Charlotte's Family Favourite Enchiladas

Charlotte’s Family Favourite Enchiladas

Charlotte Stirling-Reed RNutr

Featuring:

Mushrooms

Peas

Pulses

Effort:

Complexity:

Cost:

In season now

Serves: 3

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, diced

1 large garlic clove, diced

A tablespoon of olive oil

100g mushrooms, sliced or diced (dice for smaller babies as mushrooms aren’t easy to mash down at the end)

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

1 tin of kidney beans, drained and rinsed

2 large handfuls of frozen peas

1 small pinch of mild chilli (obviously edit this for your own tastes)

1 pinch of paprika

Fresh or dried coriander

1 medium carrot, peeled and grated

Cheese to sprinkle on the top

Wholemeal wraps

Optional, to serve:

Yogurt

Guacamole

Slice of lime

Torn fresh coriander

Enchiladas are one of my absolute favourite winter staples, comforting, hearty and packed with flavour! This version is really readily accepted in many families too, and it’s one I come back to time and time again for my kids. It’s full of veggies, easy to adapt, and works brilliantly for a range of ages and preferences.

There are a fair few ingredients, but don’t let that put you off, they’re mostly cupboard staples and can be swapped or simplified depending on what you have to hand. You can easily add meat, dial up the spices, or keep it mild and mellow. It’s all made in one pan and finished off in the oven, making it a great option for busy evenings.

Method:

Preheat oven to 180C / 160C fan / gas 4.
Heat the onions in a pan set over medium heat with a little olive oil and cook for a few mins, then add the garlic.
Once softened, add the mushrooms and cook for a couple of mins before adding the tomatoes and kidney beans.
Simmer for around 10 mins and then add the peas, herbs and spices. Cook for another 5 mins while you grate the carrot and some cheese.
Lay the wraps out on a lined baking tray and fill them with a couple of spoonfuls of the mixture. Follow up with some grated carrot and then fold them over and use the grated cheese to wrap the wrap up and squash it together a little.
Do this with the rest of the wraps and then bake in the oven for around 10 mins or until the wrap is a little crispy on top and the cheese has melted.
Serve with some guacamole, yogurt and a squeeze of lime for the best results.

For babies you can chop these into little sticks for them to hold. Or just let them dismantle the food and eat it deconstructed with their hands or with a spoon/fork. It’s a great one for baby led weaning.

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

Mushrooms can be fun for kids to clean – give them a damp paper towel to wipe them down. Kids will enjoy putting together the wraps as well, helping you fill and wrap them. They could even help you grate the carrot and cheese if they are up to it!

Master these skills:

Cleaning vegetables, Grating, Mixing

More about Kitchen Ninja Skills

Activities

Why not make a funny face on a plate using sliced raw mushrooms and other veggies? Or trace the shape of a sliced mushroom onto paper and see what it reminds you of—a spaceship, person, or hat—then turn it into a fun drawing or collage with coloring pencils or paper scraps.

Kids more interested in science? Try a mushroom growing kit! You can find more 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

Mushrooms are perfect for sensory exploration because they’re so unique! A pack of “wild” or “mixed” mushrooms lets you explore the differences in taste and appearance. Look at whole, sliced, and separated mushrooms, and describe what you see—patterns, lines, colors, or shapes. Then, explore their texture—do large flat mushrooms feel the same as small oyster or button mushrooms? Do they smell different? How do raw mushrooms compare to cooked ones in smell, taste, and texture? Are they smooth, hard, crunchy, or soft?

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” mushroom side they helped you make!

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

Charlotte Stirling-Reed RNutr

Charlotte is one of the UK’s leading baby and child nutritionists, bestselling author of How to Wean Your Baby and founder of SR Nutrition. With a background in NHS and public health nutrition, she shares practical, evidence-based advice to help families feed babies, toddlers and children with confidence.

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