Georgia Levy
Serves: 1-2 (makes 2 sandwiches)
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 10 mins
Ingredients:
4 medium eggs
100g shop-bought mayonnaise
½ tsp dijon mustard
A handful of basil leaves
4 slices of white sandwich bread or baguette
4 little gem leaves or other lettuce leaves
1 big ripe British tomato, thickly sliced
Recipe & Styling by Georgia Levy. Recipe featured on British Tomato Growers Association website.
This is the simplest of combinations, but it really works. Something magical happens when a boiled egg and a juicy British tomato meet. Make your own mayo from scratch if you prefer.
Method:
Bring a small pan of water to the boil and simmer the eggs for 10 minutes before draining and cooling under cold running water
Meanwhile, place the mayonnaise, mustard and basil leaves in a cup and use a hand blender to blitz until you have a bright green mayo
Peel the eggs, then cut into thick slices. Spread both sides of the bread with mayo, then layer up with the egg, lettuce leaves and tomato slices
Season the tomato with a little salt, then sit the other piece of bread on top and cut in half
Serve with your choice of crisps if you like (salt and vinegar is a particularly good match)!
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
The eventual aim, if possible, is to get kids in the kitchen. Don’t worry, this doesn’t have to mean they are with you from start-to-end creating mess and rising stress levels! It can be as simple as giving them one small job (stirring, measuring, pouring, grating, chopping…) ideally involving veg. They can come in to do their little bit, and have fun with you for a few minutes. Getting them involved, making it playful and praising them plenty for their involvement, perhaps even serving it as dinner they “made”, makes it much more likely they will eat the food offered, not to mention teaching them important life skills. Find ideas, safety tips, videos and even a free chart in our Kids in the Kitchen section here.
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.
Georgia Levy
Georgia is a recipe developer, chef and consultant based in London. She believes in fresh, seasonal food, cooked simply and with a sense of fun, and that anyone can enjoy cooking, you just need enthusiasm and a sharp knife! "Stick with me, and I’ll guide you through."
Author of Let’s Do Lunch.
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