Main dish recipes allow for modifications to fit your specific dietary preferences. Increased vegetable consumption adds vitamins, minerals and fiber to your diet. Finding ways to incorporate more vegetables into your meals boosts your intake easily. Family members who don't like vegetables are more likely to consume them if they are integrated into the dishes you prepare. For the pickiest eaters, vegetable purees are an option for blending in the nutrients without noticeable chunks. Experiment with different methods of adding vegetables to your meals.
Step 1
Double the amount of vegetables that a recipe calls for to increase the amount you eat. Substitute vegetables that your family enjoys more if the recipe calls for produce you don't like. For example, use carrots in place of sweet potatoes in a soup recipe.
Step 2
Cut the amount of meat in your recipes and replace that amount with vegetables. For an even healthier dish, leave out all of the meat in favor of vegetables.
Step 3
Steam and puree vegetables like carrots, sweet potatoes and cauliflower. Stir in the vegetable purees to dishes with sauces like pasta and casserole dishes. Keep cooked purees in the freezer so you are able to thaw and stir them into dishes quickly.
Step 4
Shred carrots or zucchini to stir into your muffin or cupcake batter before baking. Stir in canned pumpkin as an alternative.
Step 5
Cover the plate in a bed of lettuce or spinach before piling it with grains or pasta. Spinach works well under pasta because the heat wilts the spinach, making it soft and easy to eat with the pasta.
Step 6
Replace pasta with vegetables in your favorite pasta recipes. Use spaghetti squash in place of spaghetti and slices of eggplant or zucchini in place of lasagna noodles.
Step 7
Add your own vegetables to canned spaghetti sauce. Chop up onions, peppers, mushrooms or whole tomatoes to bulk up the sauce.
Step 8
Top your dinner or side salads with more vegetables than usual. Try broccoli, corn or roasted beets on your lettuce salad.
Step 9
Stir tomato juice into soups as part of the liquid.
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