But rest easy when you do decide to have a night off from the kitchen – you can still get 60% of your daily vegetable intake from takeaways, says Geraldine Georgeou, a top Aussie nutritionist.
After analysing a host of dishes available through online food delivery platform Menulog, Geraldine reveals Aussies can make the right choices when they know how to convert recommended daily intakes into real meal scenarios.
The recommended daily vegetable intake is five serves.
Geraldine says one ‘serve’ is equal to half a cup of cooked green or orange vegetables (for example, broccoli, spinach, carrots or pumpkin), or half a cup of cooked dried or canned beans, peas or lentils, or one cup leafy or raw salad vegetables, one medium tomato, half a cup of sweet corn, and even half a medium potato or other starchy vegetables (sweet potato, taro or cassava).
Popular dishes such as green Thai curry, pasta Primavera, and beef in black bean sauce already contain one to two serves, which can easily be upped to three with some ‘special requests’ when ordering, she says.
“Aussies have really been criticised over their poor eating habits. They need to be armed with practical guidelines on how to get their vegetable intake from convenient meal choices within their busy lives,” says Geraldine.
“Five serves seems likes a great amount of vegetables, but it’s not as much as we might think.
“Ordering a healthy takeaway dish can be a really easy way to help you meet your five a day as long as you follow some simple rules, such as adding a side salad, choosing a stir fry option or extra steamed greens to a main meal.”
Below are her four top healthy takeaway meals which have up to three serves of your daily vegetable allowance:
- Vietnamese rice paper rolls and a Beef Pho soup
- Serve 1: ½ cup of vegetables
- Serve 2: ½ cup of beansprouts
- Serve 3: ½ cup of green leafy vegies
- Falafel salad
- Serve 1: ½ cup of chickpeas
- Serve 2 and 3: 2 cups of salad
- Thai beef salad teamed with a side of chili pork stir fry with broccoli
- Serve 1: 1 cup of salad
- Serve 2: ½ cup of mixed vegetables
- Serve 3: ½ cup of broccoli
- Chinese chicken and sweet corn soup with a beef and black bean sauce main
- Serve 1: ½ a cup of sweetcorn
- Serve 2: ½ of cup of stir fry vegetables
- Serve 3: ½ cup of spring onion
How to get 3 vegetable servings from the more popular home delivery meal options
If you are looking for healthy takeaway options, Geraldine has given the following Aussie favourites a healthy twist
| Dish | No. of serves of vegetables | Special requests – to take you 3 serves |
| Beef in Black Bean sauce | Spring onion Stir fry vegetables TOTAL = 2 | Steamed Chinese broccoli |
| Green Thai curry
| Baby corn Eggplant TOTAL=2 | Steamed mixed vegetables, or bok choy, or green papaya salad |
| Pasta primavera
| Snow peas Asparagus Zucchini TOTAL = 2 | Each equal to 2 serves: Rocket side salad, or Caprese salad |
| Tandoori prawns and daal curry | Lentils TOTAL = 1 | Each equal to 2 serves: Vegetable curry |
| Falafel salad and hummus
| Chickpeas Salad items (lettuce, cucumber and tomato) TOTAL = 2 | Tabbouleh salad, or fattoush salad |
| Salmon and avocado sushi roll and edamame beans | Edamame beans Avocado TOTAL = 2 | Seaweed salad |
