Most parents know the old challenge – trying to encourage children to “eat their greens.” Of course, some children are happy to wolf down broccoli, peas, spinach, even Brussels sprouts during festive meals. However, some aren’t, and they may even have quite pronounced food tastes. After all, vegetables can sometimes seem “yucky” due to their texture, presentation, or perhaps contrast to other caloric foods such as carbohydrates.
Of course, children really do benefit from enjoying the healthiest diet they can be exposed to. Sometimes, this means convincing your child that vegetables aren’t so bad is an important point to make. Unfortunately, simply telling them this is rarely enough for them to trust you. It’s incredible how headstrong a child can be. So, here are some suggestions on how to get your children to eat vegetables, and how to ensure they’re getting all the nutrients they need without repeated mealtime tantrums (from you or your child):
Roast & Steam Them
Even with salt in the water, boiling vegetables is possibly one of the dullest means of cooking them. Here some of the flavor profile leaks into the water, and the cooking method does nothing to add to the taste. Of course, it can certainly lead to a “cleaner” taste, like when we boil potatoes to mash them, but unless you’re opting for that specifically, this is a general truth.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with enjoying boiled vegetables but roasting, steaming and even chopping and sauteeing can intensify the flavor and if you add seasonings, it can give them a completely new flavor profile. Roast asparagus with a little garlic butter is delicious, for instance. This might help your child get over the faulty impression that green = bad. This wonderful guide that teaches you how to make perfectly grilled carrots is a good place to start.
Opt For Worthwhile Alternatives
It can be healthy to swap out foods they love with vegetable alternatives, and of course, with so much innovation in the vegan space, this is more possible than ever. From tasty plant-based sausages to simple switches, like sweet potato fries instead of regular fries, you can show how vegetables aren’t a chore to eat for health reasons, but a versatile, interesting, delicious component of many lovely meals. Demonstrating this to them can be ideal.
Hide Them Well
If your children really dislike vegetables and won’t even entertain you with a small suggestion, then of course, they still need to eat them. Luckily, you can hide these quite well, from mashing vegetables into your carbohydrates, dicing up carrots and celery in their bolognese, using the aforementioned alternatives, and even switching out snacks for healthier plant-based options like carrots and hummus instead of potato chips. On top of that, you may even include your children in your cooking effort each day, showing them basic, safe techniques, and asking them to prepare some vegetables so the mystique is lessened a little. Every small change helps.
Get Them Involved In Growing!
If you have any garden space at all, it can be worthwhile to grow a few vegetables throughout the year. Heading to your local gardening centre to buy some seeds, cultivating the soil, watering the patch, and seeing your carrots, tomatoes or root vegetables grow can be a fun time. It gives you a sense of ownership. There’s nothing like food you’re eating that you’ve gone to the trouble of cultivating yourself.
Of course, including your children in this can be a great idea, too. You might ask them to help out here and there while they’re playing in the summer, or to come to the allotment with you on a Sunday morning to pull some weeds. There’s a real understanding that simply cannot be delivered outside of direct experience here, and as children learn through osmosis, they may even begin to adopt the passion you share.
Now, that’s a lot of effort to go to for encouraging your child to eat vegetables. But again, if you have the opportunity, you may be able to hit two birds with one stone. On top of that, you get the benefit of cooking with perhaps the healthiest organic produce you could source. Any budding home cook will take their preparations to a brand new level if they give themselves that space.
With this advice, you’re sure to convince your children that vegetables have worth, and to get over those initial picky resistances many kids have. Over time, healthy eating will not become a negotiation, but a matter of course, helping you focus on other parenting challenges, of which there are many.
