"Eat your vegetables" is an age-old phrase we hear from moms struggling to get their little ones to give veggies a chance. But it doesn't have to be a struggle! Here, we share some ideas for sharing vegetables with your toddler at every meal of the day (and snack time!):
I remember resisting vegetables when I was little. Looking back, though, I realize that it's because the vegetables I was offered were often boiled, mushy, colorless facsimiles of the good stuff. Some general ideas for getting off on the right foot:
- Roast! Roasting adds lots of flavor without adding seasoning and salt. Salt, it turns out, is highly addictive to babies and toddlers. So, if they become accustomed to salted foods (including vegetables) when they're young, they will be more resistant to eating non-salty foods as they grow. Try roasting chunks of carrots, potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, turnips... you name it, really! Toss in olive oil and roast at 400 degrees for about 15-20 minutes, depending on the size and thickness of your veggie. If a particular vegetable doesn't seem to soften enough with roasting alone, try lightly steaming first, then roasting. Which brings us to...
- Steam! Steaming keeps much more of the nutrients, texture, and taste intact than does boiling. Get a cheap steamer insert for your pot, bring about 1/2 inch of water to a boil, then steam your veggies, covered, until tender.
- Dehydrate! If your toddler is into snacking on crunchy finger foods, try making chips out of kale, sweet potatoes, even beets! Slice them thin with a knife or mandolin, toss in oil, then bake at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes. Add a little nutritional yeast for extra tastiness.
Here are some ideas my own toddler has liked for each meal of the day:
Breakfast: Scramble egg yolk with full fat Greek yogurt and a handful of chopped spinach.
Lunch: Make what we call broccoli buddies: bite-sized "cookies" made of a mixture of chopped fresh or frozen broccoli with whole wheat bread crumbs, shredded cheddar, and eggs, baked at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes. For more detail, check out the Broccoli and Cheese Nuggets at Wholesome Baby Food. You will eat them too, I promise!
Dinner: Tyler Florence's Cauliflower Gratin is one of my 16-month-old son's favorites. From Florence's book, Start Fresh, this particular recipe is available online but I'd recommend purchasing the book for more great ideas on veggies for toddlers.
Snack: Try making a smoothie of banana, a handful of fresh spinach, and full fat greek yogurt. The result is sweet, but you can even add a touch of honey and cinnamon. The veggie chips mentioned above are a great snack, too.
Readers, what tips do you recommend for helping your toddler to love vegetables?
Related: Family Mealtime: Cooking for Babies
It's Reader Request Week at The Kitchn! This post was requested by HACB.
(Image: Cheryl of Backseat Gourmet)
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My toddler (15 months old) eats a mini-frittata or two for breakfast almost every morning. I chop up whatever veggies I have on hand and drop them in the bottom of mini muffin tins. Occasionally I saute any harder vegetables (like carrots) or wilt some spinach, and sometimes I'll add chopped ham or shredded cheese. Then I whisk together a few eggs with some organic whole milk and fill the cups, and bake at 350 for about 12 minutes.
I make a batch of frittatas once every week or two, and throw what she won't eat in the next few days in the freezer, then defrost in the fridge overnight. It's so fast and easy in the morning! She loves her "eggies" and actually prefers them over sweeter breakfast foods. It's easier for me to provide enough vegetables for her daily if I really load her up at breakfast...and if I don't have to cook anything at 6:30am!
Most toddlers love Japanese flavors for umami burst. Try soy sauce, miso-based sauces, and ponzu.
Two tips that have worked well for my toddler and preschooler:
1) Eat them frozen! They love eating still-frozen peas and corn. In terms of snack preparation, it doesn't get much easier.
2) Designating the two hours before dinner "veggie time." They can snack as much as they want, but it has to be on vegetables. Often they'll nibble on the raw versions of the veggies I'm cooking for dinner, but steamed carrot sticks and avocado bowls (an avocado cut in half and eaten with a spoon) are big hits here.
