14 Ways That Vegetables Have Become Comfort Food

An external study on Pinterest searches that was conducted in the summer of last year saw a staggering 336% increase of the word “veggies” alongside searches for comfort food. Meanwhile searches and pins for traditional comfort food dishes such as lasagna, macaroni and stroganoff plummeted 69%, 55% and 50%, respectively. Alright Internet, you have spoken! Vegetables have become the carb-king of comfort food and here are 14 ways to use veggie alternatives in some of your favourite dishes.

1. You're still making sandwiches and burgers with a bread-based burger bun? Get inspiralised.
   

   Spiralised Sweet Potato Bun - Image & Recipe: Inspiralized

2. Sneak your veggies into your sandwiches in a different way.
   

   Vegetable Flatbreads - Image & Recipe: Green Kitchen Stories

3. Forget tater tots - broccoli tots are just as fun to eat with way more nutritional value.
   

   Healthy Baked Broccoli Tots - Image & Recipe: Gimme Delicious

4. Swap rice for cauliflower in risotto.
   

   Low-Carb Cauliflower Risotto - Image & Recipe: Amuse Your Bouche

5. For nachos, trade processed tortilla chips in for super nutritious sweet potatoes
   

   Loaded Sweet Potato Nachos - Image & Recipe: Two Peas And Their Pod

6. Swapping out lasagna sheets for eggplant still results in the same comforting cheesy goodness.
   

   Veggie-rific Noodle-Free Lasagne - Image & Recipe: Parade

7. Same rule for sweet potato noodles in mac and cheese. Swac and cheese?
   

   Sweet Potato Mac & Cheese - Image & Recipe: Tastefully Gluten-Free

8. Let's just get every type of spiralised vegetable involved in this rainbow bowl of dragon noodles!
   

   Rainbow Veggie Dragon Noodles - Image & Recipe: Get Inspired Every Day

9. What were we saying about spiralised sweet potato buns? Portobello mushroom caps are also a easy, juicy option.
   

   Vegan Portobello Mushroom Burger - Image & Recipe: Mintyanne

10. Step away from the spiralizer because zucchini can also get down for dessert.
    

    Triple Chocolate Zucchini Brownies - Image & Recipe: Honey and Figs Kitchen

11. We'd only just masted the art of banana ice-cream when pumpkin ice-cream came along to blow our minds.
    

    Vegan Pumpin Pie Ice-Cream - Image & Recipe: Minimalist Baker

12. These shoestring carrot fries don't taste too different when dipped in your favourite condiment.
    

    Baked Shoestring Carrot Fries with Zaatar - Image & Recipe: A Clean Bake

13. Genius food hack: turn mushrooms into pizza bases!
    

    Pizza Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms - Image & Recipe: Foodie Crush

14. Don't let the name fool you - breadsticks don't need bread! You only really need zucchini.
    

    Zucchini Breadsticks - Image & Recipe: Kirbie Cravings