This week I’ve selected a trio of recipes that youngsters will enjoy making and eating, and I’m sure the adults will enjoy sampling too.
As always, for younger children, they’ll need a bit of supervision to stay safe.
The first recipe for mini quiches is fun as it involves cutting out shapes, something that perhaps younger brothers or sisters could help with.
The bruschetta recipe is aimed at teenagers who like spicy food with a bit of a kick, while the smoothie recipe looks wonderfully colourful – it’s a good way to get kids to eat more fruit and vegetables too.
It takes about half an hour to prepare all the different elements for the smoothie so it’s a good recipe to help pass some time at home.
Thanks to Scala Pesto for the bruschetta recipe and to watercress.co.uk for the others.
Watercress is very good for you as it contains more than 50 vital vitamins and minerals and, gram for gram, contains more vitamin C than an orange, more folate than a banana, more vitamin E than broccoli and more calcium than milk.
Simple mini quiches
Ingredients – makes nine
- 30g watercress, roughly chopped
- 6 eggs
- 3 large tortilla wraps (either plain or watercress flavoured)
- 5 cherry tomatoes, halved
- 2 slices honey roast ham
- More watercress to serve
- Salt and pepper
The method
- Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
- Take a 12cm round cookie cutter and cut out 9 circles from the tortilla wraps.
- Push the circles into the holes of a muffin tin.
- Crack the eggs into a bowl and whisk them together along with a pinch of salt and pepper.
- Add in the chopped watercress and mix together.
- Tip the egg mix into a jug and pour carefully into the tortilla cases, not quite filling to the top.
- Cut the ham slices into squares and place a square on top of each case.
- Then top with half a cherry tomato.
- Place the quiches into the pre-heated oven for 10 minutes, or until egg is set and cooked through.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for five minutes before removing from the tin.
- Serve warm with more watercress on the side.
Bruschetta with ‘Nduja pesto and poached egg
Ingredients – makes two
- Two slices of ciabatta or sourdough bread
- Half a jar of Sacla ‘Nduja Pesto
- Two eggs
- A pinch of chilli flakes (optional)
The method
- Toast the slices of bread until golden brown.
- Spread one side of each piece of toast generously with the ‘Nduja Pesto.
- Meanwhile, bring a pan of salted water to the boil.
- Gently crack open the eggs and lightly poach them, one at a time.
- When they’re ready, gently lift them out and pop on top of the toast.
- If you like a little bit of heat, sprinkle with a few chilli flakes.
Kids’ six-a-day smoothie
Ingredients – makes four
- Layer 1: 200g frozen raspberries
- Layer 2: 200g frozen mango
- Layer 3: 200g frozen pineapple
- Layer 4: 1 x 85g bag watercress plus 100g frozen pineapple
- Layer 5: 200g frozen mixed berries
- Layer 6: 200g diced beetroot, frozen
- 300-500g Greek yoghurt
- Water
- Fruit and cocktail sticks to garnish
The method
- Set up a high-speed blender or smoothie maker (adult supervision required).
- You will need six bowls or Tupperware containers, one for each layer of the smoothie.
- Place your frozen raspberries into the blender and add a good spoonful of Greek yoghurt along with a splash of water.
- Blend on high power until smooth, adding a touch more yoghurt and water if necessary.
- Pour into a bowl and keep chilled until needed.
- Wash the bowl of your blender thoroughly before moving on to the next layer.
- Repeat with the ingredients for the other layers, ensuring that the blender is cleaned between each layer. Once you have all your fruit blended up and in separate containers then you are ready to build your smoothie.
- Take four highball glasses and get your bowls of smoothie mixture ready.
- Use a spoon to carefully layer up the different smoothie flavours in your glasses in any order you like, making sure you clean the spoon between each different flavour so that the colours stay nice and bright. Take four cocktail sticks and thread them with some small pieces of fruit to create little kebabs.
- Place these on top of each glass.
- Serve immediately.