For picky eaters, veg­eta­bles can be dif­fi­cult to en­joy eat­ing.

Read this list of five ways to boost the flavour and cook veg­eta­bles to make them de­li­cious.

1) Mar­i­nate your veg­eta­bles

One rea­son you may not like veg­eta­bles in the first place could be their bland flavour. Just like meat, you can mar­i­nate your veg­eta­bles to in­fuse a new di­men­sion of flavour. A mari­nade is a sea­soned sauce that you coat over your meat and now veg­eta­bles and al­low it to ab­sorb the aro­mas of herbs and spices in the mari­nade.

Green sea­son­ing is the Caribbean’s fa­mous mari­nade con­tain­ing a blend of trop­i­cal herbs such as chadon beni, gar­lic, hot pep­per, chives, pars­ley and thyme pop­u­lar­ly used to sea­son meats. If you are from the Caribbean and have green sea­son­ing on hand, you have to try mar­i­nat­ing your veg­eta­bles with green sea­son­ing. Mush­rooms are a great veg­etable to mari­nade be­cause of the abil­i­ty to ab­sorb and re­tain mois­ture and flavour. Try it out in your next veg­gie dish.

2) Load on the cheese!

There is no deny­ing that cheese is one of the best foods of all time. Sad­ly, it gets a bad rap for be­ing high­er in fat and calo­ries. On the oth­er hand, cheese is an amaz­ing source of pro­tein, cal­ci­um, and sev­er­al oth­er nu­tri­ents. It’s im­por­tant to keep in mind that some cheeses are health­i­er than oth­ers and mod­er­a­tion is key. A great way to boost your veg­etable in­take is by adding cheese to your sal­ad. Fe­ta cheese is a great op­tion here be­cause it’s crumbly, salty and will add a de­li­cious kick to each bite of sal­ad. If it takes a few pieces of cheese to get in your veg­eta­bles for the day, there’s noth­ing to feel guilty about.

3) Smooth­ies!

Blend­ing is one of the best meth­ods to get more green veg­eta­bles in­to your di­et and it makes it eas­i­er for your body to process the amaz­ing nu­tri­ents in the veg­eta­bles. Green smooth­ies of­ten judged by picky eaters to taste like grass but you can mask the strong taste of veg­eta­bles like kale, spinach and blend to­geth­er with sweet fruits like beets, cran­ber­ries and ba­nanas that will mask the flavour you may not like.

4) Veg­gie-Based Soups

Soups com­bine mul­ti­ple serv­ings of veg­eta­bles in a hearty ful­ly meal. Soups are easy to cook with ei­ther a broth or puree the veg­gies based on your pref­er­ences. Add your own sea­son­ings, herbs and spices to your soup to make your soup even more de­li­cious.

Here are few ideas for soup you have to try:

Car­rot Soup

Creamy Cau­li­flower Soup

Callaloo Soup

Creamy Corn and Car­rot Soup

5) Pre­tend they are oth­er foods!

You can now trans­form veg­eta­bles in­to just about any­thing. Have you heard of cau­li­flower steaks, zuc­chi­ni noo­dles and egg­plant slices as the re­place­ment for lasagna noo­dles?

Ex­per­i­ment with your veg­eta­bles as meat re­place­ments for your favourite dish. Ve­g­ans have re­cent­ly been us­ing car­rots mar­i­nat­ed in bar­be­cue sauce as a sub­sti­tute for hot dogs.

Can’t knock it till you try it!