From sprinkling seeds on salads to a store-bought soup hack, try these novel ways to widen the variety of veggies you eat every week…
From a fresh green salad on a summer’s day to comforting roasted vegetables on a chilly winter’s evening, plants can bring colour, warmth, and joy to our meals. And with a whole host to choose from, eating a variety of plants isn’t just a chance to enjoy more delicious dishes – it can boost our health, too.
Research about the American Gut Project, published in 2018 in the journal mSystems, backs the idea that enjoying 30 or more different plants each week supports a diverse gut microbiome. While this may initially sound intimidating, it doesn’t just mean fruit and vegetables – it can include everything from coffee to cocoa.
“Vegetables, fruit, wholegrains, legumes, nuts, seeds, herbs, and spices all have a positive impact on the gut, and overall health, by providing a diverse array of fibre and phytochemicals – the natural compounds found in plants that work alongside nutrients and fibre – to fuel the bacteria in our gut,” explains registered nutritionist Amanda Serif. “A healthy and diverse ecosystem in the gut supports not just digestion, but also immunity, hormones, and mood.”
Eating a variety of plants can support our mental wellbeing, too. “Research refers to the gut-brain axis, which is a communication pathway between the digestive system and the brain,” says Amanda. “The gut microbiome is increasingly recognised for its ability to influence and regulate mood and behaviour by producing neurotransmitters, such as serotonin and dopamine. Ensuring that the gut microbiome is ‘fed’ with different types of plant foods can positively enhance brain function, and also mood.”
Like many, I often rely on cooking the same meals on repeat. Sometimes it’s from a place of comfort, and others, it’s due to a lack of time and energy to plan something more original in advance. But, encouraged by the health benefits, I decided to actively try incorporating more plants into my diet. Crucially, I wanted to enjoy it, seeing it as an opportunity to explore new ingredients and flavours, all while giving my gut a boost.
Adding more plants to your plate
A key element here is discovering simple (and sometimes surprising) ways to incorporate more plants into our meals, that don’t create additional stress and overwhelm in daily life. So, I turned to Amanda for her expert advice.
- Use herbs and spices. “These are often forgotten, but are a valuable way to add additional plants to the diet really easily,” Amanda says. She recommends everything from adding basil to a salad, to chopping parsley and coriander into quinoa or rice, or stirring mint and cumin into yoghurt for a Middle Eastern style dip.
Dried herbs count, too (which can be grown on a windowsill or balcony). So, now I take Amanda’s advice, and sprinkle a good mix of oregano and basil into a pasta sauce – delicious, and a really quick way of upping my plant intake with minimal effort.
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Make a trail mix. This, Amanda explains, can involve putting together a jar of mixed nuts and seeds, such as pumpkin and sunflower, and using the mixture to sprinkle on top of soups, salads, yoghurt, into smoothies, or enjoying a handful as a snack.
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Enjoy more fermented foods. “These are probiotic foods that can help to repopulate the gut with beneficial bacteria,” says Amanda. Kimchi and sauerkraut add a crunchy, zesty texture and flavour – I’ve tried adding a small scoop onto a salad, and it’s a strong taste that takes me by surprise, but works well once I’ve adjusted to it! Miso (fermented soy) has a satisfying, deep savoury flavour, so it is good to stir a teaspoon into lentil bolognaise.
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Make more use of tinned pulses. Amanda suggests things like adding a can of lentils to a soup as an easy and economical way to make shop-bought soup go further. I add chickpeas to a couscous salad, which provides a tasty, nutty flavour. It only takes seconds to rinse the chickpeas, and definitely enhances the meal.
Plants that support our mental health
With countless options at our fingertips, it can be hard to know where to start with what plants to focus on. For those looking to specifically increase their intake of plants that are particularly well-regarded for supporting our mental wellbeing, Amanda highlights:
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Coloured fruit and vegetables, such as red grapes and onions, kale, broccoli, and red and yellow peppers. “Quercetin [a plant pigment, found in these foods] has been shown to regulate and influence the activity of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin,” she explains. “Although more research is needed to fully understand the therapeutic benefit of quercetin, these foods are full of fibre and nutrients that support the gut microbiome.”
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Leafy greens and cruciferous vegetables such as kale, spinach, rocket, watercress, broccoli, and cauliflower. These contain folate and magnesium, essential for neurotransmitter production to regulate mood and sleep, plus magnesium is essential for managing the stress response and sleep.
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Nuts and seeds, particularly walnuts, flax, and chia, are a source of omega 3 fatty acids, linked to improvements in both mood and cognition.
Making the menu work for you
Eating foods we aren’t familiar with can sometimes be intimidating – so don’t feel you have to suddenly make lots of changes. Small shifts can still make a difference. “Think about where you can add an additional plant to your meal,” advises Amanda. “Can you add some frozen spinach to a pasta sauce? It can be as easy as a handful of rocket or watercress in your lunchtime sandwich.”
This also helps to ease the pressure of thinking you need to create a whole new roster of meals, and work out complicated new recipes when you might be mentally drained at the end of a day, and just want something nutritious and satisfying.
Another angle is growing your own and eating locally produced organic seasonal vegetables, which often have additional environmental benefits of reduced emissions from transport, and a lack of pesticides. Eating seasonally helps support local businesses and communities, too, as well as helping to expand the variety of plants you eat as these naturally will change throughout the year.
I recently visited a friend who has an allotment, who told me how growing her own makes her more experimental in the kitchen. She kindly gave me some purple sprouting broccoli that I included in a stir fry the next day. It’s a vegetable I’d never cooked with before, but was pleasantly surprised at how this simple, but delicious, addition perked up my meal.
Wandering around a local farmers’ market can be another great way of stumbling upon plants you don’t often use, but Amanda emphasises that plants being fresh, frozen, canned, in jars, pouches, or packets are all valid ways of adding more to your diet.
I’ve found joy in eating more plants, and it’s helped me with my midweek cooking dilemmas and livened up my go-to meals. Whether it’s a sprinkling of seeds on a salad, or trying a new vegetable with your Sunday roast, eating more plants doesn’t have to be a problem – but a real pleasure. So, dig in.
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