Less than 5% of Australians get their daily 5-6 serves of vegetables in each day.  A lot of us manage to eat some potato and sweet potato at dinner.  Unfortunately, the extent of green vegetable intake is often limited to broccoli and maybe a leaf of lettuce at lunch time (sorry, that is not enough to count).

There are some great, healthy AND delicious ways to get more green into your diet.  These are child-friendly (my three-year-old eats ALL of these but will only eat a leaf of salad…so far) and are very nutrient-dense, which means you are getting loads of nutrition per mouthful.  

Some of these vegetables recipes are kind of akin to the health benefits of juicing but far better and actually minimise waste, rather than increase it.

1. Carrot tops. Did you know these are edible? And they make the most DELICIOUS chimichurri sauce.  I use chimichurri on sandwiches, pizza, pasta, in zucchini slice and as a dip for crackers/veggie sticks. YAY, ALL OF THE CHLOROPHYL!
2. Radish tops. Again, the top of a vegetable that you might know you can eat if you’ve read my recipe for pesto.  Radish tops are surprisingly spiky but your digestive system doesn’t mind.  Radish tops make a mad addition to pesto, so chuck some in with your basil and your pasta will thank you!
3. Celery leaves. Celery leaves have a remarkable talent for making food taste salty – without the sodium!  I buy a full bunch of celery leaves then chop up the stalks for dipping into hummus or baba ganoush (LINK) and blend up the leaves for additions to curries, stews or my mean kangaroo Mexican flavoured mince.
4. Silverbeet. Those who grew up with these being cooked beyond death probably are not particularly willing to try this vegetable again.  But silverbeet has a beautifully light flavour and is surprisingly not bitter.  It is very similar in taste to spinach and can be used in similar ways in quiches and smoothies.  My favourite thing to do with silverbeet is to make palak paneer.  Use tofu instead of paneer (cheese) for a vegan version and get in three of your daily veggie serves in one beautifully green sitting.
5. Brussel sprouts. These strange little baby cabbages are making a comeback! You can buy them fresh or frozen, or grow our own and try them roasted with a drizzle of runny oil and some paprika.  Even better, make some seaweed chips for two lots of green at one meal.

Where is my apron!?

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