How to Get Kids to Eat Veggies – 42 Sneaky recipes
Children often struggle to eat vegetables. After the airplane method stops working, parents struggle with how to get kids to eat veggies without dinner ending with someone crying at the table.
Its no wander parents get burnt out trying to serve them. Unfortunately, many vegetables are an acquired taste. Forcing them upon children usually doesn’t work.
How to Get Kids to Eat Veggies? Try Any of These 42 Recipes!
At Juicing Journal, we’ve found searched the web and reached out for suggestions. We’ve come up with 42 different recipes to get children to eat more fruits and vegetables. This list is especially curated for picky eaters.
Many of the recipes below mask the flavor and texture of common vegetables. In fact, your children may not know they are eating them!
Pro Tip
You may choose not to hide the fact that your children are eating vegetables. If so, get your kids involved in the cooking and blending process. It is a fun and exciting way to introduce them to vegetables and healthy eating.
Engaging kids in their meal prep can sometimes motivate them to eat vegetables.
Kid Friendly Air Fryer Recipes
A simple and tasty vegetable treat! Sweet potatoes are rich in Vitamin B, Calcium, Iron, and Magnesium.
If your picky eater enjoys eating sweet potato fries and chips, they are sure to love carrot fries. Carrot fries are useful if you are using the chaining method of introducing new foods.
Air fried zucchini is a great way to introduce picky eaters to air fried veggies. Zucchini is low carb and packed with essential nutrients. Dip in ranch dressing or ketchup if necessary.
Convincing a picky eater to enjoy an avocado may be a tall order, but air frying crispy avocado fries may give parents an upper hand.
Even the pickiest of eaters will enjoy buffalo cauliflower. Many children may not even realize that they are eating vegetables, instead of chicken. Cauliflower is a great source of fiber and Vitamin C.
Onions are fantastic sources of vitamins B, C, and D. Picky eaters may forget that they are enjoying a serving of vegetables if they think that they are eating a favorite treat their favorite restaurant!
Cauliflower Tots are healthy, delicious, and nutritious! They even tots have the same appearance and texture as regular tater tots!
Air frying pickles is healthier than traditional frying without losing the crispness and iconic flavor.
Corn is sweet, tasty, nutritious, and fun to eat! Picky eaters often enjoy picking toppings for their air fryer roasted corn. Corn cooks in approximately 10 minutes, so it is a fast and easy vegetable to prepare.
Apple chips will quickly become a favorite dessert for the pickiest of eaters. Apples, with their natural sweetness, are robust sources of Vitamins A, C, and D.
Edamame prepared in an air fryer may be the most fun dish on our list. Packed full of protein and essential minerals, edamame is a one stop shop for parents looking to feed their picky eater.
Falafel and picky eater have never been used in the same sentence before. Chickpea flour is the main ingredient in falafel. Chickpeas are full of fiber, iron, and magnesium. Using chickpea flour is a sneaky way to get picky kids to eat their vegetables.
Mixing sweet potato with chicken is a great way to disguise vegetables. Younger children may never even notice that they are eating vegetables inside of their favorite chicken nugget recipe.
Air Fried chickpeas are a fun, crunchy snack that even the pickiest of eaters may enjoy. One serving of chickpeas can provide a child with calcium, magnesium, and fiber.
Parsnips resemble carrots but taste and feel more like potatoes. Health experts refer to parsnips as a superfood, meaning that they are packed full of nutrients and vitamins. Can you look at the photo and tell they aren’t made from potatoes?
Need an air fryer?
Air fryers open up a lot of new sneaky ways to get kids to eat vegetables. Check out our post, 5 Best Ninja Air Fryers. It’s a good place to begin your search.
Sneaky Smoothie Recipes for Kids
This smoothie is sweetened naturally and contains almost 40% of your child’s daily Vitamin A requirement. They’ll never know it contains spinach, either!
A strawberry banana smoothie bowl that almost has the consistency of ice-cream. Top with sliced fruits if your kids will eat it. Or leave it naked. Either way, this recipe looks and tastes great!
This recipes uses coconut water instead of milk. Oranges and agave provides the sweetness. You may want to leave off the chia seeds, however, as a picky eater would probably reject them being included.
This vegan and gluten-free recipe looks like soft serve ice cream and tastes great! To make it more enticing, you can serve it with a few chocolate chips. It contains only 5 simple ingredients.