All of these are great tips. My 20 month old had edemame and cubed butternut squash (leftover in the freezer from last fall) with a dash of hot pepper sauce, which he loves. The baby can handle spicier food than I!
I usually make a lentil vegetable soup once a month or so and then strain the broth for him and mix with plain whole milk yogurt. I freeze the leftover soup in small portions to defrost as needed. This might be his favorite meal. I just dice the vegetables he doesn't love (aka green beans) finely and add them to the soup.
Another idea is green smoothies. I take a few handfuls of frozen berries and a a few handfuls of spinach and add a little water to thin it out and dump it all in my blender. Frozen peas are another winner.
My boys aren't toddlers anymore, but they still sometimes eat as though they are! I have the best luck feeding them vegetables if I keep the veg separate from the rest of the meal. Cook up a few to have in a bowl that aren't mixed with pasta or rice or anything else. Also, sometimes I'll give them veg as a snack, when they aren't distracted by the rest of dinner. Then when dinner comes around I don't worry so much if they eat their veg.
I also let them tell me how to cook vegetables, and they're more likely to eat it. My older son invented a method of grating beets and toasting them in the toaster oven, and it became one of his favorite things!
I did come up with one recipe for broccoli I call "magic broccoli" because both boys like it so much they fight over the last pieces! Steamed and tossed with butter, tamari, honey, and dijon. They like strong flavors, sometimes!
My daughter loves broccoli barely steamed, immediately chilled, then sprinkled with lemon juice and salt.
So simple, so good.
I'm just getting into the pureeing for infants stage of solids, but we're going to treat it the way I was always told of the more you expose them to, the more likely you'll find some that stick. Like others mentioned, edamame, weirder veggies, just the more, diverse fruits/veggies, the more potential for interest.
I heard, like Kitinka said, some kids go nuts for frozen peas or green beans to chew on. Many I know with pickier kids find the "make it look cute" method works best too. A kid might not want to eat chopped up carrots, but carrot curls or ribbons are more fun to hold. We'll see!
put some butter or olive oil on cooked veggies! If your toddler is anything like mine they can use the calories anyway.
I made sure to serve my daughter everything, but not to worry about it if she didn't want it. Kids seems to have taste cycles: something they LOVE this month may be anathema next month, only to come back into rotation, so don't make yourself crazy. Just serve a variety and let it be. My daughter surprised me as a toddler by how much she loved asparagus, which she called sticks. Last week she declared herself "over" asparagus risotto, but will still eat it in frittatas. But she's re-in love with broccoli. Like I said, serve it and don't sweat the reaction.
I love the mini-frittatas-in-muffin-cups idea!
i have an 8-month-old who is very adventurous and who is getting to be SO OVER purees now that she can grab food and feed herself. the veggie-nugget idea occurred to me the other day and i'm glad there are already recipes out there i can follow for the best proportions!
but is there anything i can use to bind the veggie nuggets besides egg? she's had egg yolk, but i have a vivid childhood memory of my sister having a bad reaction to egg white as a baby and am nervous about introducing it at this age.
To those with only wee ones, or none yet:
Be aware that kids' tastes will change, and that which they would eat yesterday is inedible today. My kids have been off-again-on-again with carrots for years. You didn't do anything wrong. It's just what kids do. My daughter used to be really adventurous. My son ate anything I did. Now, they're both eating nothing, though swinging back to trying things again.
If they're not eating their veggies, before you start hiding them in things, or pulling your hair out to make them edible, remove all carbs from the dinner plate. Kids eat those first, and once they're full, they tend to pick. We never serve carbs with dinner, unless the veggies will be impossible to separate from them (like pasta).
If the above doesn't work, look into how many snacks they get during a day. Adults often don't coordinate that. I found out my son was getting four snacks between lunch and dinner, due to a transfer from school, to bus, to babysitter, to father. Everyone gave him a snack. No wonder he wasn't eating dinner.
Also: everything tastes better with butter. My daughter will eat two adult portions of butter fried parsnips, easily.