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Easy Chicken & Broccoli Stir-Fry

Claire Wright

Featuring:
broccoli
Broccoli
Effort:
Complexity:
Cost:

Serves: 4

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 10 mins

Ingredients:

3 tbsp soy sauce or tamari

1 tbsp toasted sesame oil

1 tbsp grated fresh ginger

2 garlic cloves, grated or finely chopped

Soba (buckwheat) noodles or wholewheat egg noodles

1 tbsp olive or groundnut oil

500g chicken strips or 3 chicken breasts, finely sliced into strips (4 boneless skinless sliced chicken thighs would also work here)

2 heads fresh broccoli, florets roughly sliced and stalks sliced very thinly into matchstick strips (you don’t have to use the stalks but it makes a nice addition)

3 spring onions, finely sliced

3 tbsp sesame seeds

1 red chilli, de-seeded and finely sliced (optional)

Veg Portions / Serving: 1

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Recipe created for Veg Power by Claire Wright. Food photography by Claire Wright | addsomeveg.com

Claire Wright from addsomeveg.com shares 3 simple ways to prepare broccoli that the whole family will enjoy.

This chicken & broccoli stir-fry is really simple and quick to make – an easy family meal with plenty of veg!

Method:

Make the sauce by mixing together the soy sauce, sesame oil, grated ginger and garlic in a small bowl. Set aside. Cook the noodles according to packet instructions while you make the stir-fry. Heat the oil in a large frying pan or wok set over medium-high heat. Add the chicken strips and fry for 2-3 mins until cooked through. Add the broccoli and stir-fry for another 2-3 mins, until starting to lose a little of its raw ‘crunch’. Pour over the sauce and cook for another 1-2 mins, then add the drained noodles and toss everything together well. Take off the heat and serve, topped with spring onions, sesame seeds and chilli (if using).

Mix it up: swap the chicken for prawns or steak strips for a different protein. Use rice noodles and serve with hot chicken or vegetable stock ladled over the stir-fry in bowls for more of an Asian broth dinner. Up the veg content by adding baby corn, sugar snap peas and/or halved cherry tomatoes for some added sweetness. You could also always skip the noodles and serve with cooked rice instead.

Engaging Kids

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 in the kitchen

Kids need a lot of supervision around stir-fries as the pan gets very hot, but they can make the sauce while you get the chicken and broccoli cooked. Have them scatter over the spring onions and seeds when you are serving up.

Activities

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

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

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.

Claire Wright

Communications Manager: After leaving Exeter University with a degree in English Literature, Claire worked in various fields ranging from youth work and charities to publishing, before starting up a food-focused website when her first child was born. After being asked to project manage the publication of Veg Power's Crowdfunder book, Claire came on board as a fully-fledged team member in 2018 to take on the role of Communications Manager, looking after Veg Power's website and social media platforms.

addsomeveg.com/

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