For too long vegetables have been the unsung heroes on your dinner plate. They offer flavour, texture and nutritional value, often playing a supporting role in your main course. Next time, though, get a little more creative with your vegetable preparation.
Make meals that pack a nutritious punch with simple swaps to sneak more vegetables into your diet!
A pasta proxy
It’s time to give noodles a nudge. Try grating, spiralizing or slicing zucchini, beets, sweet potato, carrots or even broccoli stems into noodles for a delicious, nutrient-packed alternative to pasta.
Rather than boiling them like pasta, throw the veggie noodles into a frying pan with a bit of olive oil and cook over medium heat until tender. Dress them with your favourite pasta sauce and your meal is made!
Thanks to its name, you may already know that spaghetti squash makes a great pasta alternative. This Orange and Pistachio Spaghetti Squash recipe from Chef Dale MacKay uses fresh ingredients to make the squash sing.
A rice replacement
White rice is a staple in many diets. For an alternative that’s just as filling and fluffy, try cauliflower. With a bit of preparation, cauliflower rice can take the place of white rice in many dishes, filling them with fibre, vitamin B6 and vitamin C.
To make cauliflower rice, use a simple box grater, or run it through a food processor. Break the cauliflower into small florets and use the pulse function until it’s chopped into grain-sized pieces. For an even simpler solution, you can find cauliflower rice in the frozen foods section at your local Co-op Food Store.
Use cauliflower rice raw in salads for a couscous-like texture, or cook in a skillet with olive oil or butter and sub it into your curry or stir-fry.
A bread backup
Even pizza, sandwiches, wraps and more can be made with vegetable bread alternatives.
Cauliflower can be made into pizza crust with not much more than the help of a food processor, an egg and some seasoning. A sweet potato can be baked into a nutritious and tasty bread. In fact, you can turn broccoli, beets, carrots and so much more into breads. The possibilities are endless!
If you’re looking to go bread-free with a little less prep time, lettuce is a clever alternative. Try Dale MacKay’s Sweet Chili Chicken Lettuce Wraps for a quick and easy supper the whole family will love.
Have you tried any of these starch substitutes? What veggie variation will you try next? Let us know on Twitter or Facebook @coopcrs.