Getting ready for cooking deep dive

June 22, 2023 12:18 PM

I have time off this summer, and want to spend it cooking as many kid-friendly high-fibre and/or vegetable-based dishes as I can. Snacks, side dishes, lunches, hidden vegetables, not hidden. All of it. Where do I start?

I have posted previous cooking questions. As an update, I will say that it really is more fun now that I have a nicer kitchen and tools, and my skills are improving. We have a good routine where I have a rotation of themes I cycle through (sheetpan something, pasta-based, pizza, burger or sandwich, vegetarian soup etc). I have an instant pot, which has been a game-changer.

I am ready for more, and so, it seems, is my kid. We have three interests right now:

1) He takes a daily dose of Restoralax. There is a family history of problems in this area so it hasn't been optional, and it's effective, but he deeply hates taking it. I am hoping that if we can increase his fiber intake, we might be able to trial going off it. I have tried some things like lentil soup. He will eat it up until the point he runs out of crackers to dip in, but he won't pick up a spoon and eat it that way. I haven't tried all-bran muffins yet but am open to it (see point #3)

2) He is interested in eating more vegetables, and so am I. He likes carrots and is coming around on salad. He has a very strong gag reflex and dislikes really mushy things like sweet potato. He also dislikes smoothies. I am open to any recipes for delicious ways to cook vegetables. I am also open to recipes for things like pasta sauce or soup which contain vegetables (see point #1).

3) I have found he dislikes most 'snack' foods like crackers, rice cakes etc. I have one oatmeal banana muffin I make that he likes, but he's bored of it. I'd love to have a repertoire of carb-ish things which are reasonably healthy and can go in the lunchbox where one might otherwise put the goldfish, bear paws, veggie straws etc. And if these things also have fiber or vegetables, so much the better.

So, with these points in mind, what should I make first? YouTubers I should follow? Recipes I should look at? Tips or tricks you might have from personal experience? I have six weeks off this summer and lots of time on my hands. I'd love to go into the new school year in the fall with a better-developed repertoire and a freezer full of things to grab whenever.

posted by ficbot to Food & Drink (18 answers total)

Do you have a grill? There's something about grilling that seems to make vegetables more palatable. You might want to pick up a grill pan (basically a baking sheet but with holes in the bottom). Just toss them in oil like you would to roast them, and throw them on the grill.

Frying is another easy way to make veggies palatable to non-veggie eaters. Fried green tomatoes are an especially good summer dish.

I find a splash of lemon juice improves a lot of veggie dishes. My favorite is probably roasted green beans with a splash of lemon. Lemon zest works, too, but juice is easier.

What about pesto and pesto-adjacent dishes? I personally don't like basil very much, but there are a lot of ways to do it: spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, etc. Not to mention greens/herb-based sauces like chimichurri, persillade, or gremolata. And you can mix in things like nuts, peppers, etc. Try a pesto pizza - it's my favorite.

I personally think carrots braised in beef broth (think pot roast) are incredible, but they might be too mushy for your little dude.

Cabbage is a delicious and versatile vegetable. Lots of things you can do with cabbage, but one thing that I'm enjoying about it right now is that you can treat it a lot like onions. So like, caramelized cabbage? Absolutely. Works as a side dish on its own or as a topping for burgers.
posted by kevinbelt at 12:37 PM on June 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

One thing on the soup front: I get -really- bored eating soup with a spoon so I always put it in a mug and once I've finished with my dipping (crackers, grilled cheese, etc.) I can just sip the rest of it.
posted by machine at 12:44 PM on June 22, 2023 [3 favorites]

How does he feel about beans? In summertime, especially, bean salads are pretty good. My sister makes one with Italian dressing, feta cheese, corn, and tomatoes, which give a ton of flavor to go along with the beans (black, kidney, and black-eyed peas).
posted by kevinbelt at 12:50 PM on June 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

Instagram reels have really livened up my cooking lately. There are a lot of vegan cooks out there and while I hate to praise an algorithm, once you like one of them you'll end up getting more and more and more in your feed. I save them and then try them later. I am an Old, so I don't do tik tok, but I suspect it's similar. I recently made a white bean and asparagus thing from @georgieeats that was both easy and delicious; start there.
posted by mygothlaundry at 12:56 PM on June 22, 2023

On the muffin front - my picky kid really liked these carrot muffins:

Serves: 12 muffins.

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cups grated carrots (about 2 carrots)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

- Mix the eggs and sugar with a handmixer for 2 minutes until it changes color.
- Add the milk and carrots and stir
- Mix together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg) then add to the wet ingredients.
- Put into 12 muffin cups
- Bake @ 400 for 20 minutes

It was from Parenting.com but seems to have disappeared from their site with a 404 so this prompted me to dig up the pieces and write it down.
posted by machine at 1:02 PM on June 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

The specific vegetables -- not species, but where you buy them and when they were harvested -- might be even more important than finding good recipes. With truly great raw materials, you don't have to spend as much time on cooking.

