Canada’s Food Guide Plate encourages Canadians to make half their plate vegetables or fruit. One recommendation is to have orange vegetables a few times a week.
Orange vegetables contain carotenoids. These are plant compounds that convert into Vitamin A in your body. Vitamin A helps promote healthy vision and helps your eyesight in dark lighting. It also promotes the growth and health of cells in your body, and it helps regulate your immune system.
Orange vegetables that grow in Alberta are carrots, peppers, pumpkins, squash, and even sweet potatoes.
Here are a few ways to add orange vegetables to your meals:
- Choose sweet potato instead of regular potatoes.
- Serve roasted butternut squash.
- Serve sliced carrots or peppers as a snack.
- Roast carrots or peppers as a side dish.
- Add pureed pumpkin to regular mashed potatoes, soups, and sauces. Or add it into muffin or cookie batter when baking. For a fall treat, try it in a smoothie with cinnamon and nutmeg.
For a satisfying fall dish and other health recipes, you may want to try the sweet potato and carrot crisp recipe at ahs.ca/recipes.
