Adding “hidden” vegetables in meals has been a popular tactic for parents in getting their kids to eat the food they often turn up their noses to. Cookbooks like Jessica Seinfeld’s cookbook “Deceptively Delicious” and Missy Chase Lapine’s “The Sneaky Chef” espoused the benefits of doing so.
Now, researchers are suggesting that adults can stand to benefit from hiding vegetables as well. According to researchers at Pennsylvania State University, if you hide veggies by pureeing them and adding them to your entrees, it reduces the number of calories in the meal without sacrificing texture or taste.
An added benefit found in the study was that participants got more than double their fiber intake of veggies without even knowing it. You see, the participants in the study were unaware of what was being added to the foods they were eating. The cooks were adding vegetables that had been steamed and then pureed.
Here are some examples that you can try. You can puree cauliflower and mix it with mashed potatoes, or how about cutting broccoli into small pieces and mixing it with whole-grain rice. Spaghetti sauce is the easiest, as you can puree vegetables like peppers and mix it with the tomato sauce.
The power of this method is that you are still getting the same weight in food, but since veggies have fewer calories per ounce, you are still getting the same amount of food, just less calories.
(via: MSNBC)