Vegetable dishes

tk05

I'm looking for ways to get more vegetables in my diet since I don't think I'm eating as much as a I should. I can't really seem to find recipes that don't just include vegetables as a minor addition to some other food (usually meat or something grain-based). It would be nice to find a dish where vegetable(s) are the main component. I only have two that I know how to make which are soup (only every other week since it takes a lot of time to prepare) and mashed cauliflower (doesn't usually come out right since I don't have a food processor).

What are some ways I could get a lot more vegetables into my diet but still avoiding any form of grains, sugar or legumes (which means no sandwiches, wraps, pasta, corn or beans, oh and no potatoes either(high GI)). Salads seem obvious but I very very quickly get sick of them, especially since I can't use any dressing (all dressing have added sugar or have vinegar which is too bitter). I don't care for most vegetables raw, I occasionally eat raw celery but it takes a while to eat since it hasn't a nice taste.

Maybe some side dish ideas would be useful though some sort of main that is mostly vegetables would be really handy to get a lot more vegetables at once.

El_Dangeroso

I think a lot of people who hate vegetables have just been exposed to terrible vegetables. Irish cuisine tends to include overcooked, mushy, tasteless veg, usually frozen or from a tin.

Start easy, go to a really nice farmer's market if you can, they usually have an organic stand. The taste of super-fresh, organic, locally grown veg is incomparable to the supermarket crap. Cook lightly in steam and eat with a fat, such as butter.

You can put spinach, mushrooms, onions, broccoli and all other green goodies in an omlette for a super quick healthy breakfast.

Coat steamed cauliflower and carrots in butter and a little thyme.

Stir fry REALLY thinly sliced courgettes, onions, mushrooms and beansprouts (Beansprouts aren't legumes, they're little plants) and coat in a mixture of 1tsp butter, 1tsp seseme oil and a dash of worcestershire and tamari.

Tomato puree makes a good sub for ketchup. You can puree a very ripe avocado and add chopped chives to make a rich salad dressing.

Pureed cauliflower with wilted kale and butter mixed together tastes like colcannon. You do need a handblender though.

You can make 'pasta' strips from courgette and 'rice' from cauliflower.

Vegetables really do taste nice once you get used to them!

spaceylou

A side dish really but pretty yummy:

Mushrooms, Onions, garlic, courgette - all chopped up, add some herbs - think italian - and add a bit of olive oil, toss them all together until coated in the oil, then add a chopped pepper and tomatos - bung them all in the oven for around 30mins.

Look in the library (or book shop) for vegitarian cookbooks - naturally they will have lots of ideas for stuff to do with veg.

I know you said something about no potatos - but what about sweet potatos? They are lovely cut into wedges and roasted in the oven.

Carrots par-boiled and then put in oven with some orange - yummy - can't remember the exact recipe but its a jamie oliver one so maybe you can google it.

Veggie stir fry.

Corn on the cob - super filling I always find!

That is all I can think of right now, hope it helps with ideas.

tk05

Some really good ideas here. I couldn't find any mushrooms at Tesco so perhaps I'll see if I can find them at a farmers market. I heard there's one in Marlay Park so I'll head there over the weekend.
I've never tried stir fry. Always seemed unappealing since it looked like just seering some chopped vegetables but I think I'll give it a try. I'll need to figure out how to do it first. The worcestershire sounds like it'd give a nice flavour but looking at the label for the Heinz version it has three kinds of sugar in it so I'd rather avoid it.

Tomato pureé as ketchup is a really good idea. I suppose I could do more with califlower pureé but adding other stuff to it.

Not sure about vegetarian cookbooks being much help. I have a cookbook with a vegetarian section and all of the dishes are pasta. At work they have a vegetarian option and it's always either pasta or has bread.

Sweet potatoes are low GI I'm told so they should be fine. I've never tried them before so I guess I'll have to!

I do love corn on the cob but unforunately I'm avoiding it since it's a grain