Learn how to make more vegetable recipes for kids with my go-to kid-friendly dishes. You might just be able to increase the chances that the kids will actually eat what you cook for them!
I’m always recommending that the best way to get our kids to eat more vegetables is to make sure that they taste good to us. These vegetable recipes for kids hit that mark and are great places to start if you’re looking to introduce new veggies—or veggies that you’ve previously tried, in new ways.
We all know that kids need their veggies for so many aspects of their health, but they are often reluctant to actually eat them. So thinking about how to make vegetables easy to eat and yummy may help the situation.
Remember that it can take kids upwards of 20 times of seeing a veggie to be brave enough to actually try it. This absolutely does not mean you need to keep track; it’s just to remind you that this is a learning process. So keep modeling enjoyment by eating these foods yourself, offering them in small portions without pressure, and having the foods you want them to eat around regularly.
(You may also like healthy toddler breakfast ideas, easy toddler lunch ideas, and healthy toddler snacks.)
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Kids Vegetables List
I should say that this is not a comprehensive list of recipes (that would be epic!) but it’s a perfect place to start if you’re looking to incorporate more vegetables into your kid’s diets.
I will note any potential issues with choking hazards for toddlers, cooking tips, and flavor profiles for each recipe to give you a head start with trying some of them out.
This list of vegetables include sides, main dishes, snacks, and breakfast ideas.
Asparagus Recipes for Kids
During the spring and throughout the year, asparagus is always a favorite vegetable to share with the family
Oven-Roasted Asparagus
When I learned how to cook asparagus in the oven, it was like a lightbulb went off. This method is so easy because all you do is to toss the asparagus with a little oil, sprinkle with salt, and let the heat from the oven soften up the stalks.
Transform fresh asparagus into the most delicious oven-roasted asparagus with this simple and fast method. (I’m using medium asparagus with about a dime-size diameter here. If you have super skinny pencil-like asparagus, reduce the cooking time by a few minutes.)
Beets Recipes for Kids
Beets are a good source of fiber and antioxidants. They have an earthy flavor, which some kids love…and others may not.
Easy Boiled Beets
Beets are naturally pretty sweet when cooked, they have a soft texture that’s easy for kids to eat, and they taste ridiculously good with a little butter and salt. This boiled beets recipe takes about 30 minutes and is mostly hands-off—and it’s a good one to make-ahead to reheat later!
You can use golden or red beets in this recipe. If using red beets, once they’re boiling, you’ll want to cover the pot with a lid slightly askew so some steam can escape and to prevent red splatters from getting all over the stove. Serve as an easy vegetable side, as a BLW food, or as a beets baby food pureed in the blender.
Beet Hummus
Boost the nutrition—and the color!—in your next batch of homemade hummus by adding beets.
This brightly colored hummus is a delicious spread for crackers, toast, or sandwiches. Or it can be served as a dip. You can omit the tahini if needed for an allergy.
Bell Peppers Recipes for Kids
Older toddlers and kids may love raw bell pepper sticks since they tend to be sweet, especially the red, yellow, and orange varieties. They can be hard to chew for kids under 3, so keep that in mind.
Bell peppers, which are sweet and not spicy, come in a range of colors and are delicious raw and cooked. They’re also a good source of vitamin C.
Easy STuffed Peppers Skillet
With the classic flavors of Stuffed Peppers, but much less work, this skillet version cooks up in just 20 minutes for a healthy family dinner option. You can use a mix of colors of peppers for a bright and fun visual.
You can use whichever type of rice your family likes best. We rotate through short grain brown rice, basmati, and jasmine. Adults may want to top their portions with shredded fresh basil and/or crushed red pepper.
Oven-Roasted Red Peppers
With a simple sheet pan method and pantry spices, you can learn how to Roast Red Peppers in the oven to use in tacos, sandwiches, and just as a simple side. You can season them with just salt or add cumin and a dash of chili powder for a Mexican take.
With a simple sheet pan method and pantry spices, you can learn how to roast red peppers in the oven to use in tacos, sandwiches, and just as a simple side.
