114 easy ways to add more fruit and vegetables into your day

by Angela Reed-Fox

Looking for easy ways to ensure 5 portions of fruit and veg a day? Or increasing your intake, perhaps? Eating more fruit and vegetables is likely to reesult in a decrease in total calorie consumption (and a decrease in less healthy foods).
Below are 114 easy ways you can start adding more fruit and vegetables into your lifestyle today. Enjoy!

1. Add some extra to the recipe – whether it’s a soup, casserole or pasta dish, add twice as much of the vegetable ingredients as the recipe calls for.  
   
2. Change the base – if your soup is a clear one, or a creamy one – add some passata for extra flavour and an extra tomato portion. 
   
3. Pimp your soup – even if it’s just a can from the cupboard, add something extra, some sweetcorn perhaps, or some frozen peas for a quick boost. 
   
4. Cheeky pizza? If you’ve got designs on the one in the fridge, add extra toppings of your own; usual ones such as peppers, mushrooms, sweetcorn, try slicing some bananas (yes!) as a topping before baking the pizza. 
   
5. If you order pizza, go for an extra couple of vegetable toppings. 
   
6. Cook and puree broccoli, butternut squash or apple and add it to sauces, soups, or pasta dishes.  
   
7. Make your sandwich beautiful – even if it’s a shop-bought one, add a few salad leaves, some sliced pepper, grated carrot or apple or some spinach. You can easily fit an extra portion of vegetables into the average shop sandwich.  
   
8. Experiment with grated fruits and vegetables. Add them to your favourite dishes – you'll get all the goodness, but without necessarily noticing! 
   
9. If you’re eating a ready meal, add extra portions of veg into it or next to it.  
   
10. Instead of using shop bought pasta sauce, make your own (it’s just as quick). Use a carton of pureed tomato (passata) add herbs and spices to taste, and throw in some chopped peppers, onions, garlic and aubergine. You can use the same sauce on homemade pizza too. 
    
11. Use sliced grilled aubergine instead of pasta in lasagne (it’s still filling). 
    
12. Making bread? Whether you’re making it by hand or in a breadmaker, add olives, fruits or nuts to your usual recipe. 
    
13. Instead of a shop-bought pudding like a chocolate brownie, make a fruit crumble instead.   
    
14. Make ‘Meatless Monday’ a thing. For just one day a week, switch out meat and fish and exchange for healthy vegetarian alternatives. 
    
15. When you cook, prepare extra vegetables for use the next day or two. This will encourage you to ensure that you use them – and eat them.  
    
16. Make a big fruit salad every week, big enough so that you have a couple of days’ worth of desserts. If you make it on Sunday night you’ll know you have something nice to look forward to after work on Monday. 
    
17. Snack with hummus and veg instead of breadsticks or crisps. 
    
18. Swap peanut butter for hummus.  
    
19. Pre-prep vegetables; grate, dice, slice or shred carrots, courgettes, sweet potatoes, onions, etc and refrigerate or freeze. It’s then super-easy to add them to whatever you have planned.  
    
20. Make fruit and vegetable kebabs – great for the barbecue. 
    
21. Pick your own! Find a farm where you can pick your own produce. It tastes better when you picked it yourself! 
    
22. Start a windowsill garden – you can grow herbs such as mint (always better in pots as it spreads in the garden), basil, and parsley, but also beansprouts and cress.  
    
23. Paved garden areas are great for a mini farm – use pots! This way you’ll b able to enjoy the whole process from seed to plate, and you’ll get a good idea of what tastes best at what time of year.  
    
24. Keep your fresh produce at eye level in the fridge so that you don’t miss eating it at its best – and reduce waste. 
    
25. Find out what’s seasonal this month, and go out of your way to eat at least one seasonal fruit or veg per week. 
    
26. Support local farmers. Find a farmers’ market and choose something new each visit. 
    
27. Take an ‘offer-challenge’. Buy vegetables that are on offer and make something new with them.  
    
28. Posh pud? Make a fruit kebab, melt some dark chocolate and dip one side of the kebab into the chocolate. Lay on a baking sheet and freeze or refrigerate until required. 
    
