Rocket Pesto

Claire Wright

Featuring:

Rocket

Effort:

Complexity:

Cost:

In season now

Serves: 4

Prep time: 5 mins

Ingredients:

100g rocket

80-125ml oil (ideally olive oil)

1 garlic clove, minced or finely chopped (optional but recommended)

Juice of 1/2 lemon

pinch of salt or 2 tbsp grated Parmesan

Method:

Put all the ingredients in a blender or food processor (or use a basic hand blender and a measuring jug) and blitz until almost smooth. Add more oil if needed. Taste and adjust with a little extra lemon juice, salt, or a pinch of sugar if you feel it is needed. Use as you would basil pesto.

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 can have great fun with this recipe – get them to wash the rocket, add the ingredients (carefully, with your help) to the food processor and pressing the button to blitz. Find more 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

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

Rocket can be a great veg to explore through sight. Call your child into the kitchen when washing and prepping it and see what they think it looks like – is it like giant grass stalks or tiny bits of seaweed? Maybe it looks like a quill for mice, or a feather from an unusual bird? Have fun exploring it together to encourage positive interaction with this veggie. Find more ideas, videos and some simple sensory education session ideas to get you started here.

Serving

Have your child help you serve up dinner using the pesto they have made. They could get to pour or spoon the pesto over the pasta and mix it up, serve into bowls and sprinkle with grated cheese and black pepper. For more ideas, 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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