Broccoli Pesto

Claire Wright

Featuring:

Broccoli

Effort:

Complexity:

Cost:

Serves: 4

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 5 mins

Ingredients:

350g fresh or frozen broccoli florets (about 1 head)

handful of fresh basil leaves

1 clove of garlic, finely chopped

3 tbsp Parmesan cheese

5-8 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

juice of 1/2 lemon

Veg Portions / Serving: 1

Recipe created for Veg Power by Claire Wright.

Claire Wright from addsomeveg.com shares 3 simple ways to prepare broccoli that the whole family will enjoy.

This creamy broccoli pesto is a hit with kids – so easy, they can make it themselves, and really delicious stirred through a big bowl of wholegrain pasta. Great for fussier eaters who don’t like to see the broccoli.

Method:

Steam the broccoli in a steamer or boil until tender (about 5 mins). Blitz in a food processor or with a hand-held blender with all of the other ingredients until it makes a smooth pesto paste, adding more olive oil if needed to thin it out. Taste and add a little salt and pepper if you feel it needs it. Allow to cool and keep in a jar in the fridge for up to 1 week, or freezer in ice cube trays and keep in the freezer for up to 3 months, grabbing 1 ice cube per person as needed and stirring through hot pasta or other cooked grains, or defrosting in seconds in the microwave to spread over cooked meat or fish as needed. For even more added veggies, trying stirring it through some spiralized veg!

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

This one is fun for kids. Teach older children how to safely steam or boil the broccoli. Any child will enjoy chucking the ingredients in a blender and pushing the buttons. Get them to stir the pesto through their dinner or pour into ice cubes trays to freeze for a later date.

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.

Claire Wright

Communications Manager: 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, looking after Veg Power's website and social media platforms.

addsomeveg.com/

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