29. Experiment. Hoard magazine recipes, and try something new.  
    
30. Add a small glass of fruit juice to have with your breakfast to add an easy extra portion. 
    
31. Double the dose – whatever you’re making, make a big one, and freeze or refrigerate the leftovers so that you can enjoy them on a day when you’d usually be tempted by something less healthy. 
    
32. Keep healthy nuts, seeds, and dried fruit as a snack when you’re trying to delay lunch. If it’s easy, it’s practical.  
    
33. Prepare snack bags of fresh fruit and chopped vegetables. If you’ve prepared it, you’re more likely to make sure you eat it. 
    
34. Need something sweet? Puddings are a fact of life. Make yours a fruity one. Crumbles, compotes, sorbets etc are a healthier alternative to sticky toffee pudding – and yet still puddingy. 
    
35. Go pieless – instead of a heavy pudding, bake an apple with cinnamon, cloves and allspice and enjoy with custard but without the pie crust.  
    
36. Keep lazy fruit (stuff you can just pick at like grapes, satsumas etc) easily visible in your sitting room and kitchen. This type of snacking is never off limits! 
    
37. Freeze fruit such as bananas and orange segments and eat as a posh lollipop.  
    
38. Add extra fruit to a fruit yogurt – or go for crème fraiche or natural yogurt and add a couple of portions of fruit as a healthy pudding. The key is to make sure there’s more fruit than yogurt.   
    
39. Instead of eating a Magnum or choc ice on its own, remove the stick and wrapper, put it in a bowl and add some fruit.  
    
40. Instead of ice cream, combine berries with crème fraiche, whisk and freeze. Lovely! 
    
41. Bake your own crisps! Use a vegetable peeler to thinly slice root vegetables such as sweet potatoes, beetroots and parsnips, lay on a baking tray or grill and spritz with sunflower oil and bake till crisp. 
    
42. Crispy peas – soak some chickpeas (or use canned ones that you’ve patted dry with kitchen paper) turn onto a rimmed baking tray, and sprinkle with Edam or other hard cheese. Bake on a low heat until crispy and very tasty. See how long they last... 
    
43. Banana chips – the trick is to slice them super finely. Scatter with a tiny sprinkle of brown sugar and then bake until crisp. (Stay very light with the sugar; just use a pinch!) 
    
44. Kale chips – yes, it’s a thing. Rinse, pat dry, and then sprinkle with light oil. Bake until crispy. You can do the same with nori seaweed which is also a great source of iron.  
    
45. Try different salad leaves – spinach is richer in iron than iceberg lettuce. 
    
46. Double the size of your salad. We get used to eating small portions of salad – eat more! 
    
47. Make your own salad dressing – then you’ll know what’s in it. Sparing use of an olive oil-based dressing is tastier than a low-fat shop-bought dressing which might be high in calories. 
    
48. Especially during the summer, but at other times too, start your meal with a big salad. You’ll be filling up on really nutritious stuff, before you’ve even started! 
    
49. Make smoothies – use as much of the fruit/veg as possible – the fibre is a valuable part and good for a healthy gut (as well as many other things). Experiment. Find new combinations. Carrots are great for added fibre. 
    
50. Prepare a few smoothies in advance – and freeze them. You can then enjoy them as a frozen dessert, or defrost them and drink. 
    
51. Carbs are essential – but often we overeat them. Try replacing one of your carb portions of the day with vegetables instead.  
    
52. Instead of bread, make wraps from large lettuce leaves and fill with whatever you like – veggie chilli, rod vegetables – whatever you fancy! 
    
53. Try a different toast topping – salad with almond butter or ahini, tomato, lettuce and avocado, vegetable pate. 
    
54. Try the five vegetables in five weeks challenge – commit to either trying a new vegetable each week for 5 weeks, or preparing an old familiar in a different and interesting way. You might find a new favourite.  
    
55. Try making cauliflower rice or squash/courgette spaghetti for a change.  
    
56. Get into the habit of always having a portion of fruit or vegetables with every meal. Within a few weeks, you’ll feel like you’re missing out without! 
    
57. Prepare a big dish of roasted vegetables – they're so colourful and look so tasty, they’ll often cause more of a sensation than the main event. A sprinkle of vegetable or olive oil, some rosemary, and a sprinkle of allspice makes a portion of roasted veg a lovely warming side dish. Root vegetables, aubergines, tomatoes, sprouts and asparagus are great roasted. 
    