Broccoli Recipes for Kids
Broccoli is often seen as the holy grail of veggies when it comes to kids, and while I love to try serving it in all sorts of ways to see what the kids like, it’s okay if the kids are still learning.
Broccoli Tots
With a handful of accessible, healthy ingredients, you can bake broccoli tots that are soft on the inside and crispy on the outside. And they kind of taste like broccoli tater tots! You can even make them ahead and store them in the freezer for later.
Crispy on the outside and tender in the middle, these tots are a seriously fun way to serve broccoli. You can cook the rice up to 5 days ahead of time and store it in the fridge until you’re ready to bake the tots.
Roasted Broccoli
When my oldest kiddo was little, she went to a daycare that served roasted broccoli regularly and all the kids devoured it. (Really!) It gets slightly sweet when roasted, which is a plus. Try to cut the florets to the same size for even cooking.
Roast a bag of frozen broccoli to make cooking easier and serve up the most delicious side dish. This is particularly great topped with grated Parmesan cheese!
Broccoli Pesto
This fun riff on classic pesto is a perfect pair for pasta!
This will likely make enough for two meals. You can freeze the leftovers for a future meal. (This recipe was updated to improve the taste and method in April 2019.)
Brussels Sprouts Recipes for Kids
This veggie can be bitter at times, so look for a recipe that has acid in it (like lemon juice) or that caramelizes them, like what happens during roasting—both of which can help balance the flavors.
Sauteed Brussels Sprouts with Lemon and Honey
Try this quick Sauteed Brussels Sprouts with Lemon and Honey for a simple side for dinner. It’s slightly sweet and pleasantly nutty, and not a bit bitter!
Try these quick Shredded Brussels Sprouts for a simple side for dinner. It’s extra flavorful from lemon and Parmesan and is also slightly sweet and pleasantly nutty. Your kids might (they might!) just surprise you by eating it up! (If not? More for you!)
Vegetable Recipes for Kids: Carrots
Carrots last forever in the fridge, are a good source of vitamin A, and are super versatile. Here are some of our favorite carrot recipes.
Quick and Easy Sauteed Carrots
So easy and fast, this is one of our favorite veggie side dishes.
These simple Sauteed Carrots are one of my go-to veggie recipes to make for my family. They’re ready from in under 20 minutes from start to finish, and the end result is tender, naturally sweet carrots.
Easy Baked Carrot Fries
These are easy to prepare (you basically just need to slice them). They cook in just about 20 minutes (with no stirring or tending required). And they are totally delicious dunked into ketchup.
These baked carrot fries are a simple side to go with burgers or chicken and pair perfectly with ketchup.
Carrot Pancakes
Think carrot cake, only healthy and appropriate for breakfast!
These hearty Carrot Pancakes pack nice natural sweetness from the carrots and applesauce. This can be a thicker pancake batter, so know that you can thin it slightly, if desired, by adding a few tablespoons of milk.
Carrot Hummus
Add some veggies to a basic hummus for a nutrition boost.
Taste the hummus and adjust for salt as needed. You may need more depending on whether or not you started with canned beans, and sometimes after the hummus sits in the fridge, it needs another sprinkle of salt.
Carrot Zucchini Muffins
Double veggies mean double flavor!
With four kinds of produce, including two fruits and two veggies, these healthy Zucchini Carrot Muffins are a perfect kids breakfast or snack. They store well in the fridge and freezer so you can make a batch and have it on hand for easy meals!
Carrot Cake Oatmeal
Make the easiest Carrot Cake Oatmeal and serve up a dose of veggies for breakfast in a kid-friendly form everyone will love! This is such a great way to start the day with a nutritious breakfast packed with fruits and veggies.
Kid-Friendly Cauliflower Recipes
Cauliflower, which is in the same family as broccoli, has nutrients including fiber and Vitamin C. Here are some favorite ways to prepare it.
Cauliflower with Parmesan
It’s simply steaming the cauliflower florets and then tossing with flavorful enhancements—butter or olive oil (if you need dairy-free or just prefer olive oil) and cheese. (We usually find that cheese helps almost any veggie go down easier.)
