Jamie wholeheartedly believes that cooking is up there as one of the most valuable skills you can teach a child. Getting kids excited about food, where it comes from and how to cook it, gives them a better chance of being healthier and happier in the long run. When cooking with kids, use your common sense to determine what jobs they can help you with, depending on their age and skill level. It’s always good to start small, with jobs such as mixing and measuring, then progress to elements of a recipe, then go on to slightly trickier techniques over time. The more they cook, the better they’ll get. Make sure you supervise them when using heat or sharp utensils like knives and box graters, and teach them about the importance of washing their hands before they start, and after handling raw meat and fish, as well as other basic hygiene rules. Most of all, have fun with it, and encourage them to give things a go.
Movie night veggie nachos
Sweetcorn salsa, popped beans and dressed avo
30 mins
Not Too Tricky
serves 4
About the recipe
Movie night calls for serious snacks, and Buddy’s veggie nachos are a family favourite for this or any occasion. Black beans, sweetcorn, tomatoes and avocado pack in lots of the good stuff, and kids will have fun piling on the toppings. Happy days!
Ingredients
1 x 160g tin of sweetcorn
6 spring onions
1 long red pepper
3 ripe tomatoes
optional: 1 red chilli
optional: ½ a bunch of coriander (15g)
2 limes
olive oil
4 wholewheat tortillas
1 x 400g tin of black beans
1 ripe avocado
50g feta cheese
natural yoghurt or sour cream, to serve
optional: chilli sauce, to serve
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C, and place a large non-stick frying pan on a high heat to heat up.
- Drain the sweetcorn and trim the spring onions. Put the whole pepper, tomatoes, spring onions and chilli (if using) into the dry pan for 10 minutes, or until soft and charred, turning occasionally. Transfer the pepper and chilli (if using) to a bowl, cover and leave for 5 minutes. Remove the tomatoes and spring onions to a board to cool.
- Tip the sweetcorn into the pan and cook for 2 minutes, then place in a separate bowl. Once cool enough to handle, roughly chop the tomatoes and spring onions and add them to the charred sweetcorn.
- Peel, deseed and roughly chop the pepper and chilli (if using), pick and chop a few coriander leaves (if using), then add it all to the bowl with the juice of ½ a lime, a splash of olive oil and a pinch of sea salt.
- Pile up the tortillas and cut, through the stack, into eight triangles (so you end up with 32 in total), then arrange in a single layer over two baking trays. Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden, turning halfway.
- Drain and rinse the beans, pat dry with kitchen paper, then tip into the frying pan over a medium heat and leave for 5 minutes, shaking occasionally – you want them to pop open. Peel and destone the avocado, slice into chunks, then squeeze over the juice of ½ a lime.
- Arrange the tortilla chips on a serving plate, top with the popped beans, tomato and pepper salsa and the dressed avo. Crumble over the feta, pick over the leftover coriander leaves (if using) and dot over the yoghurt or sour cream and the chilli sauce (if using). Cut the remaining lime into wedges for squeezing over.
