Aaron Craze
Serves: 4
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 15 mins
Ingredients:
400g long grain rice
1 Savoy cabbage
2 shallots (or 1 onion)
2 cloves of garlic
1 medium chorizo sausage
Olive oil
Sea salt and pepper
2 bay leaves
Veg Portions / Serving: 1
Recipe donated by Aaron Craze from loveyourgreens.co.uk
The combination of savoy cabbage and chorizo is a famous one, and used in the cooking of both Spain and Portugal. The deep, red oils that ooze out of the chorizo sausage imparts a beautiful colour to the cabbage, as well as the deep, smoky flavour of paprika. A great way to serve this dish is with plain boiled rice, either mixed in or on the side.
Method:
1. Place the rice in a pan of boiling water and cook for 10-12 minutes, depending on the instructions on the packet. When the rice is soft, drain and set aside.
2. Wash and trim the savoy cabbage, and slice the leaves very thinly. Discard the tough stalks. Peel and finely chop the shallots and the garlic. Slice the chorizo into thin slices.
3. In a heavy sauté pan, heat some olive oil. Sweat the onions and the garlic with some sea salt and pepper until soft. Then add the bay leaves, the thin cabbage slices, the chorizo slices and a small amount of water. Stir well, and continue to cook, over medium heat for about 3 minutes.
4. Add the boiled rice, and mix well. Taste for seasoning, and add more sea salt and grated black pepper if necessary.
5. Just before serving, remove the bay leaves from the pan. Serve hot.
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
Teach the children to cook rice using the mug trick: 1 big mug of rice is enough to feed a family of 4. Get the kids to pour 1 mug rice and 2 mugs water into a pan and then you can bring it to the boil and simmer away until the water is absorbed and the rice is cooked. Kids will also love shredding the cabbage. They can use a child-friendly knife, clean scissors, or you can just give them small strips of cabbage to tear with their hands!
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.
Aaron Craze
Aaron Craze was one of the second group of trainees from Channel 4's Jamie's Kitchen programme. Aaron left school with no formal qualifications and worked in several jobs before applying to become a trainee in Jamie Oliver's London restaurant, Fifteen, graduating from its Chef Training Programme with merit. Since then Aaron has worked at restaurants including London's The Ivy and has appeared in television programmes including Junior Bake-Off.
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