This quick Steamed Cauliflower is easy and delicious—and a perfect vegetable side dish to share with the kids. Use as much cauliflower as you need to feed your family. Store any uncooked florets in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Cauliflower Tots
With just six simple ingredients, these Cauliflower Tots are a healthy homemade finger food the kids (and the parents) will enjoy. Bonus: They reheat from frozen beautifully!
With quinoa, cauliflower, and cheese, these healthy little tots are a great finger food for kids. This recipe makes about 20 tots, which is 4-6 servings for toddlers—or 1-2 servings for adults.
Cauliflower Mac and Cheese
With a simple cheese sauce that has cauliflower right in the mix to help thicken it, this healthy Cauliflower Mac and Cheese is a fast weeknight lunch or dinner option for toddlers.
With a simple cheese sauce—no standing and stirring over the stove here!—a solid dose of veggies, and a super creamy final result, this Cauliflower Mac and Cheese is a fast lunch or dinner option for toddlers. (And the rest of the family, too!)
Vegetable Recipes for Kids: Green Beans
Green beans have potassium, fiber, a little iron, and protein, and are a really versatile veggie. Be sure to cook them soft so they’re easy for the kids to chew.
Sesame Maple Green Beans
These green beans are slightly sweet, a little bit salty, and it’s a perfect side dish to meat, chicken, eggs, or even beans. And they’re quick to make!
With flavors of garlic, ginger, and soy, Sesame Green beans are a fast side dish for busy weeknights. You can prep the beans ahead and cook them up in less than 15 minutes—and they’re SO good.
Quick and Easy Boiled Green Beans
These are perfectly tender and only take about 5 minutes to cook.
You can break or cut these into any size you prefer. I usually just break them in half.
Vegetable Recipes for Kids: Kale
Kale is loaded with nutrients, and though it can be a more challenging flavor to love, here are some more kid-friendly ways to prepare it.
Cheesy Kale Bites
These Cheesy Kale Bites are basically a meatball with shredded kale in place of meat. They have tons of flavor from the cheese, and they taste really great when dunked into ketchup or salsa.
You can use curly kale or flat kale in this recipe—both work well.
Quick and Easy Cheesy Greens
You can use almost any leafy green you like (though baby kale and spinach will be the softest/easiest to manipulate for younger eaters), and you can vary the cheese according to what you have on hand. These are lightning fast and easy to make in small or larger amounts.
This fast side dish is a delicious way to serve spinach to kids. Use baby spinach, regular spinach, baby kale, or lacinato kale (sometimes called dinosaur kale) for best results and easy chewing.
SIMPLE GREEN Smoothie
Tuck some kale into a smoothie with fruit to balance the flavors with natural sweetness.
Frozen bananas give the smoothie a creamy, naturally sweet base, though you can make this with a fresh banana as long as the other fruit is frozen. It’s easy to add whatever berries or fruit you have on hand, so customize it for your kiddo.
Kid-Friendly Recipes with Peas
Keeping a bag of frozen peas in the freezer is such a simple way to always have a veggie on hand to add to easy recipes—or to just serve on the side.
Spinach Pesto Pasta with Peas
This recipe is easy and a nice way to serve vegetarian protein!
This bright green pesto is cheesy and mild, making it a perfect sauce for a quick dinner of pasta and peas!
Mac and Cheese with Peas
We have a tradition of having boxed mac and cheese for one weekend lunch, and I always add some frozen peas to the mix. I find that my kids have no complaints about veggies in their mac and cheese since they love mac and cheese so much!
Potato Recipes for Kids
Potatoes come in a whole range of colors, but even the white ones have nutrients including fiber, potassium, and more.
Make-Ahead Mashed Potatoes
I love these so much since they reheat beautifully!
Creamy, easy to make, and so delicious, these Make-Ahead Mashed Potatoes are a favorite for holidays and family meals. (I prefer to use Yukon Gold potatoes in this recipe. They are usually widely available at grocery stores.) Double or triple this recipe as needed.
