A quick recipe for lunch-boxes and snacks – I like to cut them in half and spread with butter and Marmite. Make sure you squeeze the courgette dry so the muffins aren’t soggy, but then the courgette helps keep them moist and slips a bit of extra veg into a little person’s day. I use…
Category: 30 minutes – 1 hour
Celeriac, Butternut Squash & Walnut Pesto Puff Pastry Tart
Celeriac, Butternut Squash & Walnut Pesto Puff Pastry Tart Puff pastry tarts are so versatile and look lovely but are really easy to make. The combination of earthy celeriac and walnuts with sweet squash and tangy cheese comes together beautifully to make a simple dinner that reheats well in the oven for lunch the next…
Roast Cabbage with Tahini-Maple Dressing
Roasting cabbage turns it into a totally different vegetable than the boiled or steamed variety that we’re more used to seeing. Roasting caramelises the sugar in veg, bringing out the sweetness, but also adding crisp edges for a beautiful contrast. Cabbage works equally well in one-pot traybakes. Serves 4 – 6 as a side…
‘Strawberry Surprise’ biscuits
Made up on the hoof at a Sunny’s Kitchen community lunch, the surprise of the title was whether these were going to be edible…They were intended to be shortbread, but I messed the recipe up and had to doctor it as I went along. They turned out well enough for the recipe to be requested…
Sweet and Sour Vegetables
Quick, easy and SO much better than a takeaway. You could use any combination of veg here of course, but this one works well – the mushrooms bring savoury richness, and roasting the veg and pineapple first adds sweet, caramelised flavour. Definitely worth the small amount of extra time. This dish is also vegan (except…
Tortilla Pizza Cups
A healthy, quick and easy twist on pizza – or the tortilla pizza that I like to make – that children can get involved with making. There are lots of fun age-appropriate jobs they can help with: get them to choose the veg fillings, tear the mozzarella, grate cheddar and veg, practise their chopping skills,…
Ratatouille
This is better made the day before eating to allow all the flavours to deepen and combine. Photos courtesy of the P5s at West Barns Primary School, who enjoyed making this as part of their Plenty Project week. Serves 4 Ingredients 2 aubergines, chopped into 2cm pieces 4 courgettes, chopped into 2cm pieces 4 peppers,…
Roast vegetable tart with nut-free spinach / kale pesto
This classic easy dinner is a great one for children to help make. Rolling out and pricking the pastry, ‘painting’ it with egg and talking about different vegetables and how to prepare them gives lots of scope for involvement. Whizzing up the pesto is fun too – this one was devised with seasonality in mind…
Easy Seasonal Stone Fruit Tart
This quick tart looks and tastes more impressive than its simple assembly and six basic ingredients would imply. Serve with yoghurt or a spoonful of ice-cream for a satisfying pudding that makes the most of the glut of wonderful late-summer stone fruit. Serves 6 Ingredients 250g puff pastry 12 plums or apricots, halved and de-stoned;…
Vegetable and lentil loaded Bolognaise sauce
This sauce has so many uses: on its own with bread mixed through spaghetti or other pasta (choose wholemeal if you can) top with mashed potato for a cottage pie turn it into a lasagne top with savoury crumble spoon over rice (again, brown is better) add kidney beans and chilli powder for a quick…
Mexican (ish) potato skins with refried beans, cheese and guacamole
This recipe works very neatly in tandem with gnocchi; it means you don’t have to waste those beautiful crispy potato skins once you’ve baked the spuds. It’s also a really cheap meal. Serves 2 Ingredients Cooked skins of 2 baked potatoes – just the skins, potato flesh removed 1 tablespoon jalapenos, finely sliced Refried beans 1…
Cheap, quick and simple vegetarian courgette lasagne
Much quicker than the usual bechamel/white sauce version, this is a good week-night lasagne. Flavour comes from the garlicky, herby tomato sauce and the cheeses; it’s a rich but healthy dinner which is popular with children and a handy fallback for a meat-free night. To make this more seasonal in the winter months, try…
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