Kids are fascinated about the world, other cultures, other people and how they live. Food is one of those great ways to introduce kids to the idea of other cultures. We get the map out when we have foreign foods, I would say this is from Indonesia, or has an Indonesian influence. The internet is such a fantastic resource for this as well, you can look at Indonesian traditional costumes, or find interesting facts, like it is where the Komodo dragon comes from. If your kids have seen 'Rango' they will love this!
This recipe is great as it is healthy, has colourful vegetables which you can adapt to your kid's taste, and because they are stir fried, the meat and vegetables retain more of their goodness. Also it takes around 15 minutes from start to finish.
Ingredients
- 2 minute steaks (thinly cut fillet steak)
- half an onion
- ¼ of a small white cabbage
- 1 carrot
- ¼ of a red bell pepper
- ¼ of a green bell pepper
- 6-8 baby corn Or half a small tin of sweet corn
- a large handful of fresh spinach chopped (or frozen spinach is also fine)
- 2 tbsp peanut butter
- 2 tbsp ketchup
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp honey
- ½ cup of chicken stock
- 1 tbsp of sesame oil (or vegetable oil)
Method- Cut the minute steaks, pepper, cabbage and onion into consistent shapes. I slice mine quite thinly – but you can do squares or triangles.
- Cut the carrot into either round slices or juliennes. Sometimes I use the vegetable peeler for the carrot, if you keep 'peeling' after you have peeled the carrot you get very long wiggly strips which my kids love if you do this add the carrot at the same time as the spinach.
- The baby corn will need cutting in half, lengthways or across the middle, and roughly chop the spinach.
- If you have a wok, this is a perfect time to use it, if not, use a large fry pan. When you have chopped your meat and vegetables. Heat the oil in the wok and add your meat, onion, carrot, cabbage and peppers and turn frequently.
- When you meat has browned (around 2-3 minutes) add your peanut butter, ketchup, soy sauce, honey and chicken stock. Stir to combine all ingredients well. The peanut better will melt into the stock.
- Add your corn and spinach, when the spinach has wilted and the corn is warm – it is ready!! Quick easy and delicious.
Tips- If your kids are OK with spices add some Chinese five spice.
- If you like things spicy – serve the kids portions – while they are cooling add some ginger, garlic and chilli to spice it up for the adults.
- You can replace the cabbage with noodles, boil the noodles first, add them with the spinach and corn.
- One of the things I like about this recipe is that you can use just about any vegetables you have in the fridge, so I is great for 'end of week' cooking – when you want to use up whatever vegetables you have left in the fridge before shopping. Examples are leeks, broccoli, zucchini, green beans, snow peas, mushrooms, celery, or whatever your kids like.
- Avoid 'starchy' vegetables like potatoes, pumpkin or sweet potato, and 'wet' vegetables like beets.
- Sprinkle the finished dish with toasted peanuts for added crunch.
- If your kids are OK with spices add some Chinese five spice.
- Cut the minute steaks, pepper, cabbage and onion into consistent shapes. I slice mine quite thinly – but you can do squares or triangles.
