Ian's Roasted Veg - Veg Power

Ian’s Roasted Veg

Ian Taverner

Featuring:

Effort:

Complexity:

Cost:

Serves: 4

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 20-25 mins

Ingredients:

1 whole broccoli, broken into small florets or packet of tender stem broccoli

Salt and pepper

2 carrots, peeled and cut into large batons

2 parsnips, peeled and cut into chunks

2 small Maris Piper potatoes, peeled and diced

1 small swede, peeled and diced

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp honey

Veg Portions / Serving: 2

Recipe from Cookfulness: A Therapeutic Approach to Cooking by Ian Taverner.

A meal on their own or a great accompaniment to a meat or fish dish.

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200ºC fan (220ºC/gas 7). Place all of the mixed veg into a large bowl and season with salt and pepper.

Add the honey and lemon juice and mix thoroughly so all covered.

Lay the mixed veg onto a double foil-lined baking tray.

Bake in the oven for 20-25 mins until cooked through – depends on size of the veg.

Hints & Tips

If the broccoli is starting to catch, lower the tray in the oven and cover with foil for the remaining time left
Cutting things to similar sizes helps ensure even cooking

Ways To Change

Use different veg as you like in your family
Add thickly sliced onion for more flavour
This is nice with a sour cream dip
A little balsamic vinegar in the honey and lemon mix is lovely too

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

Prep the veg, then let the kids add the seasoning, honey and lemon juice and mix it all together. Get them to spread the veg on the baking tray, too.

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.