HOW TO EAT MORE VEGETABLES WHEN YOU LOVE MEAT MORE 5 Ways to introduce this foreign food group into your life – Part 1 When you’ve grown up eating a certain way, it’s hard to change your habits. My memories of vegetable dishes growing up include soggy beansprouts, made all the grosser, because my mum insisted I help her pick the ends off a whole basket of the skinny things, before she cooked them. I hated that job - and the dish. Then she’d cook saucy lettuce. Again wilted salad. I couldn’t stand the taste and texture of it. I lived in Boston the winter after I graduated from university. It wasn’t easy to find fresh vegetables. I suppose it’s tough to grow anything with a windchill of -30 degrees. But I have to admit, I wasn’t looking that hard. Instead, I happily got through the winter with a freezer filled with meat and icecream - and a pantry filled with chocolate. For some reason, when you’ve got a kid, it suddenly dawns on you that ice-cream, chocolate, and meat don’t cut it and you’ve got to get your act together, for their sake. And yours, because you suddenly seem that little bit older and perhaps you need to grow up a little and eat those 2–3 servings of vegetables. It’s been a struggle, but over the past 5 years, I’ve found ways to invite more vegetables into our meals. Perhaps these ideas will help you too: 1. Experiment with the magic of growing I’ve never had a green thumb. Growing up, my family grew strawberries, chilies, and lemons. But my Malaysian-Chinese dad saw gardening as a chore and my mum wasn’t into it. So I didn’t get involved. In the last few years, I’ve been drawn to edible gardens. Unfortunately, I barely manage to keep an orchid or succulent alive. Thankfully, my husband is half Italian, half Greek so it’s in his blood—and he’s taken charge of our organic home food bowl. As the beautiful baby kale, sweet cherry tomatoes, and luscious carrots have grown, I find myself drawn to the garden. There’s something magical about planting a seed or seedling, giving it a bit of water and seeing it thrive. If you too don’t have a green thumb but are keen to grow your own food, here are a few baby steps I’ve taken that may work for you too: ● Get a fresh bunch of mint and place a few sprigs into a glass of water next to your kitchen tap. You won’t miss the excitement of seeing roots sprout up in a few weeks. You can then replant them into a pot later—or if they don’t make it, just buy a mint plant and chuck it straight into a pot of soil in a shady spot outdoors. ● Grow seedlings in empty egg cartons. Add them to a tomato and vegetable growing mix, keep them on your windowsill, and water them each day. ● Schedule regular times to see if your plants need watering each day and week. I check my mint every 2 mornings. And water our indoor plants once a week on Saturday or Sunday morning. 2. Flick through cookbooks When you’ve got a kid, you end up going to libraries again even though you vowed never to, because you kept forgetting to take books back and getting fines. Thankfully, I’ve discovered incredible cookbooks that have opened my eyes to the world of crunchy beansprouts and lovely lettuces, that can be drizzled with gorgeous dressings that take vegetables from yuk to mmm. I’ve learned that fresh celery is refreshing rather than horrible, if it’s cut super thin and served up with apple, walnut, and dijon mustard, honey, orange dressing. I’ve learned that any
form of lettuce tastes less like rabbit food when textured up with feta, nuts, fruit, croutons, noodles, and if you can’t help yourself, bits of crunchy bacon. I’ve learned the oven isn’t just for cooking luscious fall-apart-in-your-mouth lamb shanks, or beef and cranberry sausage rolls— it does wonders for veggies too. Think parmesan and smoked paprika encrusted cauliflower ‘popcorn’. And eggplant, pumpkin, zucchini lasagna - (surprisingly I was told this tasted better than my meat lasagna!) Immerse yourself and you too will find the wonderful world of vegetables isn’t limited to bitter steamed Brussel sprouts and bland overcooked carrots and beans like they serve in hospitals, (they can’t possibly have any nutrients left in them.) Currently, the top 3 cookbooks that make me drool over vegetables and get creative with new vegetable recipes include: Plenty—Yotam Ottolenghi, Salads—Sue Quinn and Cooking with Kindness—Collected by Pam Ahern (A scrumptious collection of recipes from Australia’s best vegan chefs and restaurants.) 3. Cook for a child (or pretend you have to cook for one) My daughter doesn’t like broccoli. Or beans. Although sometimes I can convince her to eat peas. No peppers or celery. Yes to cucumbers and carrots—but only if they’re crunchy. It’s kind of frustrating. I get both the kid’s perspective—and the parent’s perspective now. I used to get annoyed when my mum ruined a perfectly good dish by chucking a whole lot of veggies into it. Can’t we just have her delicious roasted chicken and homemade chips every damn day?! I see the light now: vegetables are a food group that we need to be eating more from, than the ice-cream and chocolate food group. I’ve gotten so sneaky since becoming a mum. On the other hand, it’s helped me eat more vegetables. Here’s what I do: ● Add any combination of zucchini, carrot, kale, red lentils, and sweet potato to pumpkin soups. ● Hide little bits of mushroom and zucchini in Bolognese sauces and pies (but peel the skin off the zucchini). ● Add vegetables to fruit smoothies. ● Grate veggies into sausage rolls. ● Dim the dining room lights, so no one can see exactly what’s in the delicious stew. To be continued... *Photo by Dovile Ramoskaite on Unsplash Cynthia Marinakos
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