How to add more veggies into your diet

We all know that fresh vegetables are amongst the healthiest foods in existence, and we all know that we need to be eating plenty of them each day if we wish to enjoy optimal health and wellbeing.

Vegetables are loaded full of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fiber, and other nutrients that do the body a whole world of good. From boosting the immune system to helping to ward off disease and give your skin a healthy glow, vegetables really are as amazing as health experts make them out to be.

Health experts recommend that we consume between 5 and 9 portions of fresh fruits and vegetables each day if we want to enjoy the benefits associated with fresh veggies. Unfortunately, if you’re not a fan of vegetables, this can be easier said than done.

If you struggle to eat your 5 portions per day, here are some handy tips on how to add more veggies to your diet.

Make a vegetable-rich soup

One of the easiest and also most delicious ways of getting more veggies into your diet is to make a vegetable-rich soup.

Making a soup is very easy as you can simply chop your veggies, fry them off, add your spices, add stock and then blend when cooked. As it is blended, it’s much easier to eat more veggies so you can really go overboard and get as many vegetables in there as you like.

There are heaps of soup recipes out there that are rich in vegetables, so why not take a look online or in some cookbooks until you find a recipe you like the sound of?

Make a juice

Ever since the documentary ‘Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead’ juicer sales have gone through the roof. Juicing has a whole variety of health benefits associated with it, with the added bonus of being a very simple way to get your 5 portions per day, at once.

Simply stock up on fresh fruits and vegetables, put them through your juicer, and enjoy. A general rule of thumb, however, is to go with 80% vegetables to 20% fruits per juice, as fruits are rich in fructose sugars.

With one glass of green juice, for example, you can potentially have as many as 9 different fruits and vegetables at once, and they taste surprisingly delicious too.

Snack on vegetable chips

Rather than snacking on deep fried potato chips which are usually laced with salt and various other additives, why not snack on baked vegetable chips instead?

Baked vegetable chips are exactly as they sound – thinly sliced vegetables, sometimes seasoned with herbs and spices, that are baked in an oven rather than fried in fat.

They’re crunchy and nutritious, not to mention very moreish and a great healthy snack option.

Bulk out meals with diced vegetables

Finally, if you don’t tend to enjoy large chunks of vegetables, why not finely dice them and add them to your meals to bulk them out and ramp up the nutritional value.

Take your favourite veggies, finely dice them, and add them to sauces, bases, soups, stews, curries, stir-fries, pies, casseroles, and much more.