The joy of veg-maxxing: how to eat many, many more plants – without really trying

Eating more plants has never been more important, with a new report revealing that many crops are less nutritious than they once were. Here's how to easily and affordably increase your fruit and veg intake.

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According to last year's National Diet and Nutrition Survey, only 17% of UK adults get their five a day, which can include fruit, vegetables, beans, and pulses. So how can we consume more plants without really trying? A first step could be switching out meat for beans in meals you already make. Dr Shireen Kassam, visiting professor of plant-based nutrition at the University of Winchester, and executive director of Plant-Based Health Professionals UK, suggests swapping a tofu curry for a chicken curry, or a lentil bolognese for one made with mince. Even if you don’t want to lose the meat completely, a “half and half” meat and lentil bolognese is a good way to sneak in vegetables without entirely changing the flavour, she says.

Matt Beardmore, executive chef at the Italian restaurant Legare, also uses pasta sauces to pack in veg. At his restaurant, the focus is on taste, but at home, to get the maximum nutrition, he will double or triple the amount of sofrito (an onion, celery and carrot base for sauces) that he normally puts into a recipe. As the weather gets colder, Kassam and Beardmore both recommend soups as a way to use up any sad-looking leftovers in your vegetable drawer. With a soup such as minestrone, “you can just absolutely fill it with veg”, Beardmore says.

The approach used by nutritionist Eva Humphries, who suggests making half of your plate veg, has become a guiding principle for the way she now works. “It’s this concept of: if we look at a plate visually, can we just shove a couple more pieces of veg on it, or maybe add some herbs or a handful of greens? I think we underestimate how far little practices like adding an extra portion of vegetables can go.” The next step, says Humphries, is to diversify your intake, to include a variety of different plants and colours on your plate.