Pizza Hunt recipe

Pizza

Claire Wright

Featuring:

Effort:

Complexity:

Cost:

Serves: 4

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Base:

200g pizza base mix (plus extra for dusting)

1 courgette or carrot, grated

125ml tepid water

Basic topping:

8 heaped tbsp tomato pizza sauce or passata

50g cheddar cheese or plant-based alternative, grated

Veg topping suggestions (offer kids a few options of chunky veg and try to put at least two on the pizza, along with some of their favourite other toppings if you like):

Sliced tomatoes

Sliced red onion

Sliced courgettes or aubergines (chargrilled frozen ones are perfect for this)

Sliced peppers (frozen is fine)

Sliced mushrooms (fresh or frozen)

Butternut squash chunks (fresh or frozen)

Sweetcorn (tinned or frozen)

Veg Portions / Serving: 1

A pizza slice with plenty of vegetables. We have suggested a super tasty and healthy version with a veg stuffed pizza crust and chunky veg topping, but you can use any pizza slice as long as it has a vegetable topping. The secret will be to keep it fairly chunky so the kids can find it, and to serve with a reminder to the children to Eat Them to Defeat Them and say “This slice is mine!”

Method:

Preheat your oven to gas 8/450°F/220°C. In a suitable bowl, add the pizza base mix, grated courgette or carrot and tepid water, using your hands to bring all of the ingredients together to form a dough.

Sprinkle a work surface with a little extra of the base mix or plain flour, and continue to knead the dough (just fold it in on itself and push down hard on it over and over) for about five minutes until the dough has a smooth outer texture.

Roll the dough into a roundish thin shape and place onto an oiled baking sheet. Evenly spread the tomato pizza sauce on the pizza base, add the sliced vegetables to the top making sure that they are evenly spaced, and top with the grated cheese or plant-based alternative.

Place the pizza into the preheated oven and continue to cook until golden brown and well risen, about 5-10 mins. Remove from the oven, then portion and serve.

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

Have the kids help you measure and weigh ingredients, make the dough, pick some veg toppings from options you can give them, and top the pizzas – they can really own this recipe! For more tips on cooking with kids check out Kids in the Kitchen on Simply Veg.

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

Editor: After leaving Exeter University with a degree in English Literature, Claire worked in various fields ranging from youth work and charities to publishing, before starting up a food-focused website when her first child was born. After being asked to project manage the publication of Veg Power's Crowdfunder book, Claire came on board as a fully-fledged team member in 2018 to take on the role of Communications Manager, then Editor, looking after Veg Power's website, content, recipes and social media platforms.

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