Healthy Mashed Potatoes with Broccoli
With just one pot and four ingredients, these potatoes are creamy, filling, and flavorful—and they have broccoli for an added nutritional punch, too.
Healthy Baked Sheet Pan Nachos
These healthy baked nachos have a tender potato base and are topped with black beans, cheese, salsa and (optional!) spinach.
These Baked Sheet Pan Nachos have a tender potato base and are topped with black beans, cheese, salsa and veggies. They’re a total family dinner hit. (You can add some of the ingredients to some of the areas—leaving the spinach off, adding more salsa or spice—to customize for everyone at the table.)
Spinach Recipes for Kids
Spinach, whether baby or full size leaves, is versatile and easy to add to everything from smoothies to muffins and stir fries.
Spinach Banana Muffins
Serve up greens in a sweet and easy to eat format with these simple muffins.
These healthy spinach muffins taste like a delicious banana muffin, but with the added nutrition of a big handful of spinach. These store well, so you can make them ahead of time and pull them out of the fridge or freezer to serve.
Easy Spinach Pesto
This Spinach Pesto is one of our go-to sauces. I like it because the color stays bright green, the ingredients are straightforward, and it packs a serious punch of vitamins and iron from the spinach. This is, hands down, my favorite way to serve up greens to my kids.
Try this healthy pesto with your favorite pasta or in place of pizza sauce on pizza!
Mini Spinach and Cheese Pizza Roll
These fun pizza rolls are packed with nutrition—and even greens!—but the cheese, and silly spiral shape makes them much more appealing to toddlers and big kids!
This Pizza Rolls recipe is packed with nutrition—and even greens!—but the cheese and silly spiral shape makes them much more appealing to toddlers and big kids. Be sure to grease your pan well and roll the dough up fairly tightly around the fillings for best results. (But it’s okay if they don’t look perfect when they go into the pan!)
Spinach Grilled Cheese
This is a veggie-packed variation on the classic sandwich that’s just so delicious. (This favorite kids sandwich is equally appealing to adults too!) It’s also easy to make and packed with iron, which is a nice bonus.
You can also do this with full size spinach if that’s what you’re able to find. Just discard any stems before starting the recipe.
Winter Squash Recipes for Kids
If you’re looking for ways to use butternut, kabocha, or another winter squash, here are some easy options.
Shortcut Butternut Squash Risotto
This Butternut Squash recipe involves roasting the squash, pureeing it into a sauce, and simply stirring it together with cooked short grain brown rice. Easy—and with steps you can do ahead.
You can cook the rice ahead of time and do Step 1 ahead. Or make the whole dish ahead and warm to serve when needed.
Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese
The beauty of this recipe is that the squash adds that classic orange color and nutrients, but the kids just get the cheesy pasta flavor and texture that they love. Pick up a bag of precut butternut squash and you literally just need to fill a pot with water to get this recipe started!
Roasted Butternut Squash
Simply cut up butternut squash (into fun shapes if you want!) and roast them in the oven. With a little salt, they’re a naturally sweet side dish to share with the kids.
Learn the easiest method for how to roast butternut squash. You can cut the squash into cubes, shapes, or “fries” based on what your kids may like to make this easy veggie side dish fun (yet still simple).
Butternut Squash Muffins
With a dose of butternut squash and apple butter, these flourless Butternut Squash Muffins pack a lot of flavor and moisture (and nutrition!) in one easy to eat package.
These moist muffins are great on their own or topped with butter, honey, or apple butter. Try them for breakfast, snack, or as a side for dinner.
Butternut Squash Puree
This recipe is packed with vitamins A and C plus fiber and has a naturally sweet taste that little ones enjoy.
You can make this puree to feed to a baby or toddler, or as a simple side dish for the whole family to share.
Butternut Squash Hummus
Try this simple hummus recipe for a veggie-packed dip or spread to serve with crackers, veggies, or bread.
