Background: Short cooking videos may be a useful tool in addressing barriers to vegetable preparation and consumption among young adults.
Aims: This study aimed to identify different factors that enable young adults to cook with vegetables and create recipes and videos (n=12) that young adults believe will help address home cooking and vegetable consumption barriers.
Methods: A survey (n=100) investigating the factors influencing young people's cooking and vegetable consumption was conducted. Formative testing of recipes and cooking videos in three focus groups with 15 young adults (mean age, 21 years) to identify what type of salient, engaging, relevant recipes and videos can help address barriers, improve attitudes and motivate young adults to cook with vegetables.
Results: Accessibility to ingredients, ability to conceptualize recipes and cost-saving tips were key enablers to cooking with vegetables. Twelve recipes were developed by dietitians so that meals provided at least one serving of vegetables for breakfast, two servings for lunch, and three servings for dinner per person. Each recipe was filmed into instructional cooking videos, providing nutritional, cost, and time-saving information. Conclusions: Young adult participants prefer the bird's-eye angle cooking videos (only 2-3 minutes) with a clear view of each step's recipe components and processes. Participants like the inclusion of nutrition information, such as serves of vegetables and cost of the meal.