Shivi Ramoutar
Shivi is a cookbook author and TV presenter known for her vibrant, flavour-packed recipes. She shares simple ways to add more beans, vegetables and colour to everyday meals.
Shivi’s Firecracker Quesadillas
Shivi Ramoutar
Featuring:
Pulses
Effort:
Complexity:
Cost:
In season now
Serves: 2-4
Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 15 mins
Ingredients:
14 spring onions, white bulbs discarded
1 jarred red pepper
1-2 tbsp jarred jalapeno peppers
1 tbsp olive oil (or vegetable oil)
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp paprika (smoked or sweet)
1 large tin of sweetcorn (about 300g), drained (or use 1 mug frozen sweetcorn)
400g tin of kidney or black beans, drained and roughly crushed with a fork
Juice of 1/2 lime
4 tortilla wraps
2 mugs of grated Cheddar cheese
For the lime soured cream:
Zest of 1 lime and juice of 1/2
1 small pot of soured cream (150ml)
Recipe donated by Shivi Ramoutar from her book Cook Clever.
This is the fridge forage and leftovers template to end all templates. Throw in sad salad or leftover cooked meats, or you can tailor each quesadilla to any taste by simply leaving out or adding in an element. The lime soured cream is a perfect accompaniment, but you can serve with ready-made guac, or just mashed avocado. Do freeze a few for future fast food!
Method:
Pop the spring onions, red pepper and jalapenos in a sturdy mixing bowl (Pyrex or metal). Using a pizza cutter, go over and slice the ingredients a few times into smaller shreds and pieces.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a high heat. Tip the contents of the bowl into the pan, along with the cumin, paprika, sweetcorn, crushed beans, lime juice and a pinch of seasoning. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring regularly.
Make the lime soured cream by mixing the ingredients together, seasoning to taste.
Take a tortilla wrap and sprinkle 1/4 mug of the cheese over one half of the wrap, then layer on top a quarter of the sweetcorn and bean mixture, then finally layer over another 1/4 mug of cheese. Carefully golf the bare half of the tortilla over the filling. Repeat with the remaining ingredients.
Place a dry frying pan over a high heat. Pop the filled quesadilla into the pan and cook for a couple of minutes on one side, pressing down with a spatula, then flip over carefully and cook for another minute or so on the other side until the cheese has melted. Remove from the heat, cut in half and enjoy immediately with the lime soured cream.
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
Let kids help you mash the beans, mix ingredients together, make the lime crema, or layer the cheese and quesadilla filling in the tortilla wrap.
Activities
Why not try making a sweetcorn face mask a cut-out and colour sweetcorn, or veg crown?
Or grab some of our free games & puzzles with sweetcorn like our Sweetcorn Secret Code game or our So Corny wordsearch?
Kids more interested in science? Try Stefan Gates’ videos here. Why not try his Exploring Colour and Shape experiment with fresh corn cobs still in their husks?
Find loads more free sweetcorn-themed crafts here and games here.
Sensory
Try exploring different kinds of sweetcorn through touch. Having baby corn, fresh corn cobs, frozen corn and/or tinned sweetcorn gives you the chance to explore the different textures of corn and how that may impact our experience (and like or dislike) of it. Which texture is the favourite? What does each different type feel like and make you think of?
Watch our video from Ruth Platt for a visual guide to exploring sweetcorn with your senses here. 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
Next time you make this meal, and want to give your child an extra opportunity to get involved and engaged before eating, why not ask them to create a yellow coloured centrepiece for the table? Can they find all yellow items that make for an attractive display to match the corn?
Find the best ways of involving your own child and their skills and interests on our Roles for Kids page.
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