Ask our expert: Some children won’t eat green food. I think they associate green food with "healthy and therefore‚ doesn’t taste nice". Let’s face it you don’t get green chocolate do you?

Beverley Glock answers: As long as they will eat other fruit and vegetables I wouldn’t worry too much. You can always "hide" green veg in sauces such as chilli, bolognaise or soups and whizz them in a blender so they can’t be seen. Green peppers, courgettes and leeks work well and you can also add mushrooms, red onions, carrots, red peppers and aubergine without it being noticed.

Stay away from strongly flavoured vegetables - sprouts have a very distinct, strong flavour and children and adults tend to either love them or hate them.

When serving up vegetables as a side dish a good trick is to put three different vegetables on your children’s plate and allow them to leave one of the vegetables. That way they eat two and feel like they’re getting away with something; it also puts them in charge, a little, of what they eat. If they only have one vegetable on their plate you only have that one to battle over.

Try it with different coloured veg, always including a green one. So baby sweetcorn, carrots and broccoli one day, then change it, moving on to having two green veg, say, peas and runner beans, so one of the veg they choose has to be green. Also try mixing cooked leeks into mashed potato, delicious.

As children get older their tastes change constantly so don’t be put off. Keep trying and encouraging your children to try, even it if is only one green bean, one pea or the tops of a broccoli tree with the promise that if they don’t like it they can spit it out on to a piece of kitchen roll, but only after they have chewed it all around their mouth to actually taste it. You have to try something a number of times before your taste buds actually figure out whether you like it or not.

It also helps if they eat with friends who like green veg, peer pressure works wonders and children will be more tempted to try something if their friends eat it, a good way of planning the children’s social lives too.

Got a question about children and food? Use the comment box below to post your question for our children's food expert Beverley Glock

For more information visit: www.splatcooking.net and www.beverleyglock.com

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