Need a way to help your family eat more vegetables? These veggie cups are a fun option for kids and make getting your daily dose of vegetables easy!
Pack them with your favorite dipping sauce and watch them disappear from the fridge.
A little backstory on this snack recipe: at the age of 2, my daughter decided that all things veggies were no longer an option. No matter how hard I tried to make veggies appealing, she refused to eat them.
A few years later, these veggie cups made an appearance at a birthday party, and with some encouragement from her friend, Casey, she grabbed a veggie, took a bite, and liked ‘colorful’ foods again.
For a while, she called these snack cups “Casey’s cups” and asked for them frequently.
Veggie Snack Cups
Veggie cups are a great snack that’s fun and convenient to eat. You can prep them with an assortment of vegetables and stash them in the fridge for school lunches or veggie snacks to munch on while at the office.
If your kids (or you) aren’t a fan of raw vegetables, try giving them a quick steam in the microwave before assembling the cups. This works great with carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower and can even enhance their flavor with the dip.
What to Put in a Veggie Cup
Usually, I prep this snack with ranch dressing, baby carrots, and celery, but you can customize these veggie cups with any of your favorite dips and vegetables. Grab a few ideas in the list below:
- homemade ranch dressing
- homemade hummus
- red pepper hummus
- baby carrots
- celery sticks
- cherry/grape tomatoes
- broccoli
- sliced bell peppers
- sugar snap peas
- asparagus
Want more delicious recipes to include in your snack routine? Check out the Best Homemade Kids’ Snacks on the Planet.
It’s filled with creative and tasty snacks you’ll want to make again and again!
How to Assemble Veggie Cups
Here’s how to assemble your own veggie cups step-by-step:
- Add your choice of dip or sauce to the bottom of a 6 to 8-ounce storage cup; 2 tablespoons should do the trick.
- Place the veggies, standing up, into the dip.
- Top with lid and seal.
- Once prepped, these veggie cups will stay good for up to 3 days.
You can also watch how to put these snack cups together in the video below:
More Ways to Get Kids to Eat Veggies
I have plenty of healthy meals ideas your picky eater will eat and ask you to make on repeat! Each recipe is a kid-favorite option recreated with better ingredients and hidden veggies to bump up the nutrition.
- Blueberry Smoothie – with invisible spinach!
- Hidden Veggie Pasta Sauce
- Zucchini Pizzas
- All Meat & Veggie Chili
- Broccoli Nuggets
Easy Veggie Cups with Ranch Dressing
Need some ideas to help your family eat more vegetables? These veggie cups are a fun option for kids and adults!
- Prep Time: 8 minutes
- Total Time: 8 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings
- Category: Snacks
Ingredients
- 4 ribs celery, sliced into sticks
- 4 ribs carrots, peeled and sliced into sticks
- ½ – 1 cup ranch dressing
Instructions
- Place 1-2 tablespoons of ranch dressing at the bottom of each cup, and fill each container with 1 cup of sliced veggies.
- Close the lid and refrigerate for up to 3 days.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cup
- Calories: 99
- Sugar: 4.4 g
- Sodium: 219.7 mg
- Fat: 6.9 g
- Saturated Fat: 1.1 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 8.5 g
- Fiber: 2.6 g
- Protein: 1.1 g
- Cholesterol: 3.9 mg
Ellen
My kids love veggies dipped in hummus! They list it as a top 3 favorite food along with pizza and mac n cheese. I can’t wait to try veggies and ranch with this recipe.
★★★★
Teresa
My 4 yr old doesn’t object to veggies so much as to chewing (think kale and skin of sweet peppers) — he’s lazy. My 8 yr old just makes a face to most veggies but eats them diligently for nutrition. So, I skin tomatoes before cooking, choose soft leafy greens like spinach, cook napa cabbage and broccoli that much longer, pull the thick fiber strings from the celery for the younger one, and leave all but the most tender watercress for the adults. When the younger came home one day looking for carrot sticks (short-lived), I rushed to get them to him. He also likes the zucchini more tender while the older one likes them less cooked. So, I cut them into two different thicknesses so that I can saute them in the same pot while satisfying both preferences. I assume this is just a phase. Haha
The ranch veggie sounds like a definite possibility. The older child likes celery, from “Wonder Pets” days, while the younger shy away from it (chew factor). The dressing dip might be just the thing to get him to eat it. I already know the older child will love it. What a great idea, and so simple and portable.
