If you’re anything
like the 93.2% of the population (ABS, 2014) who aren’t meeting their
recommended vegetable intake, you’ll know that meeting the 5 a day can be
difficult. But it doesn’t have to be! Here’s my guide to up your intake and
enjoy your vegies in the process!
The Australian Guide to Healthy Eating recommends 5 serves of vegetables a day for most adults
(slightly more for younger and middle-aged men and lactating women).
But what’s a serve?
A serve of veg is
about 75g which is equivalent to:
- ½ cup
cooked vegetables
- 1 cup
salad vegetables
- ½ medium
potato or sweet potato
- 1 medium
tomato
- ½ cup
cooked legumes (beans, peas, lentils)- that’s right, legumes count as a veg!
So, how do you fit all of that into a day?
As an example, you
could aim to include 2 cups of salad veg with lunch and 1.5 cups of cooked veg
with dinner. Alternatively, you could experiment with including vegies in your
cooked brekky or raw vegie sticks into a snack.
My top tips for a vegie-packed day:
1. Make buying vegetables a main part of your
weekly shop so you always have something in the crisper, pantry or freezer.
And
they don’t all have to be fresh, cans of tomatoes and legumes, or frozen peas
and other vegetable mixes are just as good!
2. Stuck in a vegie rut? Try a vegetable you
haven’t tried before.
Sick
of the same carrots, peas and broccoli? Make an effort to try a new seasonal veg
each week- eggplant, leek, silverbeet? Here’s looking at you!
3. Spice things up… literally!
Plain
veg can be a little bland- toss your vegies through with herbs, garlic, chilli,
nuts, dukkah or lemon juice and make vegies the flavour stand-out of the dish!
4. Experiment with different cooking methods.
Do
you usually just boil or steam your veg? Why not try spraying with a little
olive oil and stir-frying, roasting or barbequing your veg? Charred,
caramelised or crispy vegies add a whole other dimension.
5. Sneak some extra veg into your casseroles, pasta
dishes or even sweet baking!
Boost
the fibre of your meal by replacing some of the meat with lentils, red kidney
beans or chickpeas, grated carrot or zucchini, finely sliced mushroom or capsicum
or a handful of spinach. And they don’t just have to be in savoury meals- carrot
and cinnamon in a cake are a match made in heaven and beetroot and chocolate
are delicious too!
6. Dish out your vegies first, not last, when
plating up.
An
easy way to ensure you meet your serves is to regularly stick to the ¼, ¼, ½ plate
rule and dish out ½ a plate of vegies followed by the protein and carbohydrate
portions of the meal.
7. Eat the rainbow.
And
no, I don’t mean the Skittles rainbow. Try eat a range of vegetable colours
every day- red, orange, green, purple, white- they all contain different
vitamins and minerals, so eating a variety will mean you make it easier to meet
all your nutrient needs. Aim for at least 3 different colours or types of veg
on every plate.
8. Don’t ‘save’ all your vegie portions for dinner- spread them
throughout the day.
Some
grilled tomato, mushrooms and wilted spinach with eggs & toast for brekky,
some roasted chickpeas or carrot and celery sticks with hommus for a snack, and
a delicious salad sandwich or leftover stir-fry for lunch. Just to name a few!
9. Join the meat-free Monday revolution.
Change
the way you think by planning meals around types of veg rather than types of
meat. Stuffed capsicums, cauliflower ‘rice’, grilled vegie stack, lentil
burgers, red kidney bean burritos or pumpkin soup. There are so many delicious
dishes that make vegies the star.
10. Get
in touch with nature and where your vegies are coming from.
Why not
grow your own vegie patch? It doesn’t have to be big and there’s something very
satisfying about eating home-grown, nothing-added, fresh-as-you-can-get veg!
Don’t have the space? Check out your local farmer’s markets and get to know the
growers.
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| Image source: taste.com |
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