Eating Vegetables

I don't really like having vegetables on the side, I prefer them to be in the meal if that makes sense. So chilli/curry/bolonese style things are also full of peppers, onions, mushrooms etc and I put broccoli, mange tout, baby corns into stir fries. Soups are also a good one for chucking loads into.

With veg we usually either chuck it into what we are making or have a dish we can ahve veg on the side, like pie, chops, pasties or fish. (with things like cottage pie though we still have veg on the side.

What types of things do you struggle putting veg with? we might be able to give you some inspiration. most of the time, i serve veg on the side.

TBH meat is the minor part of most meals I cook and the veg is the main ingredient, eg last night I had a Thai soup with shallot, celery, chilli, cauliflower, peas, mushrooms, bns etc etc etc, and a little bit of chicken and a few prawns. Same with risotto, pasta bake etc. Or I might make roasted winter veg with a bit of chicken or chorizo and a salad on the side. That's pretty much the way we eat most week-night meals. Then if we want to make a big event out of having meat, eg a roast chicken, big slabs of steak, some nice fish or whatever, I'm pretty relaxed about not having loads of veg with it (although I don't think I ever make a meal that contains no veg). I seem to spend half my life chopping ?

Sorry if that didn't really answer your question!

We do the same with those dishes CD. H doesn't like soup so that doesn't work. If its a meat and potato dish - cottage pie, sausage and mash, pie and chips - then veg is fine (I just need to persuade H more!). Dishes I have problems with are pizza and, erm, I can't think of anything else. I don't think we eat enough veg but the last week we seem to have been quite good!

It didn't ? but its interesting to hear how other people eat. We don't eat all that much meat - its the carbs I need to cut down on!

Pizza is relatively easy as you can just put veggies on any pizza - we make our own, but when I was a kid my mum would always buy margarita pizza and put her own toppings on (which usually included anything in the fridge which needed finishing).

Peppers, mushrooms, spinach, sweetcorn, onions all work well on pizza.

? How ungrateful. <flounce>

Seriously, since I started getting an organic veg box, the way I think has changed - I see what vegetables I have as the focus of the meal, rather than thinking "Oh, I'll just steam some broccoli and have it on the side of my meal so I feel I'm getting some veg in my diet" and then not eating the broccoli. Like tonight, I've got corn on the cob in the fridge so dinner will be corn-focussed. It might be chicken with corn as a side veg, or something like a chowwder that's all about the corn.

Good point - I've just got to convince H that it needs more than pepperoni! I make them from scratch too so I know there is loads of stuff in the tomato sauce and H does like onions and peppers.

Hmmmm, I'm thinking we might not be as bad for veggies as I think we are. I think we need to eat a greater variety of them though.

Thanks everyone!

Loads of veggies work as Pizza toppings, onions and peppers in particular. I also like a side salad or coleslaw with it.

?

Are you watching what I'm doing? <looks around> I was just looking the veg box site! We used to get a veg box but it got frustrating when, out of 6 items, you'd always get potatoes, carrots and onions. We eat those but getting through them every week was trying. Of the other 3 items we seemed to get the same one for several weeks. We got 3 cauliflowers over 3 weeks. Now I like cauli but that was hard! We had it stir fried, roasted, mashed as well as boiled/steamed. Considering they have veg boxes of 12 items, it really isn't necessary.

Coleslaw is a good idea - we have cabbages growing in the garden which are going to be ready soon

I think they've got better. I do get frustrated sometimes, especially with carrots, and obviously when cauliflower is in season you'll get loads of it, but for eg here's what I'm getting on Friday:

cauliflower
mushrooms
aubergine
mixed peppers
swiss chard
mixed beansprouts
savoy cabbage
cucumber
cherry tomatoes
salad pack

Plus I've ordered loads of squash on the side - loml is going to be furious ?

That looks good - who do you get your veg box from?

It's Riverford.

Ah, we use (have used?) River Nene