Take that kid to a farmers' market, let him talk to a vendor with either a wide variety or one product that they specialize in, and ask 1) what was just harvested that morning, 2) what they recommend, and 3) how to prepare it that really shows off the flavor.

Truly exceptional local fresh produce has a lot of advantages, including tasting exquisite with minimal preparation -- which means saving time.

There is nothing like freshly picked beans, freshly picked tomatoes, and really really nothing like freshly harvested corn (and that's a LOT of fiber).

Corn may not be in season yet, but that's something to look forward to -- might want to spring for local butter too!



Recipes are great -- I love summer vegetable gratin which looks great and gives you tomatoes, squash, and zucchini [lots of fiber] with a delightful crunchy cheesy top crust


Exceptional beans - Get some tarbonnais beans from Rancho Gordo (LOOK at that photo!) and make a cassoulet.
posted by amtho at 1:03 PM on June 22, 2023

I make the Mark Bittman muffins, add bran, apricots, walnuts, an extra egg. His big Vegetables cookbook is fun, and I use his Everything cookbook a lot.

Try tacos or burritos with refried beans, thinly sliced cabbage, salsa. Add beans and corn to salsa and other foods. Baked beans. Chili.

Make sure he drinks enough water/ fluid. Put a small glass of water in front of him, that works for me. Sufficient dietary fat/ oil is useful. Dried apricots are tasty and sweet.

How old? I recommend having them cook and shop with you. And reduce the availability of chips and other lower-nutrition foods.
posted by theora55 at 2:08 PM on June 22, 2023

If beans are acceptable, try joining the Rancho Gordo bean club. There used to be a multi-year wait, but it seems like they added hundreds of people in the last year so maybe it's moving along swiftly now. The bean club chat group is nothing but people getting excited about high-fiber bean recipes. They used them in a variety of ways you might not considered before, such as mapo beans!
posted by tofu_crouton at 3:02 PM on June 22, 2023

How about savoury muffins?

Bolognese sauce is an excellent vegetable delivery system - I go as far as equal parts veg and meat. I use carrots, onions, celery and mushrooms, finely chopped/grated/minced. After all the ingredients have had a chance to come together it is really difficult to identify the veg. Also great for freezing batches.

Cauliflower, broccoli and mushrooms all work well with pasta.
posted by koahiatamadl at 3:29 PM on June 22, 2023

Vegetable pancake. This recipe includes sweet potato, but you can replace any vegetables with anything that's preferred; I think most things will be fine as long as it all adds up to about 2½ to 3 cups of sliced vegetables. I have used coleslaw mix in the past as well, and tried so many different recipes, so I will say that you may need to add more batter according to what you like/for pancake cohesion purposes.

Chicken rissoles. This produces slightly crispy patties with about 3 cups of vegetables mixed into about 1 lb of ground chicken. Out of curiosity I tried making the chicken mince myself out of deboned thighs and I may have overmixed things in the processor -- the rissoles were very firm. Probably pre-minced chicken is just easier.
posted by automatic cabinet at 3:30 PM on June 22, 2023

I am going to follow this in hopes to expand my own repertoire. This carrot dal and quick pickle from Anna Jones is a sure fire hit with my three year old (rice and yoghurt) and all adults. The dal freezes well, cooks up quickl from scratch and the pickle formula is delicious and versatile: i love it made with red cabbage (it goes bright pink!), fennel or radishes. Anna Jones' recipes are generally in your desired direction, the book "One" has some traybakes that could be prepped and frozen but are also very quick to prepare.
posted by pipstar at 4:56 PM on June 22, 2023

I went through a I should make more veggie phase a while ago. Got a bunch of books and cooked a bunch of stuff. I really like the book, "6 seasons" by Joshua McFadden. Wide variety of veggies over the whole year and lots of interesting and good dishes. I made a creamy Kale pasta sauce for my young niece a couple years ago from it and she asked for the recipe... she's been making it herself and her mom and dad for a couple years now.
posted by jade east at 6:00 PM on June 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

I like to make savory oatmeal with chicken broth. I add canned fish, but you can put in any veggies or meat or cheese. Delicious any time of day.
posted by umwelt at 7:38 PM on June 22, 2023

We roast pretty much all vegetables these days--nearly everything does well at 400 F for 20-30 minutes with olive oil, salt and pepper, or a seasoning mix, but folks above have good cookbook suggestions for more ideas. Roasted broccoli and brussels sprouts are awesome. Your kid might even like roasted sweet potatoes--cut them into small pieces first, and they crisp and caramelize on the outside after 25 minutes or so.

