Kokova Magazine

Feeding fussy eaters can be a daily challenge. Including green vegetables and salad in meals is never easy, especially with a family of neurodivergents. Texture plays a significant role and the resistance to trying new things compounds the issues. Over the years we have found suitable workarounds that seem to work for us.

The best solution with vegetables is puree. They can then be added to the main sauce of the recipe, to bulk out the meal, and to add more flavour. Distraction techniques also work, and by adding baked beans to our cottage pie and pureeing the extra vegetables into the sauce, we can include many rejected ingredients. Onions are chopped to the finest cut, as larger slices can cause texture problems, and refining recipes to create our own version leads to fun in the kitchen and twists on familiar favourites.

Salads were our greatest challenge, with lettuce leaves being firmly rejected by the most aspie of us. Balance is key, so we ensure a favourite ingredient is added, like grilled chicken strips or shredded beef. Then we chop all the salad ingredients into small pieces before tossing them in honey mustard or balsamic dressing. This creates taste and flavours that meet our needs, and even though some textures remain, they are easier to swallow.

It takes time, trial and error, and imagination to cook for fussy eaters. Our goal is to cook together and create delicious meals for the whole family, with fresh ingredients. There are many ways of disguising vegetables in recipes, and as I have now managed to get my family to eat cooked beetroot, I feel we may be winning.