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Soupa Dooper Noodle Showdown

Claire Wright

Effort:
Complexity:
Cost:
In season now

Serves: 4

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

1 tbsp oil

200g diced chicken or beef strips, or veggie alternative

1 red pepper, sliced

100g sweetcorn (frozen is fine)

2 carrots, sliced as thinly as you can (or just use a veg peeler to peel thin strips)

100g white or green cabbage, shredded (sliced very thinly into strips or grate coarsely)

1 tbsp grated fresh ginger (or ½ tsp ground ginger)

½ tsp ground cinnamon

1 litre water

1 veg, chicken or beef stock cube

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp honey

200g cooked noodles

Handful fresh coriander, chopped (optional)

Veg Portions / Serving: 2

Share:

The vegetables have taken over the noodles in East Asia.

There are showdowns from China, to Japan and Korea and we need your help to defeat their monstrous plan.

Your mission is to find them, eat them to defeat them and before you slurp down the noodles, say…

TIME FOR A SHOWDOWN!

Find out more about Eat Them To Defeat Them at eatthemtodefeatthem.com

Method:

The story for the kids is all about slurping your way to victory so we’d like this with a good broth for maximum slurping. We have recommended a noodle soup with plenty of slurp-icious broth. Here’s our recommended recipe, or you can simply adapt your own recipe – just keep the veg chunky and serve with a reminder to the children to Eat Them to Defeat Them and say “Time for a show down!”

 

Place a saucepan on the stove over medium heat and add the oil, chicken or beef, red pepper, sweetcorn, carrots, and cabbage. Cook for about 5-10 mins until the meat is well browned and the cabbage and carrots still have some hardness to them but are starting to soften. Add the spices and cook for another minute. If using veggie alternative, check packet instructions, but most cook quickly and can be added at the next step.

Add the water, vegetable stock cube, soy sauce and honey to the pan (and veggie alternatives, if using) and bring gently up to a simmer.

Add the noodles to the pan and continue to cook until everything is piping hot and cooked through (if your noodles are uncooked, don’t worry, just cook them quickly now, it usually only takes a couple of mins, and then add to the saucepan).

Remove from the stove and evenly portion into serving bowls, sprinkling with coriander as you serve if using.

Engaging Kids

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

Kids in the kitchen

Have the kids help you measure and weigh ingredients and stirring things together (show them how to safely stir over the heat and keep a close eye on them). For more tips on cooking with kids check out Kids in the Kitchen on Simply Veg

Activities

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

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

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.

Claire Wright

Editor: After leaving Exeter University with a degree in English Literature, Claire worked in various fields ranging from youth work and charities to publishing, before starting up a food-focused website when her first child was born. After being asked to project manage the publication of Veg Power's Crowdfunder book, Claire came on board as a fully-fledged team member in 2018 to take on the role of Communications Manager, then Editor, looking after Veg Power's website, content, recipes and social media platforms.

addsomeveg.com/

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