Vegetables Per Person Calculator
Tell us how many people are eating for the amount of veg to prepare.
Answer
640 g of vegetables
The detail
Reference and detail
160g per adult, per vegetable
That is the standard allowance for one vegetable served as a side, prepared weight. Children take a little over half. It is also, conveniently, about one of your five a day.
Serving three or four vegetables
People do not eat four full portions of veg simply because four bowls are on the table. With three or more vegetables, take a light appetite for each, around 100g a head, or you will be putting most of it in the fridge.
Trimming and peeling
These figures are prepared weight. Buy more than you need for anything with heavy waste: a third extra for broccoli and cauliflower with their stalks and leaves, half again for fresh peas or broad beans in the pod, and roughly a fifth extra for carrots and swede.
Questions and answers
Questions about vegetable portion sizes
How much veg do I need per person if I'm serving several different vegetables?
Less of each one than if it were the only vegetable on the plate. Split the total vegetable allowance across however many types you're serving rather than giving a full portion of each.
For a Christmas dinner with sprouts, carrots and parsnips together, for example, plan each as a smaller share of the same overall vegetable weight per person.
Does the vegetable portion size change for leafy veg like spinach?
Yes, leafy vegetables lose a large amount of volume and some weight when cooked, so raw weight per person needs to be higher than for something like carrots that hold their shape and weight better.
Should children have the same vegetable portion as adults?
No, use the child figure on the calculator rather than an adult one, appetite and typical serving sizes for vegetables are noticeably smaller for children.
How much extra vegetable weight should I allow for peeling and trimming?
It depends on the vegetable: root vegetables like carrots and swede lose more to peeling than something like courgette. Buy a little over the calculator's figure for vegetables with a lot of skin, peel or woody stem to trim away.