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Enjoy The Benefits of Vitamin A for Hair with These 8 Easy Recipes
By Jacqueline Samaroo
One of the best ways to grow strong and healthy hair is by nourishing your body on the inside with the foods you eat.
Vitamin A is an essential vitamin for hair growth. We covered the benefits of vitamin A for hair in a recent post then thought, “Why not do a follow-up with some great vitamin A recipes?” And, here it is!
As you’ll see from the 8 recipes we curated from around the web, making vitamin A foods a part of your diet is super easy and sooo delicious. Here’s a list of the recipes we’ve got lined up:
- Butternut Vegetable Soup
- Absolute Best Liver and Onions
- Hoppin’ John (aka Carolina peas and rice)
- Mango and Papaya Fruit Salad
- Oven-Baked Sweet Potato Fries
- Vegan Carrot Cake
- Homemade Tomato Juice
- Melon Juice (Filipino Cantaloupe Juice)
Butternut Vegetable Soup
Vitamin A foods: Butternut squash, kale, and carrots
Prep. Time: 30 mins
Cook Time: 1 hr 15 mins
Total Time: 1 hr 45 mins
The vitamin A foods taking center stage in this recipe are butternut squash, kale, and carrots. The dish also includes great northern beans and red potatoes, adding to the soup’s chunkiness. Onion, garlic, thyme, salt, and black pepper are the seasonings you’ll need. Add some vegetable broth for volume and let it simmer for a while to bring together all those lovely flavors.
This recipe makes a whole gallon of hearty soup. It’s enough for 10 servings and is so good that one reviewer “could not stop eating it from dinner time until 4:00 am for a snack.” Wow!
Click here to see the full recipe.
Absolute Best Liver and Onions
Vitamin A food: Beef liver
Prep. Time: 20 mins
Cook Time: 25 mins
Total Time: 45 mins
As far as vitamin A foods go, beef liver is one of the richest sources. This quick and simple recipe calls for just 5 ingredients plus salt and pepper. It helps you create a lip-smacking combination of sweet, buttery Vidalia onions and juicy, tender liver.
Not a fan of liver? Try this recipe and become a satisfied convert. It helps that the liver is first soaked in milk to remove any bitter taste. Afterward, the liver is coated with flour that you season-to-taste. It is then fried in melted butter. Sautéed onions are added and the dish is allowed to simmer. Serves 4 – or a couple of really hungry beef liver lovers!
Getting vitamin A for hair growth can be such a pleasure for your taste buds. No complaints, here!
Click here to see the full recipe.
Hoppin’ John (aka Carolina peas and rice)
Vitamin A foods: Black-eyed peas and sweet red peppers
Prep. Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 30 mins
Total Time: 40 mins
Black-eyed peas and sweet red peppers are the vitamin A stars in this traditional Southern recipe. Other ingredients include bacon (yay!!), celery ribs, onions, and sweet green peppers – all of which bump the flavor of this dish way through the roof. Cayenne pepper, thyme, oregano, basil, and a bay leaf are the seasonings you’ll need, along with some uncooked long-grain rice.
This yummy one-pot meal serves 6 and can be tweaked to suit your particular taste or cooking style. One reviewer, for example, pointed out that “… a few slices of smoked hog jowl, fried, in place of the bacon gives the dish an extra depth of smoky flavor.” Try it!
Click here to see the full recipe.
Mango and Papaya Fruit Salad
Vitamin A foods: Mango and papaya
Total Time: Super quick
Here’s a simple fruit salad that’s chock-full of vitamin A for hair growth. It calls for just 3 other ingredients to go with the diced mango and papaya. They are honey for sweetness, freshly-squeezed lime juice for tartness, and lemon zest for – well, zestiness.
All you need to do is mix all the ingredients together and allow the salad to chill before serving.
This awesome fruit salad makes 4 to 6 servings and can be made a day in advance to help you save on time. It also keeps well in the fridge for a couple of days so you can enjoy it today, tomorrow, and the day after. Yummy!
Click here to see the full recipe.
Oven-Baked Sweet Potato Fries
Vitamin A food: Sweet potatoes
Prep. Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 20 mins
Total Time: 30 mins
Sweet potatoes are one of the richest vitamin A foods. Thank goodness there are a ton of ways you can enjoy sweet potatoes and their abundance of vitamin A for hair health. This oven-baked sweet potato fries recipe is one delicious option. Plus, it gives you all the crunchy goodness of sweet potato fries without any of the greasy, deep-fried guilt!
You’ll need orange-fleshed sweet potatoes in wedges (or rounds). Toss them in extra-virgin olive oil and a list of spices that includes smoked paprika, pumpkin pie spice, garam masala, and Cajun seasoning. Bake the wedges until browned, turning them halfway through.
Btw, that spice list ends in “etc.” so you know you’re free to throw in your favorites if you wish. Now, that’s my kind of recipe!!
Click here to see the full recipe.
Vegan Carrot Cake
Vitamin A foods: Carrots and fortified almond milk or fortified oat milk
Prep. Time: 20 mins
Cook Time: 30 mins
Total Time: 50 mins
Don’t be daunted by this recipe’s list of cake and frosting ingredients. You’ll really only need the usual cake-making staples and spices, plus applesauce for the cake. The frosting uses some of the same ingredients, with macadamia nuts and cashew nuts added for crunchiness. There’s also a bit of lemon juice for a pleasant flavor contrast with the maple syrup.
The carrots are the natural vitamin A food source in this recipe. However, the recipe also calls for almond milk or oat milk. Both of these are typically fortified with vitamin A. Of course, if you make this carrot cake with cow’s milk instead, it will no longer be vegan but cow’s milk comes fortified with vitamin D which is also an important vitamin for hair growth.
Click here to see the full recipe.
Homemade Tomato Juice
Vitamin A food: Tomatoes
Prep. Time: 1 hr
Cook Time: 25 mins
Total Time:1 hr 25 mins
Cut up some ripe red tomatoes and boil them in water. Next, rub them through a colander to get rid of the seeds and skins. Lastly, boil for a while longer with some salt, onion salt, and celery salt. That’s it! You now have a nutritious vitamin A-rich drink ready to chill and serve.
Plus, this recipe includes instructions for you if you’re looking to try your hand at canning tomato juice. Go for it!
Click here to see the full recipe.
Melon Juice (Filipino Cantaloupe Juice)
Vitamin A food: Cantaloupe
Prep. Time: 15 mins
Active Time: 8 hrs
Total Time: 8 hrs 15 mins
Beat the heat with this refreshing cantaloupe drink done with a nod to the traditional Filipino method. You’ll need cantaloupe (shredded with a fork or coconut grater), water, and sugar. You let the mixture sit in your fridge for at least 8 hours. That gives the sugar time to draw all that juicy juice out of the shredded cantaloupe.
Serve over ice with the option of adding a splash of milk for a whole new and interesting taste. Mmm, that hits the spot!!
Click here to see the full recipe.
We know you’re drooling all over the place by now! So, what are you waiting for?
Try out one or a few of these delicious vitamin A for hair recipes and let us know how it turns out!
