Joanne Roach
Hello and welcome to the Food for Kids podcast, I'm Joanne from the Foodies. Today's episode is the November instalment of our monthly segment where I share some straightforward family-friendly recipes using the fruit and vegetables that are in season right now in the UK. The point of this quick list is to take away a bit of that mental load of having to decide what to make for dinner while giving you some easy family-friendly ways to incorporate more seasonal produce.
November is definitely the point where we can begin to feel winter heading our way. We've had a couple of frosts already and by the end of this month anything that doesn't like cold weather will be harvested and dying down outside. So there's a real change from leftover summer foods to plants that have evolved to adapt to cold weather. If you want a full rundown of fruit and veg to buy in November, head over to episode 46 where I gave a proper list, but here I have picked out three family meals, a dessert and a snack that can use some of those late autumn treats. So let's get to those recipes.
My first meal idea is an all in one sausage and root vegetable tray bake. This is a brilliant way to use whatever root veg you have in the house. Add in some small potatoes and top with some sausages and you have a full meal all in one tray. You cook the vegetables for about 30 minutes before adding the sausages, depending on the size of the sausages, and then cook for about another 25 to 30 minutes. Make sure that your vegetable pieces are good sizes to cook through at the same time, for example try to make carrot pieces slightly smaller than parsnip pieces as they take a little bit longer to cook. And you can also use pieces of potato or halved small potatoes. You can obviously use vegetarian sausages instead of meat sausages or if you're in a mixed household you can cook the sausages separately and add them at the plate.
This is lovely either with gravy or with just some chutney or a sauce that your child likes including ketchup, you can have it on the side to dip if they don't like it on top. I will link to a recipe which adds a sticky glaze to the sausages which is a nice twist.
My second main meal idea is a family weeknight twist on something that you might be familiar with if your family eats South East Asian food. It's a family sized, one tray, tray bake version of a Japanese dish called Okonomiyaki, which I'm probably not pronouncing right, which is normally a pan-fried pancake that includes shredded vegetables usually including cabbage and often bacon on top.
It's a teppanyaki dish which means it's cooked on a teppan grill so if you have a big enough pan you can make it on there or can make individual ones for different appetite sizes and then just keep them warm till they're done. That can be quite helpful if you want to add things like chillies towards the end you can cook a couple of them then add those in and then cook the last couple.
But because it's such a really good way to use up vegetables I wanted to try and find an easy weeknight version, so this is a very non-authentic version because it uses a tray bake but it does mean you can make it all in one go. You basically make a pancake batter, add in some shredded vegetables and top it with bacon if you eat meat but marinated tofu or tempeh would work great if you're plant-based and then you cook it through. Traditionally you then drizzle a barbecue sauce across the top and sometimes a squeezable mayo like a Kewpie mayo but you can choose whatever sauce you like to drizzle over the top or put a bunch of sauces on the table and everyone can choose their own to drizzle onto.
I'll link to this tray bake one in the show notes but I'll also link to a more traditional one if you want to try making one in a pan with a more traditional sauce. But it's a brilliant meal to get quite a lot of cabbage in, while still feeling like a fun pancake and allowing everybody to add their own sauces.
My last main meal idea is a traditional beef style stew with vegetables. It's nice when the weather turns cold to lean into more comfort food, so a slow cooked stew is perfect. You can make it with beef or veggie alternatives and cook down for a long time in a pan, a slow cooker or a casserole in the oven until all the root veg are soft and melt in the mouth and the beefy element is tender.
I'll link to two recipes in the show notes. One is a vegetarian version that uses soy chunks instead of beef and then one is a traditional beef version that uses carrots, parsnips, butternut squash and an optional handful of Jerusalem artichokes if you did manage to find any after the seasonal food episode last week. But you can really make it with whatever you have. Celeriac, swede, turnip, potatoes, sweet potatoes, all of those would be great and can add leeks and onions at the beginning too if you like.
For dessert this month, as we have the last of the pears coming fresh from the trees rather than from storage, and often they're a mixture of harder and softer ones, I'm going to suggest that you pair them, excuse the pun, with dark chocolate. This is good for children who only like milk chocolate to have a chance to try darker varieties alongside something sweet, or you can use half dark and half milk if you like. I'll link to a recipe which is very child friendly but basically involves cooking the pears until they're soft and then melting a chocolate sauce to drizzle over the top. If your child doesn't like stewed fruit texture as one of mine really didn't, you can also use slices of crisp pear and then just put the sauce in a pot to dip into if that might work better for you. But if the soft version is a hit, you can make it all year round with tinned pears.
For this month's snack idea, let's go easy effort level and make the most of clementines coming into season. Get a bag in as younger children can learn to peel them for themselves. They might need you to just break the surface for the first bit of peel, but they are great for older children to take for snacks in pockets or lunch boxes, and at home if you want to make them part of a snack on a plate, you can also put a little bit of chocolate sauce to dip them into, or almond butter is lovely with oranges. Or you can just pop the segments on a plate with a square of dark chocolate and a handful of cashew nuts or some salty crackers. All of those go really nicely with oranges.
For a bit of fun I'll also link in the show notes to a one minute video that shows you how to make literally four slices into the peel of a clementine and then turn it into an octopus which is a lot of fun and looks really cool.
So that's my roundup of 5 seasonal family food ideas for November. I'll put the links to all the example recipes in the show notes so you can find them easily. And as usual, if you give one a try I would love to hear how you got on.
I'll be back next month with a set of seasonal ideas for December and I hope to see you on the next episode later this week. So in the meantime, happy eating!
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