Recipes That Promote Hair Growth: Main Dishes

Learn how to whip up tasty main dishes that are also loaded with hair growth promoting nutrients such as zinc, copper, sulphur, and vitamins! If you're new to our Diet Guide to Healthy Hair, you may want to check out the diet section (see Diet Tips for Healthy Hair) and the food section (see Foods for Healthy Hair Growth) of this guide before getting started with the recipes below.

Steamed Asparagus with Sesame Seeds

Turbo-charge your hair health promoting diet by eating asparagus, a highly nutritious vegetable packed with hair health promoting micronutrients such as beta-carotene, vitamin C, niacin, vitamin B6, folate, and iron. The sesame seeds featured in this mouth-watering dish provide an abundance of zinc and copper, a key mineral combo for healthy hair. Sufficient levels of copper can prevent hair loss and contribute to hair thickness while zinc helps keep hair shiny.

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Risotto with Crimini Mushrooms and Arugula

This easy recipe helps you create a risotto that is rich in both flavor and nutrients. Crimini mushrooms are brimming with a wide range of nutrients that are known to promote hair health.

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Shrimp and Mushroom Risotto

This easy recipe helps you create a risotto that's full of flavor and nutrients. It is packed full of zinc which plays a role in the production of new cells (including hair cells) and the maintenance of the oil-secreting glands of the scalp that keep hair shiny. It is also rich in B vitamins and copper and provides a good amount of protein.

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Apple and Onion Soup

Onions are rich in sulphur, a mineral that is found in all cells of the human body and that is particularly abundant in our hair, skin, and nails. Sulfur is often referred to as "nature's beauty mineral" because of its ability to promote hair growth. The apples featured in this soup provide antioxidant protection.

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Tangy Tomato Soup with Basil

Tomatoes are a very good dietary source of hair health promoting nutrients, including copper, iron, carotenoids, and B vitamins. This pleasantly tangy soup also features shallots which are rich in sulphur, a mineral that is found in all cells of the human body and that is particularly abundant in our hair, skin, and nails. Sulfur is often referred to as "nature's beauty mineral" because of its capability to aid in good blood circulation, reduce skin inflammation, and promote hair growth. It also plays a role in the metabolism of several important B-vitamins including B1, B5 and B7. First signs of a sulphur deficiency often include loss of hair.

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Curried Sweet Potato Soup

Sweet potatoes are one of the most nutritious root vegetables you can find, and they are crammed with nutrients that maintain hair health. The pink, orange, and yellow varieties—which this recipe calls for—are one of the most concentrated dietary sources of beta-carotene (the more intense the color, the more beta-carotene), but sweet potatoes also contain plenty of vitamin C, vitamin B6, copper, and iron, all of which are necessary for healthy hair. In addition, sweet potatoes contain certain unique root proteins with potentially significant antioxidant properties.

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Carrot, Tomato and Lentil Soup

Carrots are brimming with beta-carotene which helps promote hair health due to its anti-oxidant properties and its role as a precursor to vitamin A. But the hair health benefits of this soup do not end there: the lentils in this soup pack a protein punch and provide plenty of hair health boosting B vitamins.

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Carrot and Avocado Salad

Not only does avocado lend its lovely creamy flavor to this salad, it also increases your body's ability to absorb the hair health promoting beta-carotene the carrots in this salad provide.

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Arugula, Avocado and Tomato Salad

The healthy fats provided by the chopped avocado in this summery salad help improve your body's ability to absorb the hair health promoting carotenoids provided by the tomatoes and the arugula.

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ACE Salad

This summery salad works like magic to soothe your soul—and strengthen your hair. It is loaded with the ACE vitamins (pro-vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E) that are famous for their role in maintaining healthy, glossy hair.

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Beet and Carrot Salad with Ginger

This recipe pairs beets with carrots to create a powerful natural weapon for fighting fragile hair. Beets are rich in folate, copper, and iron—three key nutrients for promoting healthy hair—while carrots are rich in beta-carotene and vitamin C.

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Chilled Cucumber and Watercress Soup

Not only does watercress lend its unique peppery flavor to this tasty soup, it is also amazingly good for your hair. It is packed with vitamin C and beta-carotene, both of which are strong antioxidants properties. Also the yoghurt in this dish is great for the skin as it delivers plenty of zinc, a trace mineral that plays an important role in the production of new cells (including hair cells) and the maintenance of the oil-secreting glands of the scalp that keep hair radiant.

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Spinach and Mushroom Omelet

This easy-to-make omelet provides a great deal of high quality protein which is essential for healthy hair. What's more, spinach, one of the key ingredients in this omelet, is loaded with beta-carotene and folate which help keep hair strong and shiny. Spinach and mushrooms are also an excellent source of the wrinkle-fighting B vitamins.

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Spicy Shrimp Omelet

Both eggs and shrimp supply iron, a mineral that is vital for healthy hair. Iron carries oxygen to the hair, and an inadequate intake of iron may cause the hair follicles to starve of oxygen. Women who are menstruating (especially if they have heavy periods), women who are pregnant or have just given birth, long-distance runners, and vegans are often deficient in iron.

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Wholewheat Pasta with Nettle Pesto

Don't worry, this pasta dish featuring young nettle leaves won't sting your tongue! Young, blanched nettle leaves are wonderfully edible, and they are packed with iron, providing more than four times the iron found in spinach. Iron carries oxygen to the hair, and an inadequate intake of this important mineral may cause the hair follicles to starve of oxygen. Depleted iron stores are one of the most common causes of hair loss in pre-menopausal women.

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Stir-Fried Asparagus with Quinoa Noodles

Not only is this asparagus dish packed with flavor, it is also great for your hair. Asparagus provides a slew of hair health promoting micronutrients, including beta-carotene, vitamin C, niacin, vitamin B6, folate, zinc, copper, and iron. The quinoa noodles provide valuable protein which is needed for normal hair growth.

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For more recipes that can help you maintain healthy hair, visit the main recipe directory of HealWithFood.org's Guide to Healthy Hair.