#ExtraVeg – a simpler way to a healthier diet.
There is plenty of scientific research showing that increasing one’s daily consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables reduces the risks of heart disease, cancers, obesity and lowers overall mortality. Government guidelines suggest we should aim to consume five portions of fresh fruit and vegetables to maintain good health, but new advice released last year recommends increasing this to 7 or even 10 portions per day.
Vegetables are naturally high in fibre, filling you up quicker, meaning if you include plenty in your diet you will, by default, eat fewer unhealthier foods.
So how do you get this Extra Veg into your diet?
In this food blogging challenge from Helen at Fuss Free Flavours, and Michelle at Utterly Scrummy, which I had the pleasure of guest hosting for the month of March, food bloggers from around the world were asked to share the recipes they make which add an extra portion of vegetables into their meal.
Do feast your eyes on this month’s beautiful selection!
Johanna over at Green Gourmet Giraffe considers soups to be dumping grounds for leftover and tired vegetables. This recipe is packed full of leftover vegetables, from pumpkin, cherry tomatoes and a good dose of healthy kale!
Sus over at Rough Measures gets creative with a vegan sweet potato and ginger cookie recipe made with roasted sweet potato, fresh ginger root, wholemeal flour and plenty of oats! Gorgeous!
Get the recipe.
Sweet potato is a very versatile root vegetable, and Kate over at Veggie Desserts uses it in these gorgeous sweet potato maple brownies – vegetables, and chocolate, together – and it’s good for you!
Risotto is livened up in this dish with the addition of roasted butternut squash, roasted red peppers and some sun-dried tomatoes from Eating, Enhanced. Sunshine, in a bowl!
Janet over at The Taste Space impresses with this simple but elegant tofu and kale bowl with a curried peanut sauce. I’m a big fan of kale, and I bet it would taste fantastic with her curried peanut sauce. Lovely!
Sadhna over at Herbs, Spices and Traditions transforms tofu and kale into a delectable side dish spiced with cumin and coriander. I can almost smell it!
Beetroot, onions, cucumber, tomatoes, olives and feta cheese are combined in this giant couscous Greek salad by Chardonnay & Samphire – a feast fit for a prince!
Get the recipe!
Caroline over at Caroline Makes breaks away from tradition and creates a superb leek loaded pesto for her pasta dish – stunning!
Kate, the Gluten Free Alchemist, creates a classic side dish – Honey-Glazed Thyme-Roasted Spring Carrots & Parsnips. Isn’t it just beautiful! Just the name of it alone gets me salivating…
Linsy at Real Home Cooked Food shares two beautiful vegetable loaded recipes this month. Such vibrant colours!
Get the recipe for Roasted Vegetables and Black Bean Stuffed Poblano Peppers.
Get the recipe for Vegetables in Pumpkin Gravy.
Cindy over at Seasonal Holiday Recipe Exchange sneaks an extra portion of carrots into her spaghetti with meat sauce and her meat loaf cupcakes with mashed potato frosting, a favourite with her grandchildren!
Get the recipe for the spaghetti with meat sauce.
Get the recipe for the meatloaf cupcakes with mashed potato frosting.
Ren Behan greets Spring with this beautiful and vibrant green smoothie made with baby spinach leaves, pea shoots and pak choi.
Kellie over at Kellie’s Food to Glow is a culinary genius. Just look at the creation above! Don’t you want to jump into the photo and start eating!
FORGET DIETS AND EAT A GENEROUS PORTION OF (RAW) VEGETABLES WITH EVERY MEAL WHENEVER YOU CAN.
Fuss Free Helen’s philosophy is simple, and as the gorgeous recipes above illustrate, it can be remarkably easy to sneak an extra portion of vegetables into each meal.
To help you on your vegetable journey we are delighted to announce that Wholegood, an organic fruit and vegetable supplier in London, have offered the prize of one veg box for a randomly selected #ExtraVeg entry each month (selected via random.org)! Wholegood vegetable boxes can only be delivered in Ocado areas and contents of the veg box will change depending on season and availability. Watch the space for the winner announcement!
