Six Tasty Ways to Enjoy Fruit and Veg Over Winter
by Ashleigh Feltham,  Accredited Practising Dietitian and Accredited Nutritionist.

Are you a lover of summer salads, fruit and veg, but find it challenging to find inspiration for including fruit and vegetables in your diet in winter? This post is for you. Fruit and vegetables are so versatile that with a bit of imagination and creativity, you can still enjoy getting enough each day to stay healthy.

1. Warm Up with Salad

Have you tried a warm salad? Some ideas could be roasted vegetables like capsicum, potato, sweet potato or pumpkin with roasted chickpeas and feta cheese or grilled chicken breast. To make this a complete meal, add some wholegrains like brown rice, pasta, wholegrain couscous or quinoa.

2. Load Up Pasta Sauces and Soups with Veggies

Do you tend to stick to a simple soup or pasta sauce with minimal vegetables? Adding in additional vegetables can not only add more nutrients to your body but also boost the flavour of your meals.

Some ideas could be adding more vegetables to a tomato soup to make a minestrone or a rainbow-of-vegetables soup. If you want to help achieve and maintain a healthy weight, aim for a water-based soup rather than cream.

Add more vegetables, such as legumes, mushrooms and corn, to a beef mince. Spice up a tomato pasta sauce with your favourite vegetables. Try eggplant, capsicum, mushrooms, peas, corn, celery, carrot or spinach.

3. Enjoy Warm Fruit Desserts

Fruit is enjoyed in many different varieties in summer, but it can also be delicious and help keep you warm in winter. One of my favourites is baking or microwaving an apple. Core the apple and fill with low-fat cream cheese, raisins and cinnamon.

4. Add More Veggies to Your Favourites

We all have our favourite go-to meals. Give them a boost with an extra cup of vegetables. For example, add chickpeas or sweet potato to a curry, more vegetables to your steak and three veg, or put peas, cauliflower, broccoli and corn into a tuna bake.

5. Eat Seasonally

In the Western World, we have access to most fruits and vegetables all year. But fruit and veg in season are naturally superior in taste compared to those kept in long-term storage. Winter vegetables also have nutrients like vitamins A and C, which support your immune system to function optimally, which we need more of in winter. In addition, these vegetables are the perfect comfort food for cold, wintery days and nights.

Vegetables and fruit in season over winter include grapefruit, kiwifruit, fuji apples, pears, avocado, oranges, spinach, pumpkin, potato, sweet potato, beetroot, broccoli, cabbage, carrot, fennel and garlic. These are just a few examples, but the variety is amazing.

6. Add Herbs and Spices

Adding herbs and spices can be a great way to enhance the flavour of a meal or snack and increase the nutrients and antioxidants your body receives. Some winter-warming ideas include adding cinnamon to your porridge, turmeric to your favourite curry, or paprika to soup, pasta sauce or nachos.

Take home message:

Finding the love for fruit and veg over winter is possible. Adding the right quantity and variety of fruit and vegetables makes meals more enjoyable and tastier. Best of all, giving your body a variety of nutrients for optimal functioning, including the immune system, means you are putting your best health forward.