Hi and welcome back to the Food for Kids podcast. Today's the first of a regular monthly segment where I'll share a few simple, fairly family-friendly meal ideas that use the seasonal produce that's in season this month. My aim with this is just to give you some ideas. They're not fancy, nothing that needs you to spend a long time in the kitchen. They're just some fairly realistic suggestions that you might actually get around to making during a busy week.
We're in June and honestly it's such a great month for fresh fruit and veg in the UK. Everything is starting to be available now from peas and broad beans to strawberries, rhubarb, new potatoes and it's the last few weeks to get that fresh asparagus. So I've picked out three main meals, one dessert and one snack using a mix of what's in season right now so that you can get some fresh produce that's in season from the supermarket and make something practical with it.
None of them takes a lot of prep time and they're all fairly childly friendly or easy to adapt by swapping things in or adding things at the table.
So I'll walk you through each idea very briefly here and then I'll put recipe links in the show notes if something catches your ear and you think, yeah, that's something I could make this week.
First up we've got a frittata with new potatoes and asparagus, although you can sub those in for something else if you want to. The first new potatoes are just heavenly. So here we're showing them off with the last bit of the asparagus. It's basically an oven baked omelette that you can then slice up and serve warm or cold. You just parboil the potatoes. I would personally do them in the microwave with a splash of water rather than get a pan out on the stove. Add in some chopped asparagus and spring onions.
pour over some beaten eggs that's got some salt and pepper in it and just pop it in the oven. You can sub out the asparagus for broccoli or peas or anything that your child likes and you can also add in some cheese or some cooked bacon if you like. This is really great with a salad or some crusty bread or just on its own and the leftovers keep really well for lunch boxes. So play around with that frittata idea to add in anything that you fancy but try and have the new potatoes in because they are really gorgeous.
Next up, a really easy, creamy courgette and pea pasta. So courgettes are just coming into season now and this one's really lovely for younger children. You can grate the young courgettes so it cooks quickly and it blends nicely into the sauce. Or if your children don't mind courgettes, you can put thin slices in instead. Add in some peas. If you can't find any new fresh peas yet, then frozen is fine. Add a bit of garlic and a spoonful of something like cream cheese, creme fraiche or coconut cream
just to bring it together.
It's quick and fresh and that kind of lob everything into the pan kind of meal that you can make sort of on autopilot at the end of the day.
My third idea is a chickpea and spinach curry and if you want to sub the chickpeas out for peas you can do. Nothing too spicy, we're just talking about a mild tomatoey sort of base. You could add in some soft-cooked carrots or potatoes if you want to. Either tinned chickpeas or garden peas. And then your seasonal element is either the peas or a few handfuls of spinach stirred in at the end. This is really great with rice or flatbreads and it can freeze really well too so you can double up the recipe if you want to.
I'll link to a recipe but there are loads of similar ones out there for families so find one that works for your family.
For something sweet for a dessert, I've gone for a classic, which is strawberry and rhubarb crumble. We're getting towards the end of the rhubarb and the beginning of the strawberries. So this is a really nice time to have those together. The rhubarb gives it that lovely sharpness and then the strawberries add natural sweetness. Make it in one dish, pop it in the oven and, you know, have it with your yogurt, your custard, your ice cream. You can also batch make the crumble topping and keep that in the freezer if you want to so that next time you want to make a crumble, you've already got the crumble topping.
And then finally, a quick seasonal snack. This might sound a bit strange, but ⁓ strawberries with cream cheese in a wrap. This was a fan favourite at our local school's tuck shop.
You can either use mini wraps for quite a large portion or you can quarter a large wrap and make them into sort of cones. Basically you just smear some cream cheese on and then some sliced strawberries and roll it up. It sounds like it shouldn't work, but it really does. You can add honey if you like and your child's over one year old.
But honestly, it doesn't need it if the strawberries are ripe, especially this is a really good thing to use up overripe strawberries that have gone a bit gooey because it's quite nice to squish them between the wrap.
It's a really quick after school snack that children can actually make themselves if they want to practice their spreading skills.
So that's your little bundle of seasonal food ideas for June. I will pop links to all the recipes in the show notes so you can take a look. And if you do try any of them or you have your own go-to seasonal ideas, I would love to hear about them. Hit me up on social media or send me an email. I'll bring some new recipes for easy meal ideas based on what's in season next month in July. And in the meantime, I'll see you on Monday and happy eating!
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