranean veg you can pick up in most supermarkets and whizzing it with a tin of tomatoes and nutritional yeast. We also do a pink pasta which is whizzed up coconut milk, beetroots and soaked cashew nuts with nutritional yeast. Also courgettes and peas blended again with NY! DS is very fussy but asks for red/green/pink pasta every day!

There's a great website and app called my fussy eater. It's has some great recipes for hidden veg, especially the tomato sauce for pasta and a chicken curry with so much veg packed into the sauce.

Meatballs www.juniormagazine.co.uk/lifestyle/meatballs-and-spaghetti-with-hidden-vegetables-for-children-recipe/
Risotto www.littledish.co.uk/kitchen/chicken-veg-risotto
Enchiladas www.tamingtwins.com/beef-enchiladas-recipe/
Pasta bake www.ocado.com/webshop/recipe/secret-veggie-pasta-bake/23305
Bolognese realfood.tesco.com/recipes/bolognese-with-hidden-veg.html
Shepherd’s pie https://idahoan.co.uk/recipe/hidden-veg-shepherds-pie/

Meatballs www.juniormagazine.co.uk/lifestyle/meatballs-and-spaghetti-with-hidden-vegetables-for-children-recipe/
Risotto www.littledish.co.uk/kitchen/chicken-veg-risotto
Enchiladas www.tamingtwins.com/beef-enchiladas-recipe/
Pasta bake www.ocado.com/webshop/recipe/secret-veggie-pasta-bake/23305
Bolognese realfood.tesco.com/recipes/bolognese-with-hidden-veg.html
Shepherd’s pie https://idahoan.co.uk/recipe/hidden-veg-shepherds-pie/

You can roast tomatoes, peppers, onion, garlic and anything else in the fridge for 20 mins, blitz with hand blender and add stock cube, tomato purée and herbs.

Really nice tomato sauce for pasta, bolognaise etc.