Our modern lifestyles can make it challenging to maintain a healthy diet, even when you know exactly what you should be eating. The sheer variety of different junk foods around us, combined with their low prices and high availability, usually means that many people take the path of least resistance and simply eat whatever is most convenient for them. If you want to improve your diet, adding more vegetables is one of the best ways to go about that. If you’ve built up some unhealthy habits, it can be tricky to switch to the right mindset.

Match Non-vegetable Food by Weight/Volume in Each Portion

One of the easiest ways to add vegetables to your diet without having to think about them too much is to simply match the weight or volume of any non-vegetable parts of your portions with an equal amount of vegetables. For example, if you eat a large steak with a side of French fries, add enough vegetables to match the size or weight of the whole portion. This can seem excessive, but that’s the point. It will help you cut down on your portion sizes while also forcing you to eat more vegetables. And once you get used to it, your plates will suddenly feel less full without the appropriate portion of vegetables on the side.

Vegetable-based Meat Substitutes

Many non-vegetarian foods are starting to get vegetable-based substitutes nowadays, especially various types of meat. Native Foods have some great ideas for a plant based burger that will change your perception of how good this type of food can taste. In some cases, you might not ever want to go back to eating regular burgers or steaks! That’s probably a stretch for most people, but even if you don’t go that far, it will still help you quite a lot to just replace the occasional burger with something made from vegetables. 

Soups!

Soups are the classic way to satisfy your cravings without eating too much, and vegetable soups are perfect for that purpose. There are tons of different recipes you can try, so no matter what types of vegetables you prefer, you should be able to find at least a couple of ideas that work well for you. Soups are great for meal prepping too, allowing you to easily plan your portions for the whole week if you cook a larger batch. And they’re one of the best foods for experimenting in the kitchen, so if you’re an avid cook or are trying to learn some new tricks, this is a good way to practice.

You don’t have to go out of your way too much to add more vegetables to your diet. There are many ways to do that even for people who generally don’t like vegetables too much. It’s mostly a matter of building a habit and sticking to it. Once you’ve got the ball rolling, it will be easy to maintain the momentum and keep your diet diverse with a variety of vegetables.

Katie Brenner

Katie writes for F and B Recipes. She lives in New York with her dog Coco. When not writing, she can be found baking (and eating) chocolate chip cookies.