Claire Wright
Serves: 4
Prep time: 1 min
Cook time: 3 mins
Ingredients:
500g fresh or frozen peas
1 tablespoon unsalted butter (or use olive oil)
1/2 pack fresh mint, roughly chopped
Veg Portions / Serving: 1
It doesn’t get much simpler than peas, butter or olive oil and some fresh mint for an easy side with a little extra freshness and creaminess!
Method:
Bring a saucepan of water to the boil, then add the peas and a pinch of salt. Boil for 3-4 minutes, until the peas are cooked (they will have bobbed up to the surface). Drain, then stir through the butter or oil and chopped mint. Season with salt & pepper, and serve alongside your main course for an extra serve of veggies at the table.
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 snip the mint using scissors and grind the pepper.
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.
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