Vegetable of the Week: Asparagus

By Julia Moravcsik, PhD, author of Teach Your Child to Love Healthy Food

Each week, start teaching your child to like a new vegetable. Follow these 4 rules:

1. Feed each vegetable to your child twice a week.

2. Give your child the vegetable two times a week for six weeks. That’s a total of 12 times. After 12 presentations, your child will probably like the vegetable. If she doesn’t, wait for a few months and start the whole process again.

3. Don’t feed the same vegetable to your child two days in a row. Wait a day or two before giving her the vegetable again.

4. If your child tastes the vegetable, count it as a success. She may spit it out, but her brain is still registering the taste.

Six weeks from today your child will probably be an asparagus lover!

About Asparagus

Choose thin, firm-looking asparagus spears. If they're thick, you can break them in two and throw away the woody bottoms.

Asparagus is wonderful steamed or boiled. Cook for 10 minutes. For babies, cook them about 50% longer, or 15 minutes, and mash or puree.

Vary the asparagus dishes so that your child remains interested. Here are some quick and easy dishes:

1. Melt some butter or olive oil in the microwave. Squeeze some juice from a lemon, and add some shredded parmesan.

2. Put asparagus in an omelet. It's a great breakfast vegetable.

3. Make a garlic butter by microwaving butter in the microwave with a small clove of chopped garlic. Pour it on the asparagus.

Would you like a simple, easy-to-follow program that will teach your child to love healthy food? See my new book Teach Your Child to Love Healthy Food on amazon.com.


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