Sweet Potato Recipes for Kids
We love sweet potatoes—which are rich in vitamin A as well as fiber—and there are so many sweet and savory ways to serve them to the kids.
Sweet Potato Baby Food
With one SO simple cooking method, you can roast sweet potato wedges to serve one of three yummy ways—BLW, mashed, or pureed into classic sweet potato puree.
You can serve this as wedges, a thick mash, or a thinner puree to your baby or toddler. (Adults will love the wedges, too!)
Healthy Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Silky, smooth, and dairy-free, these Healthy Mashed Sweet Potatoes are SO darn good as a holiday side or a weeknight veggie. They have fiber, vitamin A, and naturally sweet flavor.
Silky, smooth, and dairy-free, these Healthy Mashed Sweet Potatoes are SO darn good as a holiday side or a weeknight veggie. Bonus: These sweet potatoes are a super delish baby food!
Chicken Nuggets with Sweet Potato
You can make homemade chicken nuggets easily and add way more nutrition by tucking in mashed sweet potato. So smart and yummy!
Crispy on the outside and tender in the middle, these Homemade Chicken Nuggets are both easy and delicious. You can prep the sweet potato up to 5 days ahead if that’s easier for you, too. Try serving these with ketchup, ranch, or marinara sauce.
Sweet Potato Pancakes
These healthy Sweet Potato Pancakes are made with whole grains, taste naturally sweet, and they are a yummy way to pack a veggie into breakfast
Plan to have your mashed sweet potato ready to go so these come together quickly. Serve with any pancake topping you prefer—applesauce, maple syrup, nut or seed butter, or yogurt.
Tomato Recipes for Kids
Whether raw or cooked, tomatoes are an easy veggie to make regularly in the kitchen.
Raw Tomatoes: Chopped up, raw tomatoes (bigger ones or diced cherry or grape tomatoes) are a good way to offer tomatoes. Yellow or orange ones are often sweeter—such as the Sungold variety.
Veggie-Packed Marinara Sauce
Add extra veggies to your next pot of marinara sauce for more nutrition and flavor—but the comfort that your family expects!
Creamy Tomato Soup with Sweet Potato
With bright flavors from tomatoes and non-dairy creaminess from sweet potato, this is a simple and nutritious tomato soup. Serve it in a small mug or with a dipper!
Taste the soup after pureeing and add a little more salt if needed. The sweet potato adds creaminess without dairy—and so much flavor!
Extra-Veggie Baby Pasta
Serve up a filling, yummy baby meal with this easy Baby Pasta. It includes a tomato based sauce with extra veggies and beans blended in for an iron-rich meal perfect for lunch or dinner.
Adding beans and extra veggies helps make this easy baby pasta satisfying, nutritious, and yummy. Serve it more or less saucy as you like. (You can even freeze the sauce for easy future meals.)
Vegetable Recipes: Zucchini
Zucchini blends in to so many recipes—even muffins, breads, and cookies!
Easy Zucchini Fritters
Baked in a muffin tin, this simple fritter recipe is a great way to serve up zucchini to kids. They’re soft enough for younger toddlers and reheat nicely.
Zucchini and Cheese Egg Cups
With just a few simple ingredients, you can bake up these mini egg muffins packed with zucchini and cheese as a healthy breakfast or lunch option for the kids.
Feel free to double the recipe to make a full 24 mini muffins! We like to stash these in the fridge to eat all week, so having more is usually helpful in our house.
Zucchini Muffins
Moist, tender, and so good!
With an easy method (no squeezing the zucchini required!) and super moist results, these healthy Zucchini Muffins are a yummy breakfast or snack (that you’ll enjoy too!). They happen to be vegan and they store well for days.
Frequently Asked Questions
Make sure they taste good to you, which means season them, add flavorings and toppings, and try to make sure they are easy to chew.
Any! Try a range and see what they like. And remember that fruit has many of the same nutrients as vegetables, and it’s normal for kids to go through phases when they prefer foods other than vegetables.
I’d love to hear how your kids like to eat veggies so I can add to this vegetables list, so please comment below to share!
This post was first published December 2018.
