Do you struggle with your kids to get them to eat their greens? Well, you are not alone. Including enough amount and variety of vegetables in children’s meals is a difficult task and no kid is born loving veggies. It takes time, a lot of patience and some clever tactics to before the picky eater transforms into a veggie lover. Sometimes it’s a matter of serving it with a different texture or presenting it in a different way. Keep reading and discover tricks to make vegetables more attractive for kids.
Follow the six-try rule
This is the golden rule every parent needs to master for getting picky eaters to try new food. The “six-try rule” builds on the theory that you need to be exposed to something new a few times before it becomes familiar to you. The rule is simple: kids can’t say they don’t like a certain food before trying it on six different occasions. This turns vegetables into a familiar and trusted kind of food. You’d be surprised to see that after six times, most kids will change their mind about vegetables. If this method works once, children will be more open to trying new food.
Get kids involved in the whole process
Getting your kids involved is a good idea to introduce them to new food. Ask them to help you choose which vegetable to eat and prepare them together. Rinse, cook or plate them. Let their imagination run wild creating plate designs with veggies of different colours and shapes. Feeling proud that they have prepared it themselves, kids will be more likely to try new food.
Vary the cooking method
For some kids, it might be the feel of vegetables rather than their taste. You can try different cooking methods to see if your children like one more over others. Perhaps they don’t like steamed broccoli but they might love broccoli cream. Maybe they totally hate grated carrots, but they adore them sautéed over a low-heat wok, making them far sweeter and tastier.
Vegetables are so varied and so versatile that your options are almost endless: you can bake them, sauté them with coconut oil to give them a sweet taste, blend them, steam them or just serve them raw. It’s just a matter of trying! While at it, why not try changing the fork for a spoon or the other way around? Sometimes it’s as simple as that to begin to change a picky eater’s mind.
Add some egg
We’ve saved the most delicious idea for last. Another very practical trick to get your kids to eat vegetables is to add some egg. It’s perfectly fine for children to eat one egg a day, if it is a high-quality one. Turning cooked vegetables into an omelette can have magical effects. Your kids might even like vegetables now.