A refreshing slushy with just 6 ingredients. Raspberries brighten the color and add to the flavor. Stevia is used to add a little more sweetness to the recipe. Or you can use a bit of maple syrup if you prefer.
This recipe contains delicious fruits commonly associated with the most popular candy flavors such as blueberry and strawberry. Unknowingly to them, it incorporates the good stuff from numerous other fruits.
This recipe for banana strawberry yogurt smoothie is made with just a few ingredients. It is naturally sweetened and ready in less than 10 minutes.
French fries, but made with parmesan green beans. Your picky eater won’t be able to resist this very snackable dish! Plus, they are a lot healthier than similar, deep-fried dishes.
The smoothie is green, but bananas, mango, honey, and orange juice mask the kale thats in this smoothie. Heck, you may want to make one for your picky eater and one for yourself!
This desert smoothie is so delicious that your child will never know there are vegetables in it. The sweet potato blends with ginger, walnuts, and banana to make a flavor that reminds you of your grandmother’s pumpkin pie.
What if I told you that you could mix cauliflower and snickerdoodle together to make a delicious and nutritious treat? Children will love to eat their vegetables when they try this recipe.
Pumpkin Pie in a Glass is another name for this delectable treat. Kids love pie, and if you can get them to eat a serving of vegetables while they are enjoying it, the better. Pumpkin pure is the base for this recipe and is rich in fiber, folate, and manganese.
Need a Blender?
Check out our post: 9 Best Blenders for Smoothies. We have a recommendation for almost any need.
Kid Friendly Juice Recipes
This recipe is called the “Fat Blaster” on its website but there aren’t any funky substances in it. It calls for including 1 lemon with rind, but for kids, you may want to leave off out the lemon rind.
With a combination of zucchini, apples and mint, this zucchini and apple juice is both refreshing and full of vitamins. Its sweetness will be appreciated by the pickiest kids.
Nothing beats a tasty Cherry Limeade on a hot Summer day. Adding cucumber and beats adds doesn’t betray the sweet flavor. In short, this recipe is packed with nutrients!
This refreshing juice mix is not only perfect for cooling off in the summer, but it is a great way to mask the taste and smell of eating carrots! Carrots are widely known superfoods that can boost a child’s growth and overall health.
Known for its green color, Mountain Doo Green Juice is a prefect way to get kids to eat celery and kale in one drink. Pineapple, lemon, and green apple masks the flavors of the other ingredients. This vitamin packed drink will tempt even the pickiest eaters.
What kid would not like a drink that tastes like summer in a glass? For those of us who are older, this juicing recipe brings back memories of eating frozen dreamsicle treats by the pool. The best part of this recipe is that your child will end up eating a sweet potato and 4-6 carrots without even knowing it.
Carrots contain essential nutrients that every growing child needs to be healthy. Beta-carotene and vitamin A are crucial to ocular development in growing children. Bunny Juice is an excellent way to get a picky eater to enjoy 6 carrots in every serving.
We all know that kids love sweet treats, and watermelon juice is something that even the pickiest eater will enjoy. While the original recipe calls for watermelon and lime, some users choose to add cucumber or kale to add more nutritional value to the beverage.
Most children love grape juice, but the sweet sugary drink may not be the best option for them. Pomegranate juice is a healthy alternative to other sugar filled options.
Need a Juicer?
Check out our post: 13 Best Juicers. If you are wanting a juicer as inexpensively as possible, check out our this article where we identify the best cheap juicers on the market.
More Sneaky Recipes
This kid-tested recipe contains a number of healthy ingredients. It contains no red dyes and your kids will want to devour it when they see it.
Here is a very sly and sneaky way to get your kids to consume avocado. Just blend the ingredients, pour into some molds, and pop them into the freezer!
Here is a healthy dish that both kids and adults will love. Cauliflower doesn’t have a strong taste, so pairing it with toppings from you kids’ favorite meal is a sure fire way to get them to some a portion of veggies.
Simply replace your standard-issue condiments with True Made condiments. Each product they sell contains hidden veggies. In fact, their ketchup is made with butternut squash!
Take a look at this photo and tell me if you see blended fruits and vegetables? Neither do I. And neither will the kiddos 😉
A little chocolate goes a long way to making the strange-looking avocado more palatable to your children. Also, this recipe is vegan, dairy-free, and gluten-free.