Even though national nutrition month is over, good nutrition and eating right is important all year long. An important part of eating right is making sure you incorporate vegetables into your daily diet. Vegetables contain essential nutrients that we need in order to stay healthy and do all the activities we want to do, so here are some ways to make sure you are getting those essential nutrients while enjoying the taste at the same time!

Some vegetables such as carrots and peppers are easy to prepare; you can cut them up and eat them raw. However, we’ve  all come across those few vegetables that we’d love to eat but can’t seem to find how to cook the right way to make them taste better. For me, brussel sprouts have always been tricky. Brussel sprouts aren’t meant to be eaten raw and they have a very plain taste when they’re steamed. The best way I’ve found to prepare them is to cut them in half and bake them in the oven (roasting) with a little bit of olive oil and salt. They crisp up and taste amazing! You could even add a small amount of chopped cooked bacon or chopped garlic to give them a little more flavor.

Another tricky vegetable is kale. It’s a wonderful leafy green that’s full of vitamins and iron, but has a tough texture and slightly bitter taste if eaten raw. Kale is a great addition to a smoothie to go along with strawberries, bananas (or any other fruits), yogurt, and milk or water. Go crazy! The fruit in a smoothie will balance of the taste of the kale; you may not actually be able to taste the kale at all. If you’re feeling daring, you can even add in half an avocado to give the smoothie a creamier taste. You can also lay out raw kale on a pan, drizzle some olive oil, sprinkle on some salt, and bake in the oven to make kale chips!

Lastly, there’s broccoli. Broccoli is good to eat raw if you dip it in humus or low-fat salad dressing. It’s also good when eaten cooked. My favorite way to cook broccoli is to saute it in a saucepan on the stove top with some olive oil, garlic powder, and pepper until you can easily get a fork through it.

You may have tried various vegetables once or twice and didn’t seem to care for them, but keep testing them by preparing them in a different way or with a different flavor until you find the perfect way for you. There is always a way to prepare a vegetable or a spice to add to it to make it taste great!

-Shelby