When you may be extra accustomed to seeing the large orange gourd in your entrance step round Halloween than in your dinner plate, it’s rather more than spooky-season yard decor—it’s really a stable fiber supply, in keeping with Nguyen. In the event you’re not aware of cooking with pumpkin, Nguyen has just a few strategies. Strive roasting it within the oven, full of a filling like rice or meat, or seasoned by itself. “One roast squash lasts fairly lengthy,” Nguyen says. It’s also possible to purchase a can of the pureed stuff to save lots of your self some prep time. That works significantly effectively in baked items like scones, muffins, candy breads, cookies, brownies, and cheesecake bites, however it can be tailored to savory dishes like chili, curry, pasta, lasagna, mac and cheese, meatballs, empanadas, and plenty of extra.

You possibly can even swap in pumpkin for beans to make Nguyen’s signature “mishmash soup state of affairs”—once more, that’s a throw-together, freezer-friendly recipe that includes inventory, aromatics, and seasonal veggies. Having simple and sturdy dishes on the prepared is “an effective way to guarantee myself that if there are days the place it’s simply robust to get the fiber in, I’ve these within the rotation,” she says.

6. Brussels sprouts

6 g fiber per one cup cooked

Brussels sprouts and different cruciferous greens like cauliflower are famously robust and bitter, particularly when uncooked, so Nguyen recommends searching for out recipes and cooking strategies that make them “a bit extra tolerable and flavorful”—roasting, for instance. “You possibly can simply let it sit within the oven when you go do different issues,” she says. “Simply be sure you have seasoning combine on.” (Sauces and dressings like balsamic vinegar or maple syrup also can assist improve the flavour, as a few of these 32 recipes reveal.)

So as to add to their attraction, cruciferous veggies like brussels sprouts have a tendency to carry up effectively within the freezer when contemporary, in order that they’re well-suited for long-term chilly storage, Nguyen says. In contrast to another varieties of produce, as SELF beforehand reported, “they don’t style too mopey after you defrost them,” she explains. (You possibly can thank their low water content material for that!)

7. Broccoli

5 g fiber per one cup cooked

Like brussels sprouts, broccoli belongs to the cruciferous vegetable household, so a cooking technique like roasting may also help soften these stalks up and make them extra palatable total. Just like peas, broccoli can be included into mac and cheese to make it just a little extra appetizing—a dish Younger and her grad-school classmates known as “mac and timber.” Typically, “including in a few of these frozen issues when your pasta is boiling could be an effective way to sneak in some extra nutrient worth,” she says.

8. Kale

5 g fiber per one cup cooked

Cooked kale could be “a superb possibility” so far as a fiber supply, Younger says. Whether or not you’re boiling, sautéing, or counting on a wholly totally different cooking technique, that course of will compact the fiber content material, vastly lowering how a lot it’s good to eat to soak up a stable quantity. Positive, you can additionally get fiber from the uncooked stuff for those who’re into salads or smoothies, however simply know that the payoff goes to be manner smaller: One cup of uncooked kale comprises lower than one gram of fiber—hardly a formidable determine in comparison with the sooner entries on this checklist.

9. Collard greens

5 g fiber per one cup cooked