7 Ways to Add More Vegetables to Your Diet

Vegetables provide much needed nutrients and fiber, but often it’s tricky to get enough vegetables into your daily diet. Here are some great ways to add more vegetables to your diet.

1. Juice. Make some fresh vegetable juice with a juicer. There are many varieties you can make by combining vegetables, and you can sweeten the juice with fruit if you like. It’s filling and a great snack (or even a meal if you’re detoxing or had a large meal already).

2. Steam. Steaming your vegetables is a good way to ensure you keep all the nutrients in the vegetable. If you boil your vegetables, make sure you serve the water with your meal (for example, blend the vegetables and the water to make soup) as the nutrients from the vegetables will go into the water.

3. Salad. This is a great snack or meal. You can make salads as light or as filling as you want. You can make salads more interesting and filling in a healthy way by adding raw vegetables, tomatoes, nuts, fresh or dried fruit, and hummus.

4. Carrot Sticks and Other Raw Vegetables. This is pretty self-explanatory, but carrot sticks and other raw vegetables are easy to take with you on the road or for snacks that are healthy and filling.

5. Smoothies. I’m a smoothie lover! Adding vegetables and whey protein to fruit smoothies makes them even healthier and more filling. I like to add frozen organic spinach to my smoothies. The spinach is hardly noticeable in the smoothie’s flavor, but it gives the smoothie a nice texture.

6. Crudités. These are often made with carrots, zucchini, cauliflower, broccoli, pepper, celery and other vegetables speared and then served plain or with hummus or another dip.

7. Vegetable Soup. You can add as many vegetables as you’d like or choose a specific combination. It could be a meal or an appetizer. There are many recipes available. I particularly love steaming the vegetables, adding almond milk and spices, and then blending together.

If you can add even one of these into your diet in addition to your normal vegetables, you can help improve your health. Vegetables are one type of food you cannot eat too much of (almost)! For most of the population, it’s common to need more vegetables. Enjoy feeling healthier and gaining energy through extra vegetables!

Photo Credit: Photo by Masahiro Ihara at Flickr Creative Commons.