In many homes it’s a constant battle to get kids to eat vegetables. Although this food group might be very good for you, there’s no denying that most children don’t find veggies very appealing.
Your mission, then, is to get your kids to eat, love and beg for dishes that only grownups know contain vegetables. The trick is to disguise, reinvent and hide veggies where kids least expect it—and to get them coming back for more! How? By using your superpowers and putting your imagination to work. Here are some tried and tested ideas.
Cauliflower Turned Into Pizza Dough
There’s nothing kids like better than pizza. And one way of camouflaging cauliflower is to make it into a healthy, flourless, gluten-free dough. You’ll need 1 small cauliflower, 1 egg, ½ teaspoonful of salt and a cup of grated cheese. The method is simple. Wash the cauliflower, remove the green leaves and grate it with a grater or mincer. Boil for 5 minutes on a medium heat, strain and leave to cool. Beat the egg, add salt and pepper and then the cheese and boiled cauliflower until you get a smooth mixture. Spread the mixture onto baking paper and bake in a preheated oven at 360 ºF.
Garden Hamburgers
Hamburgers are something else that children rarely turn their noses up at. They’ll never know that instead of meat, you used 2 onions, 3 carrots, 1 zucchini and 2 potatoes. Chop all the ingredients finely and sauté in a frying pan. When they’re soft, put into a bowl and add an egg, a teaspoonful of flour (you can add more if you see the mixture needs thickening up) and mix well until you get a smooth mixture. Shape into balls, flatten and fry in a frying pan. Since the vegetables are already cooked, you’ll only need to fry them until they’re golden brown on both sides.
Carrot and Zucchini Crème Caramel
You don’t have to use carrots and zucchinis—any vegetable will do. The trick is to turn them into a crème caramel without the kids realizing. It’s as simple as that. Sauté the finely chopped and grated vegetables and put to one side. Alternatively, you can steam and then puree them. For every 2 cups raw vegetables, you’ll need 4 eggs, 1 glass of milk and 1 glass of cream. Mix together with the cooked vegetables and pour into an oven mold. Place the mold in another container with a little water (to make a bain-marie) and cook in the oven for about 30 minutes at 360 ºF. Leave to cool and remove from the mold.