Charlotte Stirling-Reed RNutr
Serves: 4
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 30 mins
Ingredients:
500g baby potatoes, washed and dried
1 tbsp olive oil, plus a little extra for drizzling
1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped
4 spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced
1 celery stick, trimmed and finely chopped
1 medium carrot, peeled and finely grated
1 tsp smoked sweet paprika
500g tomato passata
2 x 400g tins beans (e.g. cannellini, haricot, or butter beans), drained and rinsed
Who doesn’t love jacket potato and BEANS. It’s an absolute staple for many families in the UK, and rightly so! If you’re looking for a comforting family meal that’s both balanced, simple and well accepted by all the family, baked beans are ideal. This homemade jacket potato with baked beans is a brilliant and simple alternative to the shop-bought versions – without the added salt and sugar. By making your own baked beans, you can also include a variety of different beans an legumes, helping to boost plant diversity in your family’s diet. It’s a great way to introduce little ones to different textures and flavours, while keeping mealtimes balanced and satisfying for everyone. Plus, it’s easy to batch cook and freeze these beans, making it a go-to for busy weekdays!
Method:
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 could wash and dry the potatoes, and drizzle them with oil. They could help you carefully spoon the beans over the jackets (and maybe sprinkle a little cheese over if they want some!).
Activities
Why not get a selection of different dried or cooked beans and lentils and try and capture the different colours, textures and shapes with colouring pencils? Or make a rainmaker with an empty, clean lidded crisp tube or milk bottle – pour in some dried beans or lentils, decorate them and seal the lid tightly before shake, shake, shaking!
Kids more interested in science? You can find at-home science fun with veg with our videos from Stefan Gates’ here.
Sensory
Why not explore beans through touch and sight? There are so many different kinds of beans and lentils. Get a few types that are a good mix in size/shape and colour, dried vs cooked, etc. and see if you can and your child can describe them. What do they look like? What colours, shapes and patterns can you see? What do they remind you of? What do they feel like? Are they rough, smooth, slimy, hard?
Find more sensory ideas, tips and videos here. If you get stuck and need a little help with describing words, we have a selection for you here, too!
Serving
While the dinner you are serving it with is cooking, ask your child to design a beautiful menu for the table, with special emphasis on “their” bean-packed meal they helped you make!
Find the best ways of involving your own child and their skills and interests on our Roles for Kids page.
Charlotte Stirling-Reed RNutr
Charlotte is one of the UK’s leading baby and child nutritionists, bestselling author of How to Wean Your Baby and founder of SR Nutrition. With a background in NHS and public health nutrition, she shares practical, evidence-based advice to help families feed babies, toddlers and children with confidence.
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