Zoe's Spaghetti Bake with Butter Beans

Zoe’s Spaghetti Bake with Butter Beans

Zoe Griffiths

Featuring:

Pulses

Effort:

Complexity:

Cost:

In season now

Serves: 4

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

300g wholewheat spaghetti

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, crushed

150g mushrooms, diced

Freshly ground black pepper

500g passata

1 teaspoon dried basil

2 teaspoon dried oregano

400g can butter beans, drained and rinsed

150g reduced-fat soft cheese

50g reduced-fat cheddar cheese

This recipe was developed by Zoe Griffiths for World Cancer Research Fund. It forms part of their work to help people eat well and live healthier lives. For more recipes that support a healthy, balanced diet and help reduce the risk of cancer, visit www.wcrf.org/recipes.

This spaghetti bake is a source of protein and fibre, perfect for a nutritious family meal. With butter beans and mushrooms, it also provides 2 of your 5 A DAY to support a healthy, balanced diet.

Method:

Heat the oven to 210°C/190°C fan.
Cook the spaghetti according to packet instructions.
Heat the oil in a large non-stick pan over a medium-high heat.
Add the onion, crushed garlic, mushrooms and black pepper and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Lower the heat to medium and add the passata, dried basil, dried oregano, butter beans and soft cheese and mix well. Turn the heat back up to medium-high and cook for 3 minutes, stirring frequently, until the soft cheese has been incorporated and the beans are heated through.
Drain the spaghetti when cooked and add to the sauce, mixing thoroughly.
Pour the mixture into an ovenproof dish.
Sprinkle the cheese over the top of the mixture and bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
Serve immediately.

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

Kids can help grate and sprinkle the Cheddar, stirring everything together and rinsing the beans.

Master these skills:

Washing hands, Tasting, Grating

More about Kitchen Ninja Skills

Activities

Why not get a selection of different dried or cooked beans and lentils and try and capture the different colours, textures and shapes with colouring pencils? Or make a rainmaker with an empty, clean lidded crisp tube or milk bottle – pour in some dried beans or lentils, decorate them and seal the lid tightly before shake, shake, shaking!

Kids more interested in science? You can find at-home science fun with veg with our videos from Stefan Gates’ here.

Find loads more free veg-themed crafts here and games here.

Sensory

Why not explore beans through touch and sight? There are so many different kinds of beans and lentils. Get a few types that are a good mix in size/shape and colour, dried vs cooked, etc. and see if you can and your child can describe them. What do they look like? What colours, shapes and patterns can you see? What do they remind you of? What do they feel like? Are they rough, smooth, slimy, hard?

Find more sensory ideas, tips and videos here. If you get stuck and need a little help with describing words, we have a selection for you here, too!

Serving

While the dinner you are serving it with is cooking, ask your child to design a beautiful menu for the table, with special emphasis on “their” butter bean meal they helped you make!

Find the best ways of involving your own child and their skills and interests on our Roles for Kids page.

Zoe Griffiths

Zoe is a Registered Nutritionist with over 25 years experience working in public health at a national, regional and local level. Zoe has specialised in working with children especially projects related to increasing fruit and veg consumption such as the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme. Zoe currently runs her own freelance nutrition business, ZG Nutrition, where she runs courses, undertakes food and health research projects and is a Nutrition writer.

zgnutrition.co.uk/

Bang In Some Beans

How do you keep a family healthy for less? How can we reduce the impact of our food on climate change? Bang in some beans! Delicious, simple beans, lentils and pulses full of fibre and so easy straight from the tin.

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