Donna Jacobs
I do not have to fight my girls to eat veggies. They LOVE them. Both have a dairy allergy so they know eating veggies are safe and won’t hurt them!!
★★★
Bari
maybe my toddler will eat this…
Shanna Chambers
I get my son to eat them by buying cute little cups or containers and let him put what kind of art work he likes.
Leah Holt
It has been a challenge to get my daughter to eat anything green. However, we started a small garden in the backyard and planted lettuce. To my surprise my daughter eagerly picked the lettuce and ate a huge handful for dinner with a touch of ranch dressing for dipping. Now she requests lettuce be included in her lunch.
Nicole
To get my kids to eat more veggies I use a few tactics. I made a game of who can crunch a carrot bite the loudest. I include them in menu planning and ask them what veggies we should buy for the week. For dinners, I slather green beans, asparagus, etc. in good grass-fed butter and sprinkle with sea salt. And we can’t forget the smoothies and muffins. The perfect way to add greens & veggies without any extra effort to get the kiddos to eat them!
Shani
I agree that seeing other household members enjoying veggies seems to pique the interest of my kids. I also like to add fun things like dried cranberries and sliced strawberries to their salads, for color and flavor. My youngest will often try anything that her older brother loves, haha, so “kid peer pressure”, as you mentioned in your post, DOES indeed work too!
★★★★
Carin
Seeing mom and dad eat veggies as part of a balanced diet!
Mihaela
I do struggle with veggies and what I try to do is cook them in a different way or present them in a new form later on if I’m not successful the first time around. Also, hiding some in smoothies or in combination with fruit helps out too.
★★★★★
Theresa O
My daughter loves veggies in all forms, but my son is more picky. Dip, any dressing, especially ranch, is what gets him to try and eat just about any foods if he’s not interested. We just saw a similar idea to this post in Laura’s new cookbook-which is awesome- and he wanted to try it right away!
MiWon Park
I try to add veggies into whatever I’m cooking. I add veggies to fruit smoothies and puree veggies (carrots, peppers, onions) into tomato sauce or into meatballs. I add chopped spinach into lasagna–with all the cheese and sauce, the kids still love it.
★★★★
Ginger
We’ve been making these for years…though poppyseed dressing is the favorite here. Otherwise, my kids love kale chips fresh from the oven. They could eat them all the time if I let them!
★★★★
Kristin
It all depends on the veggies. There are some that my children will eat easily, either served with dinner or as a snack. They’re more likely to eat something if they’ve helped prepare it—they like to slice cucumber, for instance. It can be harder to convince them to try something new. The good news is that we have a great farmers’ market, and they’re often curious about new foods they see. If they pick it out, they’ll almost always try it. Sometimes, they’ll reject a food the first few times only to discover that they do like it on the fourth or fifth try.
grace
yes .. no green in my son’s plate but we have tried for him to encourage to eat 1 greens everyday. sometimes i have to put mix some spinach in spaghetti sauces and we’ll do green juices that helps a little.
Wendy
My boys each have different veggies that they like and will eat roasted or steamed or even raw. I hide extra veggies in the main meal. A layer of zucchini in lasagna, cauliflower mashed up in with the potatoes, black beans inside the taco meat etc.
Leah
My son sees my husband and I eating vegetables all the time, so he is often curious and willing to try them. If there’s something he didn’t like the first time, I try to find a new way to present it to him and sometimes he ends up liking it. If all else fails, ranch dip is great for encouraging tasting raw veggies. We also do a lot of smoothies so he gets his greens.
Sofia
My 3 year old daughter loves veggies and fruit. We never really struggled with this. however she is picky on the way we serve them. She does not like them mixed, she does not like dips and dressings, and she is very picky on how they are cooked; e.g. for peppers, she will eat only raw red peppers. If they are cooked she demands that I remove them from her food.
Melanie
We struggle with raw veggies. But amazingly I just started putting them out there, so at least I eat them, and slowly they are beginning to eat a few. Which at this point is a big success.
Stephanie L
My 2yo LOVES fruits and veggies. We always keep them around, out on the counter or front and center (and low where he can see them) in the fridge. My husband and I eat a lot of veggies, and it’s just part of “what we eat” – not a special thing you’re supposed to eat. I prepare them lots of different ways – raw, grilled, steamed, roasted, pureed into a sauce, and with all kinds of different seasonings. My son doesn’t like everything every day, and he doesn’t like everything the first time, but by continuing to offer him a variety of vegetable flavors and just working under the assumption that he’ll come around to like most things eventually, the subject of vegetables stays pretty low stress at our house.