58. Struggle with sprouts? Slice them and fry them with a dash of honey and soy sauce – or marmite! 
    
59. If you’re concerned about food waste – prepare your fresh vegetables as soon as you buy them. Aubergines, carrots, onions, peppers, asparagus, even whole cherry tomatoes freeze well and will be there when you need them.  
    
60. Freeze fresh herbs. You’ll then have the means to perk up any vegetable side dish you desire. And no waste! 
    
61. Change the main event – scrambled egg? Try mixing in some spinach. Macaroni cheese – well that’s just crying out for an addition of broccoli, peas or onion. You can be creative. There aren’t any rules.  
    
62. Make cheese on toast taste posh – add thinly sliced apple, pear, pepper, onion or banana to the bread and then top with cheese before grilling. 
    
63. Beans means? An extra portion of vegetables! Next time you have a meat-based pasta sauce, replace with kidney beans, butter beans, or cannellini beans instead. Quick swap, but that’s an extra portion right there.  
    
64. Aim for at least one main meal a week which is vegetarian.  
    
65. Eating out? Eat more. Whatever you order, get the side of seasonal vegetables to go with it.  
    
66. If you’re baking a cake – choose a vegetable or fruit based one like carrot, courgette, banana or apple (OK, it’s not 100% virtuous, but it’s still better than a chocolate brownie!) 
    
67. Make an ostentatious omelette – add more generous than usual helpings of sweetcorn, peppers, and peas.  
    
68. Add large helpings of fruit to your porridge – a full serving of frozen blueberries, cherries, figs, or other tinned, dried or frozen fruit, add your milk and then microwave (remember that if you’re using frozen fruit, you’ll need to add a minute onto the cooking time). 
    
69. Controversial, but try savoury porridge – use water instead of milk and add steamed vegetables, and top with a sprinkle of cheese.  
    
70. Potatoes don’t count as one of your daily veg portions – however, sweet potatoes do; so just swap out the potatoes and swap in the sweet potatoes, and that’s another portion right there.  
    
71. Instead of potato chips – try chopping courgettes and aubergine and cook as you would regular chips. 
    
72. Use fresh herbs – not only are they packed with nutrients, but they’ll transform any dish into one that tastes like you put a lot of effort into it! 
    
73. Having salad? Add fruit – sliced citrus fruits, dried fruit, or fresh berries go well with salad leaves. As do seeds and nuts.  
    
74. Make salad something you look forward to by adding fresh parsley, basil and mint.  
    
75. Swap fried eggs for eggs baked in avocado halves. 
    
76. Make your own veggie sausages and burgers – grated or minced vegetables, nuts and seeds, a slice of bread crumbed, and an egg to bind it –form the sausages or burgers and cook them as you would.  
    
77. Homemade pizza? Add spinach puree to the base before adding the tomato puree on top and then topping it off with cheese and extra vegetables.  
    
78. Fill at least half of your plate with vegetables.   
    
79. Add more vegetables than the recipe calls for. 
    
80. Reduce the amount of meat or cheese in a sandwich and replace with vegetables.   
    
81. Brownies with vegetables! Yes – sometimes you just need a chocolate brownie. But you can redeem them by using a recipe that calls for adding grated vegetables such as spinach, sweet potato, courgette and beetroot 
    
82. Whatever you’re having, take the challenge to add another vegetable portion with each meal. 
    
83. Change the way you eat vegetables. If you’re not keen on the texture of cooked carrots, have them raw.  
    
84. Add cauliflower to your carbs. Cauliflower rice is one thing, but try cooking the cauliflower and adding to mashed potato for a lower calorie count, more nutritional value, and a precious extra portion! 
    
85. See what you can freeze. Frozen veg are cheaper, already prepared, and quick to cook – and provide an easy addition to whatever you’re cooking. 
    
86. You may have heard the phrase ‘eat the rainbow’, this refers to the higher nutritional value of these foods – look for red, orange, yellow and green peppers, purple cabbage, beetroots, etc. 
    
