Hoisin Cauliflower Noodles

Ching-He Huang MBE

Featuring:

Cauliflower

Effort:

Complexity:

Cost:

In season now

Serves: 2

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 7 mins

Ingredients:

1 tbsp rapeseed oil

1 small head of cauliflower, washed and broken into florets

50ml (2fl oz) water

For the sauce:

1 tbsp rapeseed oil

2.5cm (1in) piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and finely grated

1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

200ml (7fl oz) vegetable bouillon stock (1 tsp vegetable bouillon powder + 200ml/7fl oz cold water)

2 tbsp hoisin sauce

1–2 tbsp low-sodium light soy sauce

1 tsp dark soy sauce

1 tbsp cornflour, blended with 2 tbsp cold water

200g (7oz) cooked egg noodles

To garnish:

1 handful of roasted, unsalted peanuts

1 tbsp finely sliced spring onions

I love wok-charring cauliflower to bring out its smoky sweet flavours. It makes the perfect accompaniment to either chunky egg noodles or wide rice noodles. I like umami sauces especially savoury hoisin sauce. The combination of aromatic chives and crunchy peanuts makes this a super satisfying dish. So good.

Method:

Heat a wok over a high heat until smoking. Add the rapeseed oil and give it a swirl. Add the cauliflower florets and stir-fry for 30 seconds, then drizzle the measured water around the edges of the wok to create some steam to help cook the florets. Keep stirring until any liquid has evaporated, charring the florets for a smoky flavour. Remove the florets and set aside.

Wash the wok, and reheat for the sauce, adding the rapeseed oil. Add the ginger and red chilli and fry for a few seconds. Then add the vegetable stock, seasoning it with hoisin sauce, light soy sauce and dark soy sauce, and thicken it with the cornflour slurry for a glossy sauce.

Add the cooked egg noodles and the cauliflower back in and toss in the sauce well, garnish with peanuts and finely sliced spring onions and serve immediately.

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.

Master these skills:

Washing hands, Cleaning vegetables, Tasting, Mixing

More about Kitchen Ninja Skills

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.

Ching-He Huang MBE

Ching-He Huang MBE is an International Emmy nominated, Award winning TV chef & cookery author who has become an ambassador of Chinese cooking around the world. Ching received an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2020 list, for services to The Culinary Arts. Born in Taiwan, raised in South Africa and U.K., cookery was a vital connection between Ching and her Chinese heritage. Her creative food ethos is to use fresh, organic, and ethically sourced ingredients to create modern dishes with Chinese heritage, fusing tradition and innovation.

Ching’s career in the media as a TV chef and author has spanned the last two decades, transforming people’s perceptions of Chinese food over this time by keeping it fresh, popular, and engaged. She works tirelessly to promote Chinese cuisine through her TV shows, books, wok range and involvement in many high profile campaigns and causes. Ching is also an award-winning cookery author, having published ten best-selling cookbooks to date which have been published in several languages around the world.

Ching is an entrepreneur, businesswoman and has consulted on many levels, from family-owned restaurants to international corporations in hospitality, often working with brands to execute successful media campaigns.

www.chinghehuang.com/

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