If you are feeling inspired, April’s #ExtraVeg is being hosted over at Jo’s Kitchen.
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Ooey Gooey Gluten Free Brownies
Time to plan my recipes for the next few weeks – hopefully ill get the boys eating MORE VEG – sure these recipes will entice them !
I love the idea of a tomato and pistachio soup.
Perfect! Will definitely be trying these, great for my hubby who would rather just have a plate of meat and for the children too who like veg but some lovely meals here!
A lovely round up Elizabeth. Thank you for hosting.
Will give some of these a try
Such a great round up of recipes -I am all for dumping vegies in a stew but less good at side dishes – so tonight I had a red capsicum with my dinner. So I love all the inspiring ideas here.
Some yummy recipes, thanks for sharing Elizabeth. Definitely a kick start to eating more veggies.
Some great ideas, thank you
Beautiful round-up Elizabeth. Thanks for hosting. The colour of the beetroot cous cous salad is stunning!
Ha Ha, Nice way to slip in veggies into my food. I’m gonna be super vigilant next time. Gonna go detective.
Excellent tips!
Great tips, thanks!
Sadly just missed this with my butternut squash muffins. Masses of inspiration for extra veg 🙂
Some lovely recipes here! Absolutely love the look of the savoury cake, and I would never have thought of putting pistachios in soup!!
I always love these blogging challenges as folk come up with such creative ideas! 🙂
Great round up! Thanks for featuring my recipe 🙂
Thank you for linking up! 🙂 It’s always a pleasure meeting new bloggers through these challenges!
What a wonderful and varied collection! I really do have to make Kate’s Sweet Potato Brownies. They look and sound stunning. Thanks for hosting; the layout is very eye-pleasing. PS Thanks for including my savoury vegetable cake. 🙂
Don’t Kate’s brownies look divine! Your cake is a show stopper too! Glad you like the layout – it’s nice when all the entries work together as a whole like this.
I do many of these for my husband, as he is not great at eating vegetables. I’m sharing this on Twitter 🙂
Thank you Danni, and lucky husband to have you cooking such lovely recipes for him! 🙂
Very nice round-up Elizabeth, what a nice collection of vegetables recipes.Thanks for hosting.
Eating vegetable is not a problem for me because I am vegetarian, Are you hosting ” extra veg April ” again.
Thanks Sadhna, glad you enjoyed! Jo over at Jo’s Kitchen is hosting April’s challenge. 🙂
A lovely round up, thanks for including my smoothie, love Kellie’s vegetable cake!
Thank you for linking your gorgeous smoothie up, and yes, isn’t Kellie’s cake amazing!
So many great recipes. i love to overload any dish we make with extra veggies…usually becomes a one dish meal too!
Sounds fantastic Marjory! A great way to cook 🙂
Nice roundup Elizabeth. I have my eye on a couple of them.
There are certainly plenty of inspiring recipes this month, that’s for sure! 🙂
Oh wow, this is beautifully collated Elizabeth. So many delicious looking recipes. Can’t believe I forgot to add my nettle smoothie!
So glad you like the look of it, Choclette – and I’m sure your smoothie can be added to April’s linky! 🙂
Goodness what a load of beautiful recipes!
I agree! Such inspiration! 🙂
I try very hard to have my veg and fruit, they help keep me at my ideal weight. Love the meatloaf cakes, I thought they were carrot cakes at first, great idea for children.
Eating plenty of fruit and veg is certainly favourable on the waistband, that’s for sure! 🙂
I always struggle with no eating enough veg so thanks for sharing these great tips on how I can incorporate more goodness into my meals x
Sometimes it can be a struggle to include enough of them in a meal, which is why challenges like this are so useful – lots of inspiration! 🙂
SO many delicious ideas! Thank you so much for hosting and compiling this fab round-up 🙂
Thanks for the opportunity to guest host – it’s been my pleasure! 🙂