Claire Wright
Serves: 6
Prep time: 2 mins
Cook time: 7 mins
Ingredients:
500g fresh or frozen peas
2 tablespoons unsalted butter (or use olive oil)
1/2 pack bacon lardons
4 spring onions
1 head Little Gem or Baby Romaine lettuce
125ml water or stock
Veg Portions / Serving: 1
These French peas are a classic recipe that’s classy and yummy. Perfect alongside cooked meat, fish, more veg, or, well, pretty much anything!
Method:
Finely slice the spring onions and roughly chop the lettuce. In a frying pan or large saucepan, fry the bacon in the butter for 3-4 minutes until cooked and just starting to crisp up, adding the spring onions for the last minute to soften. Add in the lettuce, peas and half a glass of water or stock (125ml). Simmer for another 2-3 minutes until the lettuce is wilted, peas are cooked, and water or stock has mostly evaporated. Season with salt & pepper (a squeeze of lemon is lovely here, too), and serve with your main course.
Engaging Kids
Kids who engage regularly with veg through veg-themed activities, such as arts and crafts, sensory experiences, growing and cooking are shown to be more likely to eat the veg they engage with. Encouraging kids to engage and play with veg is the handy first step to them developing a good relationship with veg and life-long healthy eating.
Kids in the kitchen
Get the kids to tear up the lettuce and show them how to safely stir the ingredients in the pan. Have them half fill a glass with water or stock and help them pour it into the pan carefully.
Activities
While getting kids to interact with veggies for real and using their senses to explore them is best, encouraging hands off activities like arts & crafts, puzzles & games or at-home science experiments can be a great start, particularly for those who are fussier eaters or struggle with anything too sensory. Use these veg-themed activities as a stepping stone to interacting with the veg themselves. We have loads of crafty downloads here, puzzles here, and quirky science with veg here.
Sensory
Once you feel your child is ready to engage a little more, you can show them how to explore the veg you have on hand with their senses, coming up with playful silly descriptions of how a veg smells, feels, looks, sounds and perhaps even tastes. Find ideas, videos and some simple sensory education session ideas to get you started here.
Serving
The moments before food is offered can be a perfect opportunity for engagement that can help make it more likely a child will eat it! Giving children a sense of ownership in the meal can make a big difference to their feelings going into it and the pride they take in it. You know your child best, but if you aren’t sure where to start, we have some fun and simple ideas for easy roles you can give them in the serving process over here.
Claire Wright
Claire has been working with children, food and communications for over 15 years, and is our Editor at Veg Power, helping translate expert advice into small, practical steps for busy families, and creating recipes that are actually simple.
Similar recipes