87. Drink vegetable juice – less sweet, and lower calorie than fruit juice, but with lots of nutrients. If you make your own, get a juicer that doesn’t waste the fibre as this is an important part of the fruit or vegetable.  
    
88. Make soup, not war! Soup can be as simple as you like. Boiling water, a stock cube, and chopped vegetables of your choosing, add herbs and spices – and when you’re ready to dish up, a topping of toasted seeds as a tremendous depth of flavour. Because of the water content, it’ll be filling but not high calorie.  
    
89. Dried beans and canned beans are a great source of protein and count as a portion of veg. Canned beans can be rinsed and used straight from the can. Dried beans require soaking for a few hours (overnight if you plan ahead). But if you’re not one for forward planning, store some ready soaked beans in the freezer ready for when you want to use them – then you won’t need to think 8 hours ahead (and dried beans are even cheaper than canned ones). 
    
90. Make your own dips for crunchy vegetables – use crème fraiche or yogurt and mix in herbs such as parsley, dill and mint, and spices such as cumin, chilli, and allspice.  
    
91. Flick through a food magazine (supermarkets are great for these) or sites such as Pinterest for novel new ideas.  
    
92. Schedule one hour a week when you prepare vegetables. Listen to a podcast as you chop, prepare, store, or cook vegetables for the coming week. Once the’re done, they’re done, and the rest of the week’s eating is easy.  
    
93. You know that vegetable you hate? See if you still hate it as much as you did when you were 8. Tastes change – and particularly bitter tastes tend to grow on us.  
    
94. If you usually go for fries as a side – try seasonal vegetables or a salad instead.  
    
95. Drink more water. If you cut down on squashes and fizzy pop and drink more water, this is likely to increase your appetite for vegetables (and increase the satiety from them).  
    
96. Buy what you’re more likely to use. If you’re short on time, paying a little more for ready-prepared veg might tempt you to eat better. 
    
97. Try grilling your vegetables – spritz with a little oil and sprinkle with seasoning. Nice for a change.  
    
98. Have a starter – even when you’re at home. If you start your meal with a vegetable-based soup, you’ll fill up less on the higher calorie foods that come later. It’s a great healthy habit. 
    
99. Buy a weekly veg box. The produce is more likely to be local and seasonal, you can state your preferences – and it will give you the impetus to use whatever arrives.  
    
100. Ditch the junk from your cupboards. If you only stock healthier, vegetable-based options it’s a lot easier to make the right choices.  
     
101. Make your own salsa with chopped tomatoes, garlic and seasoning – and see where you can fit it in. You can even make extra and freeze it for later.  
     
102. A portion of dried fruit is a quick way to boost your portions for the day.  
     
103. Need a snack that’s quick? Half an avocado, attacked with a spoon is a fast snack that’s good for you (and has protein that will hep you feel full for longer). 
     
104. If you’re just getting into this vegetable-eating lark, try a green supplement – it's not a substitute for the real thing, but it is better than nothing.  
     
105. When the dish calls for a side of mashed potato – try mashing something else; sweet potato, swede, carrot, cauliflower, parsnip, turnip – or a combination. 
     
106. Tempted to skip breakfast? Whole fruits are the ideal fast food.  
     
107. Use spinach more. Add it to anything – scrambled egg, cheese on toast (under the cheese), pizza, risottos and pasta sauces.  
     
108. Slice a banana on top of whatever you’re having for breakfast.  
     
109. Eat more endamame beans (soybeans). Buy them fresh or frozen – throw them into hotpots, stirfries and soups. Or get them ready baked and enjoy them as a high protein snack.  
     
110. Instead of cereal, add a couple of portions to Greek yogurt.  
     
111. Snack clever – instead of the usual carb-rich snack go for a fruit or veg based snack. Avocados, chopped veg, dried fruit – all these are easy. And you can store them in your glove compartment or desk drawer for when you need them.  
     
112. Microwave a sweet potato – slice it add a knob of butter and some lime juice, sprinkle with spices and brown sugar – perfect! 
     
113. Tinned fruit in juice (not syrup) is a quick dessert – you can also add a splash of condensed milk or a dab of cream.  
     
114. Freeze pureed fruit or juice as a posh lollipop and enjoy as a dessert. 
     
     

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