Cooking with the kids!

01 Aug Cooking with the kids!

We told you how to keep the kids healthy over the summer and now we’re sharing an idea with you to keep them occupied over the summer, cooking!

This week we’re sharing with you a simple recipe which you can master with your little ones, perfect for those rainy days when they’re stuck in the house with nothing to do!

On rainy days when the beach is out of the picture bring the fun to your kitchen with our pasta shells recipe! Instead of buckets and spades you could get in some safe plastic knives for the children to do the chopping and why not let them have the fun of weighing out all the ingredients.

What you’ll need:

1 head of broccoli, chopped into florets

1 garlic clove, unpeeled

2 tbsp olive oil

250g pasta shells

½ small pack parsley

½ small pack basil

30g toasted pine nuts

½ lemon, zested and juiced

30g parmesan, plus extra to serve

What you’ll need to do:

1. Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Toss the broccoli and garlic in 1 tbsp of the olive oil on a roasting tray (this could be fun for the kids to do!). Roast in the oven for 10-12 mins, until softened.
2. Tip the pasta shells into a pan of boiling, salted water. As long as there supervised your little cooks could help you with this task by stirring the pasta while it cooks! Cook according to packet instructions and drain. Tip the parsley, basil, pine nuts, lemon juice and parmesan into a blender. Once the broccoli is done, set aside a few of the smaller pieces. Squeeze the garlic from its skin, add to the blender along with the rest of the broccoli, pulse to a pesto and season well. Why not let one of the kids be in charge of the blender controls while you hold the top down!
3. Toss the pasta with the pesto, another great task for a little one if supervised. Add the reserved broccoli florets, split between two bowls and top with a little extra parmesan, the lemon zest and a good grinding of black pepper.

There you go! The meal is made and the kids have learnt something and hopefully had fun along the way!

If you struggle for meal ideas for the children over the holidays why not organise private cooking lessons with one of our chefs? We can take into account all their fussy eating habits and add tasty healthy options to create a bespoke lesson for you.

To arrange a lesson you can call us on 0208 226 37 59 or email info@chefscompliments.co.uk.