Here’s a number that surprised even me: only about 6.5% of Australian adults eat enough vegetables, according to the ABS’s 2022 figures. That’s roughly one in fifteen of us. So if you’ve been meaning to eat more vegetables and you’re not hitting five or six serves a day, you’re in very large company.
I don’t think the problem is that people don’t like veg. It’s that veg is work: washing, peeling, chopping, standing at the bench, and then working out what to do with the half a cabbage that’s slowly dying in the crisper. On a high-pain day, that’s a lot of spoons for a side dish.
So the Veggie Power Challenge is deliberately small. Eat one extra serve of vegetables a day, for 21 days. Not a whole new diet. Just one more serve, done the easiest way you can manage.
Why bother to eat more vegetables?
The nutrition nerd answer: vegetables bring fibre, vitamins, minerals and a whole range of plant compounds, and they do it with very little carbohydrate (the leafy and non-starchy ones, anyway). Diets higher in vegetables are consistently linked with lower rates of heart disease in large population studies. Those studies show an association rather than proof, but it’s a consistent and fairly boring finding, and boring is good in nutrition.
The practical answer: fibre helps keep things moving, which matters if your pain meds slow your gut down. Variety helps too. Different coloured veg tend to carry different nutrients, so mixing it up across the week covers more bases without you having to track any of it.
For reference, the Australian Dietary Guidelines recommend 5–6 serves of vegetables a day for most adults. One serve is about 75 g, which is roughly half a cup of cooked veg or a cup of salad leaves. A big handful of baby spinach wilted into dinner counts.
The rule that makes this work: shortcuts count
This challenge only works if it costs fewer spoons than you have. So let’s be clear about what counts as a vegetable here:
- Frozen veg. Picked and frozen quickly, often more nutritious than “fresh” veg that’s spent a week in transit.
- Pre-cut and pre-washed veg. Bagged salad, slaw mix, stir-fry packs, zucchini noodles and cauliflower rice.
- Microwave steam bags. Three minutes, no pot, no chopping board.
- Tins and jars. Tinned tomatoes, passata, artichokes, roasted capsicum and mushrooms.
- Supermarket salad bar or deli veg. Someone else roasted it. Excellent.
Dinner doesn’t care who chopped the capsicum. Coffee is not on the list. I checked. If you want the longer case for this, I’ve written about why convenience ingredients are accessibility tools.
Step 1: Stock up once, so you don’t have to think about it
The fewer decisions you make on a bad day, the better. A one-off stock-up makes the extra serve the default rather than a task:
- Fill a freezer shelf with two or three frozen veg you actually like. Peas, broccoli, spinach and a stir-fry mix cover most meals.
- Keep a couple of tins in the pantry, like tomatoes and artichoke hearts.
- Buy one bag of pre-washed leaves each week, and accept that some weeks it’ll go slimy. That’s fine.
- Buy fresh veg in season if you can, when it’s cheaper and tastes better. Skip it entirely if you can’t.
If shopping itself drains your spoons, our easier shopping guide helps.
Step 2: Add veg to what you already eat
You don’t need new recipes. Bolt one serve onto meals you’re already making:
- Breakfast: stir a handful of baby spinach into scrambled eggs, or add a few cherry tomatoes on the side. No knife needed.
- Lunch: tip some bagged salad onto the plate next to whatever you’re eating.
- Dinner: throw a cup of frozen peas or broccoli into the pan, pasta sauce or curry for the last few minutes.
- Soups and stews: add a handful of frozen spinach or a tin of tomatoes. Nobody will notice, least of all you.
- Snacks: eat cucumber, cherry tomatoes or snow peas straight from the punnet, with dip if you like.
If you eat low carb, lean on leafy greens, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, capsicum, mushrooms and tomatoes. I explain why these work well in how macros fuel your body.
Step 3: Swap in veg where it’s no extra effort
Some swaps add veg and lower the carbs, with the same effort as the original:
- Use zucchini noodles from the fridge section instead of pasta. Here’s how we do zoodles.
- Use frozen cauliflower rice instead of rice.
- Use cauliflower mash instead of potato. Our creamiest keto cauli mash is a favourite.
- Use lettuce cups instead of wraps.
For more swaps, see our keto pasta substitutes.
Step 4: Mix up colours across the week, not every meal
“Eat the rainbow” is good advice that’s often delivered as homework. You don’t need five colours on every plate. Aim for a mix across the week: something green, something red or orange, something purple or white. Frozen mixed veg does a lot of this for you.
Your 21-day Veggie Power Challenge planner
One extra serve a day, nothing fancy. Mostly no chopping. Swap any day for a version that suits your spoons, or repeat a day you liked. Repeats still count.
| Week | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Frozen peas stirred into dinner | Baby spinach in scrambled eggs | Bagged salad on the side at lunch | Frozen broccoli in a steam bag | Cherry tomatoes as a snack | A tin of tomatoes in a stew or curry | Frozen veg tray-roasted with dinner |
| Week 2 | Zucchini noodles instead of pasta | Cucumber and dip as a snack | Frozen spinach in soup | Slaw mix on the side | Cauliflower rice instead of rice | Mushrooms in an omelette | Lettuce cups instead of wraps |
| Week 3 | Stir-fry pack in a quick stir-fry | Green smoothie with frozen spinach | Roasted capsicum from a jar on lunch | Cauli mash instead of potato | Snow peas as a snack | Frozen mixed veg in a frittata | Your favourite from the last three weeks |
A few recipes that make this easy: Green Shakshuka, Thai Red Curry Cauliflower Soup and our Green and Clean Smoothie.
If you miss a day
You haven’t failed anything. Pick it up tomorrow, or don’t. This isn’t a streak to protect. The point is that eating more vegetables gets easier and more automatic, not that you hit 21 out of 21.
Some days, the extra serve is a handful of frozen peas thrown in at the last minute. That counts.
