Pizza with tenderstem broccoli
Serves: 4
Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 15 mins
Ingredients:
400g pizza dough (homemade or shop-bought), rolled out
Olive oil
125g ball fresh mozzarella, drained and torn
½ lemon, juiced (plus 1 tsp zest), optional
¼ red onion, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced or grated (optional)
Large handful tenderstem broccoli (about ½ bunch), sliced lengthways if the florets are quite big, ends trimmed
Handful of Parmesan cheese, optional
A few fresh basil leaves, optional
More:
Want to make broccoli more appealing for the family? Try sweeter tenderstem on a family favourite meal tonight with our broccoli pizza! Get the kids to top the pizza themselves and praise them heavily (make sure to tell everyone they ‘made it’) to increase chances of them eating it all.
Method:
Preheat oven to 220C/gas 8. Toss the tenderstem broccoli with 1 tbsp olive oil. Line a large baking tray with greaseproof paper and place the rolled out dough on top. Brush with a little olive oil, top with the torn mozzarella, lemon zest if using, onion, garlic (if using) and broccoli spears.
Sprinkle over the Parmesan and bake for 10-15 mins, until cheese is golden and bubbly, crust is starting to brown, and veg is tender. Drizzle a little lemon juice and olive oil and scatter over the basil leaves if you like!
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
The eventual aim, if possible, is to get kids in the kitchen. Don’t worry, this doesn’t have to mean they are with you from start-to-end creating mess and rising stress levels! It can be as simple as giving them one small job (stirring, measuring, pouring, grating, chopping…) ideally involving veg. They can come in to do their little bit, and have fun with you for a few minutes. Getting them involved, making it playful and praising them plenty for their involvement, perhaps even serving it as dinner they “made”, makes it much more likely they will eat the food offered, not to mention teaching them important life skills. Find ideas, safety tips, videos and even a free chart in our Kids in the Kitchen section here.
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.
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