Peter’s Pea & Ham Hock Salad

Peter Lack

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Serves: 2

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 5 mins

Ingredients:

100g garden peas

20g alfalfa sprouts

20g lentil sprouts

10g red pepper

50g ham hock

1 tsp English mustard

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp white wine vinegar

a pinch of sugar

100g mixed salad leaves

3 cherry tomatoes

Veg Portions / Serving: 1

Recipe donated by Bird's Eye for Veg Power. Recipe by Peter Lack. Photography from Bird's Eye.

Make peas the star in this delicious pea & ham hock salad. Pea and ham are truly one of life’s great combinations – this green salad with an English mustard dressing is simple, fresh and healthy.

Method:

Place the peas in a pan on top of the stove and add sufficient boiling water to cover. Bring back to the boil. Cover and simmer for 3 minutes.

Make a dressing by combining the oil, vinegar, mustard and sugar. Season to taste.

Mix most of the dressing with the drained peas, peppers and sprouts.

Arrange the mixture in a ring on a plate, garnish with salad leaves and top with the ham hock.

Drizzle over the rest of the dressing and serve. Perfect with crusty bread.

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

Get the kids to make the dressing by measuring the oil, vinegar, mustard and sugar into a jam jar and shaking to mix. They’re also likely to want to arrange the mixture on the plate, making sure it looks good, and finish the dish off by drizzling their dressing over it.

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.

Peter Lack

Former-Savoy Hotel Sous Chef Peter Lack has been Head Chef at Birds Eye since 1996. He is focused on creating healthy & tasty meals for one of the UK’s most iconic food brands.

www.birdseye.co.uk/

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