Microwaving corn in the husk is a fun summer treat as is grilled corn.
posted by hydropsyche at 4:30 AM on June 23, 2023

How about crunchy vegetables/crackers with hummus? If you have an instant pot and food processor, hummus is both simple and customizable. My favorite base recipe is from Zahav.

Personally, I cook the chickpeas from dry in the instant pot (~10 minutes longer than I would for other recipes, so they’re very soft), leave out the garlic (it’s bad for my stomach), and garnish with olive oil and sumac instead of parsley and paprika—in other words, you can really play around with it to suit everyone’s tastes.

And if that works, there’s also a whole wide world of bean dips out there!
posted by CtrlAltDelete at 7:49 AM on June 23, 2023 [2 favorites]

Does kiddo like popcorn? That's a fun thing to put in soup. Lotsa fiber.
posted by It's_pecano at 10:07 AM on June 23, 2023

For a good side with lots of fiber: Green beans - not the canned ones but fresh. Pan fry them or oven roast them, either way you want to cook them a long time so they get shriveled up (like this), so don't use high heat. Now cover with salt and pepper or maybe soy sauce. You can do asparagus the same way but you may not want to cook it as long.

For the snack food, they have dried snap peas he might like. You can buy them in a bag but they can also be made at home in a dehydrator or low oven. I really like terra brand vegetable chips and there are some generic versions that are less expensive. They might be too close to crackers, though.
posted by soelo at 4:03 PM on June 23, 2023

As amtho says above, one thing you could do is use your time to learn to cook based on the market. It doesn't have to be a farmers market, though it's great if you have one. It could just be going to the produce section at your normal supermarket at look at what's in season: produce that is relatively cheap and smells good. Bring the kiddo, that is how my kids learnt to eat their veggies, by being part of the process and tasting all the way.
Here is a list of fiber-rich foods.

You buy what looks good, and then you can google the ingredients for inspiration: carrots green beans potatoes. Or in this case, I'd go even simpler and boil the potatoes and steam the beans and serve them as a side for roast chicken. The carrots can be snacks, maybe with a yogurt dip. My kids always had a plate of carrot and cucumber sticks with a yogurt dressing at the kitchen table while I was cooking. Then they would sometimes help or not, but always be aware of the process.

Always buy good-looking herbs, for garnishes or for herb salads like tabouleh.

You can make gravy from the chicken drippings or just pour some melted butter and dill over the vegetables and offer a quartered lemon as a garnish. This simple solution may seem boring, but new potatoes and string beans are so delicious in season.

Yesterday, I bought some amazing asparagus, and they are going into a stew made with leftover roast chicken. Maybe I'll make it all into a pie with a store-bought puff pastry lid. Since the chicken is already cooked and I want the asparagus to still have some bite, I'm going to steam them separately, make the gravy with a stock made from the chicken carcass in the pressure cooker, and then mix the meat and asparagus in the gravy for just long enough to warm everything. There could be steamed carrots in there, too. And frozen peas, for even more easy fiber. Peas are just amazing, sweet, green, full of fiber and good raw if they are very fresh. Always taste them at the market. If there are no good fresh peas, they are excellent frozen, too, but kids usually love taking them out of the pods.

Aubergines are high in fiber, and they are great in many different dishes. Parmigiana the Italian way is lighter, and easier to make, than the traditional Italian-American version. I use aubergine as a substitute for meat in my "bolognese"-style sauce and my kids prefer it to the meat version, specially in lasagne. Aubergines can be mushy, but for the pasta sauce I dice them very finely, and they become like minced meat. For the parmigiana, slice them thinly and salt them before cooking, this gives a better consistency.

Summer is the season for fruits and berries, so get them on the table. Use fruits and berries in salads as well as in deserts. Specially raspberries and pears have a lot of fiber. A salad with lettuce, avocado, blueberries and raspberries is a fiber-feast, pleasing to look at and full of other nutritional goodness like anti-oxidants. You can dress it with a vinaigrette, but that might not be child-friendly, an alternative is a dressing made with cream, lemon, salt and pepper. Season to taste. This goes very well with anything grilled.

For sandwiches, why not bake your own bread? This recipe for whole wheat sandwich bread turns out very well if you follow it exactly. The health benefits of baking from scratch are notable, specially when the bread has as much fiber as this. A healthy sandwich could be with artichokes, lettuce and tomato.

The websites I use the most are Serious Eats and The Woks of Life. I look at YouTube videos from Americas Test Kitchen for inspiration, too.
posted by mumimor at 5:21 AM on June 25, 2023