How to Actually Eat More Vegetables, From a Dietitian Who Also Doesn't Enjoy Plain Steamed Broccoli
If 'eat your veggies' sounds familiar, but you still struggle to eat them, it's probably because you don't know how to cook them, or simply don't know what it means. And both are perfectly okay! Read on to learn how to make eating vegetables a simple part of your diet.
As a New Zealand registered dietitian, one of the most talked about topics I hear is that people don't want to eat more vegetables. So, this month I wanted to talk about why vegetables matter and how to make them taste better.
Why Vegetables Actually Matter
I think you may already know that vegetables are good for you, but you may be surprised about how many great things they do for our bodies.
Yes, they are rich in vitamins, but they are also incredibly high in fibre, phytochemicals, and variety. Your gut microbiome (the trillions of bacteria in your digestve system) LOVES variety and diversity in your diet. A large study published through the American Gut Project found that the number of different plant species a person eats is one of the strongest predictors of gut microbiome diversity (McDonald et al., 2018). More recent research has since confirmed that bacteria from fruits and vegetables can actually colonise the human gut directly, contributing to microbiome diversity in ways we're only beginning to understand (Wicaksono & Berg, 2023).
Gut health matters because it's linked to immune function, inflammation, and long-term disease risk. A comprehensive meta-analysis of over four million participants found that people with the highest fruit and vegetable intake had meaningfully lower risk of total cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, and stroke compared to those with the lowest intake (Zhan et al., 2017).
Vegetables are also one of the most filling foods per calorie you can eat, which matters if you're trying to feel satisfied without overeating. Since vegetables are high in fibre and have a high water volume content, they take up space and slow digestion in the best possible way. Research shows that soluble dietary fibre in particular slows gastric emptying, increases perceived satiety, and plays a significant role in appetite regulation (Salleh et al., 2019).
What's Worth Buying in July
July is mid-winter in New Zealand, which means you're in prime root vegetable territory. These are the ones at peak flavour and lowest price right now:
- Kūmara: naturally sweet, filling & versatile
- Pumpkin: earthy and rich, great for roasting or blending into soups
- Carrots and parsnips: delicious when roasted
- Cauliflower and broccoli: at their best in the cold months
- Silverbeet and kale: dark green leafy vegetables have more nutrients
- Leeks: milder than onion, brilliant in soups and pastas
Buying what's in season means better flavour and better value. A bag of carrots in July costs a fraction of what hothouse tomatoes do, and the carrots are incredibly sweet.
The Real Reason You're Not Eating Your Vegetables
You are probably not preparing them well.
Plain steamed broccoli is not it. Roasted broccoli with olive oil, salt, and a squeeze of lemon is actually delicious. The vegetable didn't change, the cooking method did.
Here are four ways I cook vegetables that make them worth eating:
1. Roast them properly
High heat, good oil, enough salt. Spread them out so they roast rather than steam. For root vegetables like kūmara, carrot, and parsnip, 200°C for 30–35 minutes until caramelised edges start to form. That sweetness comes from the natural sugars.
2. Add fat and acid
Fat carries flavour, and acid (lemon, vinegar, citrus) lifts it. A drizzle of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon over almost any cooked vegetable immediately makes it better.
3. Treat them like the main event
Cauliflower roasted whole with spices, silverbeet wilted into pasta with garlic and parmesan, pumpkin soup with toasted seeds on top can be full meals, not sides. When vegetables get the same attention as protein, they can fill you up just as much as a meat n 3 veg dinner.
4. Batch cook once, use all week
Roast a big tray of mixed root vegetables on Sunday. Use them through the week in bowls, wraps, alongside eggs, or blended into soup. You don't have to cook vegetables every night, just cook a lot of them at once.
A Simple Goal for July
Rather than aiming for a specific number of servings (which is stressful and hard to track), try this instead: eat at least two different vegetables each day. Not two servings of the same thing, two different ones. Variety is what your gut is actually after.
Start with what's cheap and in season this month. Roast it. Add good oil and salt. Eat it with whatever protein you already have. That's genuinely enough to make a difference.
The Dinner Date Takeaway
Vegetables don't need to be complicated, virtuous or joyless. They need to be well-cooked and well-seasoned. Once you crack that, eating more of them stops feeling like a health goal and starts feeling like a preference.
If you want the thinking taken out of it entirely, such as recipes that make vegetables the hero without making dinner feel like homework, that's what Dinner Date is here for.
Tag me in what you're cooking this July. I'd love to see it.
Best,
Gabrielle x
References
McDonald, D., Hyde, E., Debelius, J. W., Morton, J. T., Gonzalez, A., Ackermann, G., & Knight, R. (2018). American Gut: An open platform for citizen science microbiome research. mSystems, 3(3), e00031-18.
Salleh, S. N., Fairus, A. A. H., Zahary, M. N., Raj, N. B., & Jalil, A. M. M. (2019). Unravelling the effects of soluble dietary fibre supplementation on energy intake and perceived satiety in healthy adults: Evidence from systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised-controlled trials. Foods, 8(1), 15.
Wicaksono, W. A., & Berg, G. (2023). The edible plant microbiome: Evidence for the occurrence of fruit and vegetable bacteria in the human gut. Gut Microbes, 15(2), 2258565.
Zhan, J., Liu, Y. J., Cai, L. B., Xu, F. R., Xie, T., & He, Q. Q. (2017). Fruit and vegetable consumption and risk of cardiovascular disease: A meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 57(8), 1650–1663.