How can I make my kid eat more vegetables?

My kids went through a phase when all the food they wanted was very bland and I was desperately trying to find ways of including more vegetables in their diet. What worked for me was serving vegetables in different ways for example those that could be eaten uncooked - so carrots, mange tout (sugar snap peas), broccoli, and beans were left crunchy. I cooked potatoes, yams, and pumpkin in a variety of ways (boiled, steamed, roasted, and cut into sticks for "fries") to see if there were any preferences, and I added things like baby spinach leaves to salads.

My daughter tends to be selective based on taste, whereas my son is picky when it comes to texture - so food like banana and avocado are on his "do not eat" list.

Another cooking method that worked quite well for me was stir-fry and it allowed me to sneak in courgettes (marrows) and cabbage - two vegetables that were refused in any other form. I also made a lot of tomato based sauces for pasta as neither of my children liked fresh tomatoes. A trick I learned from a fellow mom was to make lasagne using eggplant or marrows instead of pasta sheets - it is delicious!

Once I was sure that a food dislike was not due to an allergy, I always had the one spoon rule where I encouraged each child to try just one teaspoonful of a food they said they disliked. If the aversion was persistent, I stopped serving it to them, but in many cases they started eating full portions of that food for themselves and are now both relatively adventurous eaters (although bananas and avocados are still a big "no" from my son).

I love hiding veggies in foods like sausage rolls and lasagne etc. I have found over the years though that it takes time to develop a taste for some foods so i have always kept offering a variety of foods even when my child says they don't like it. Our family rule is that you must try each thing on your plate but don't need to eat it all. We now have 7 kids who eat almost everything :)

I totally support the "sneaky method" for getting kids to eat more vegetables! The book "How to Get Your Kids to Beg for Veggies" has surefire recipes for hiding vegetables in dishes, so your kids benefit from the nutrients.

I have also made many sauces using the puree/blend method, to use over pastas and other starches. Many pureed vegetables add such a creamy texture to sauces, it's hard to notice they are actually made with veggies.

You can also try container gardening with your son, so he can grow his own vegetables. Let him pick out ones he would like to try and grow, and see if his ability to help cultivate his own food will bring about a desire to try earing it.

So tricky! I've snuck veggies in sauces to get the best outcome here. We have blended lentils, spinach, tomatoes, carrot or pumpkin and then serve it as a warm sauce over plain pasta. It sometimes works even better when the pasta has fun shapes!
Otherwise grated cooked zucchini and carrot stirred through garlic rice works for us too.

We implemented a thing we call "Try It Tuesday." Basically, every Tuesday, my son has to try a new food. I'm not saying it's a home run every time but it has gradually yielded some great results. I mean, he eats asparagus now! Also, it doesn't have to be Tuesday, it can be any day of the week: "Why Not Wednesday," "Think About It Thursday," etc. Good luck!