Easy Ingredients and Recipes You Can Try
Picky eating issues for kids, especially toddlers, are now mainstream in the world of parenthood. While this is completely normal, no parent would want to miss out on the nutrition and health benefits that vegetables can offer to our kids.
To help you start your journey to having your kids eat healthy as early as their toddler years, I am listing here 10 vegetable recipes you can try to serve to your kids at any meal of the day. These recipes worked wonders for my baby and I hope this will work for you too!
10 Best Vegetable Recipes for Kids
- Roasted Bell Peppers
- Stuffed Bell Peppers
- Stir-Fried Broccoli
- Broccoli Tots
- Sweet potato chicken nuggets
- Carrot Fries
- Cauliflower Mac and Cheese
- Spinach Pesto Pasta
- Butternut Squash Muffins
- Roasted Asparagus
10 Best Vegetable Recipes for Kids
Below is a list of vegetables for kids that are great starters on this tough but healthy journey. I have listed them by veggie with recipe ideas you can try with each vegetable being the main star of the dish.
- Roasted Bell Peppers
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients: Bell Peppers, Olive Oil
Instructions: Prepare your peppers by cutting them into pieces. Place each piece on top of the stove or griller. Brush each side with olive oil and flip from time to time until both sides are cooked. If using an oven, do the same process and pop it in the oven at 400°C for 20 minutes.
How to Serve: You can eat them as is or you can thinly slice them and add them to salads, tacos and sandwiches.
- Stuffed Bell Peppers
Cooking Time: 35 minutes
Ingredients: Bell Peppers, Ground Beef, Tomatoes, Garlic Powder, Seasoning, Shredded Cheese
Instructions: Cut open the peppers at the top portion. Sauté your ground beef and tomatoes and add seasonings. Let it simmer until cooked. Once cooked and cooled down, stuff the sautéed beef onto the sliced peppers and top with shredded cheese.
How to Serve: Best served as sides to your grains such as white rice, quinoa or cauliflower rice.
- Stir-Fried Broccoli
Cooking Time: 25 minutes
Ingredients: 1 pound broccoli florets, ½ chicken broth, 1 tablespoon of the following: soy sauce, sesame seeds, sesame oil, cooking oil, and minced ginger, 2 cloves minced garlic
Instructions: Heat the cooking oil in a small saucepan and add the garlic. Stir until fragrant and add the broccoli pieces. Stir until slightly soft and add ginger, sesame oil and soy sauce to taste. Add the chicken stock and adjust accordingly. Leave to simmer until broccoli is tender.
How to Serve: Can be served as a main course or as a side to rice or steak.
- Broccoli Tots
Cooking Time: 25 minutes
Ingredients: Cooked brown rice, broccoli, eggs, bread crumbs and cheese
Instructions: Soak your broccoli in a bowl of hot water to soften it. Cut it into pieces when soft, and add the rest of the ingredients and blend into a food processor. When fully blended, take a spoonful of the mixture and form a cube or form them into tots and place them on a baking tray. Bake and serve warm.
How to Serve: Can be served as a snack with ranch sauce or ketchup.
- Sweet potato chicken nuggets
Cooking Time: 22 minutes
Ingredients: Ground chicken, mashed sweet potatoes, bread crumbs, eggs, salt &
pepper, garlic powder
Instructions: Mix your ground chicken with the mashed sweet potatoes, and eggs and
season with salt & pepper and garlic powder. Get a spoonful of the batter and make small balls, soak in the eggs, and roll in the breadcrumbs. You can fry or bake them, at your preference.
How to Serve: This recipe can be paired with any food you like but I recommend keeping it simple and basic. To make it more balanced, since it’s a protein-source food already, you might want to eat it with rice or other grains.
- Carrot Fries
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients: Carrots, Olive oil, Salt
Instructions: Wash and slice the carrots lengthwise like the size of the ordinary fries, while preheating your oven at this time. Sprinkle some salt (or you can do it when cooked). Lay them all on the baking tray and put them in the oven. Bake and serve with ketchup or any sauce.
How to Serve: Eaten as snacks paired with ketchup and an ice-cold juice or smoothies.
- Cauliflower Mac and Cheese
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients: Cauliflower, macaroni elbow pasta, cheddar cheese, milk, butter, salt &
pepper.
Instructions: Cut the cauliflower into florets and put in a pot of boiling water together with the elbow macaroni pasta and leave to cook. Add the boiled cauliflower to a blender, with the milk, cheese, butter, salt & pepper and blend until smooth. Add the cheese mixture to the cooked pasta and stir. Serve warm.
How to Serve: Eaten as a main course meal.
- Spinach Pesto Pasta
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients: Spinach, Fresh lemon, Olive oil, Grated Parmesan cheese, Roasted sunflower seeds, pasta
Instructions: Boil your pasta ahead, until al dente. For the pesto, gather all the ingredients and put them into the blender or food processor and pulse until smooth. Get a handful of the pesto enough for your pasta and pour it into a mixing bowl with the cooked pasta. Place on a clean plate and top with parmesan cheese. Store the remaining pesto in an airtight container and place it in the fridge.
How to Serve: Can be eaten as a main course dish with garlic bread on the side.
Airtight Containers for Sauce:
- Butternut Squash Muffins
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients: quick oats, whole wheat flour, butternut squash puree, applesauce (or apple butter) butter, eggs, maple syrup, vanilla, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon
Instructions: Prepare a muffin tray by greasing it with melted butter and preheat the oven. In two different bowls, combine the dry ingredients and the wet components including the mashed squash. Pour the batter into the muffin tins in an equal layer. A cake tester put into the center should come out clean after baking.
How to Serve: Best served as a breakfast paired with a hot coffee or a chocolate drink.
- Roasted Asparagus
Cooking Time: 12 minutes
Ingredients: 2 bunches of asparagus, 2 tablespoons olive oil, salt & pepper
Instructions: Preheat the oven to 375°F and wash your asparagus right after. Pat dry the asparagus with a kitchen towel and wet it with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt & pepper and lay them side by side on a baking tray. Pop it in the oven until cooked, for 12-15 minutes.
How to Serve: Serve warm as a side dish or tossed into pasta, ravioli, rice, or a salad.
Conclusion
Vegetables are, no doubt, great sources of vitamins and minerals that play a very crucial role in a child’s development. We, as parents, want nothing but the best for our kids and the best way to show it is by ensuring that they consume an adequate amount of nutrients which we all can get from vegetables and fruits.
Although they will eventually like it in the future, it’s still best to start them young. These vegetables will further help them in their cognitive and physical growth especially that nutrition along with exercise and lifestyle, is their only way to catch up and keep up with the changes in their bodies and environment.