Chris Wheeler
Serves: 4-8
Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 5 mins
Ingredients:
4 cooked chicken breasts (smoked is best, but regular is fine)
24 asparagus spears
8 eggs
600g watercress
For the dressing:
400ml low fat natural yogurt
2 tbsp harissa (or rose harissa)
Veg Portions / Serving: 1
Very simple, healthy and using natural yogurt spiced up with harissa makes the ideal zingy dressing.
Method:
Pan-fry the chicken breasts on both sides and place in the oven for 10 minutes to warm through. Remove from the oven and slice each chicken breast into 10.
Cook the asparagus for 4 minutes in boiling salted water, drain and toss in olive oil.
Mix the harissa and low-fat natural yogurt together.
Crack the eggs into a small bowl and bring a pan of water to the boil (add a splash of vinegar to the water). Add the eggs into the boiling water for 2-4 mins, until the whites are set, then remove and drain on a plate lined with kitchen paper.
Wash and spin the watercress, season with a little olive oil.
To Serve:
Place a handful of watercress in the middle of each bowl, add 3 pieces of asparagus on top, arrange 5 slices of chicken on top, skin side up. Place a poached egg on top and pour over the Harissa and natural yogurt dressing, garnish with watercress.
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
Let the kids help you stir the yogurt and harissa together, and have them help you assemble the final dish, layering the ingredients to serve.
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.
Chris Wheeler
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