9 easy, delicious ways to sneak veggies into your meals

Nutrition experts advise us to eat five to 10 helpings of vegetables every day, contributing to weight loss, clear arteries, and balanced blood sugar. Here are some health-boosting, painless — and delicious — ways to sneak more veggies into your diet.

• Add a bag of pre-cut broccoli and carrots, fresh or frozen.
• Flavour with your preferred spices or herbs and, as the soup simmers, it will cook the veggies.

• Half a cucumber, a whole tomato, a stalk of celery or a carrot are as pleasant to munch as an apple.
• It may seem unusual, but who cares? A whole vegetable makes a terrific snack.

• Low-sodium vegetable juice provides healthy nutrition.
• Throw a can of vegetable or tomato juice into your bag in the morning. It counts as one portion.

Just a couple of minutes is all that's needed to steam greens down to tenderness — and add potassium, fibre and calcium — to soups and stews.

• Once a week, replace the meat serving with a vegetable.
• Check out vegetarian recipes online for making a robust meal from vegetables and whole grains.

• Add chopped yellow peppers and zucchini to store-bought salsa. Forget tortilla chips.
• Put it on everything: baked potatoes, rice, chicken breasts, sandwiches, eggs, and steak.

• Cut parsnips, turnips, carrots and onions into chunks; drizzle with a bit of oil, add salt, freshly ground pepper and herbs.
• Roast in the oven at 230°C (450°F) until soft, for about 45 minutes, turning once. Sweet and delicious!

Purée butternut squash with carrots, grated ginger and a bit of brown sugar as a topping for chicken. Cooked vegetables can make delicious sauces.

Try vegetables that are new to you such as endive, bok choy, kohlrabi, or fennel. There are great recipes on the web or pick up a book for ideas on cooking these wonderful veggies.