We all know that broccoli is delicious, and oh-so good for you. It's one of our favourite superfoods, and not nearly as expensive as avocado or blueberries: you can even grow it in your back garden. Now we love broccoli with everything from a Sunday roast to a stir fry, but unfortunately the kids usually think differently.
Yes, there are those annoying mums who go: "Oh broccoli? Little Oscar just LOVES his broccoli – he can't get enough of it!" But we all know that, for us mere mortals getting the little ones to eat their vegetables can be a challenge at the best of times and broccoli is always one of the ones they hate most.
It seems strange when you think about it – broccoli is really no less offensive than any other vegetable, but for some reason it's the one which always gets left on the plate.
Here are some ways to start encouraging the kids to eat up their broccoli – see if any of them work for you.
1. Cook broccoli properly!
Now broccoli can be cooked right or wrong and a LOT of people cook it badly. Our mums all used to put broccoli on to boil, go and do the washing/gardening/watch TV or whatever else and come back hours later on, back when all British food was awful – our mums still do, in fact.
But broccoli needs to be treated with care if it's going to be edible – those little bushes on the top get soggy too easily! Do not boil broccoli for any more than six or seven minutes, or try steaming it – this keeps all the nutrients inside rather than leaking out into the water and tends to make it less waterlogged.
2. Try tenderstem or long-stem broccoli
With less of a tendency to get waterlogged, tenderstem broccoli is a lot easier and more pleasant to eat - sales have gone through the roof recently, although it is more expensive. Tenderstem broccoli needs to be boiled for just five minutes tops, and is lovely served with a drizzle of fresh lemon juice.
3. Try different ways of cooking broccoli
Try stir-frying it or roasting it with some light soy sauce and olive oil – this also makes broccoli crunchy and salty rather than soggy – it's the closest you could get to broccoli chips!
4. Try serving broccoli raw
Broccoli is really nice raw and it holds its crunch - try with different dips and see how that goes down!
5. Mix it up with other things
Cut broccoli into smaller pieces so it doesn't seem as intimidating, and mix it up with other vegetables like carrots and cauliflowers in different combinations so the kids are used to seeing lots of different veg on their plates and not the same, predictable thing every day.
6. Make broccoli fun
After all, it does look like little trees! If your child enjoys imaginative play, try making a little house out of mashed potato and put the little pieces of broccoli around it in the 'garden'.
** 7. Take the pressure off dinnertime**
In the end, if you've tried all the recipes, and all the cooking methods and your little monkeys won't eat any of it, just back off and let them eat what they'd like to for a while. Always put everything onto the plate so they're used to seeing and smelling a range of foods, but don't force it down, especially if they're still just toddlers.
** 8. Bribery**
If it's been a long time and you're worried that older children are forming bad eating habits, then you can start bargaining. If they'll eat half of (and then finish) their broccoli then they can have something they really like – whether it's chips or a chocolate biscuit. Or put broccoli and beans on their plate and say they can eat one and leave the other one – at least that way they eat some greens.
9. Juice it
Whizz broccoli up with some apple juice, lemon juice and other veg into a wicked smoothie. They'll never know!
10. Add salt and butter!
It might not sound very healthy, but if you melt a little bit of butter and sprinkle some sea salt over the top it might become a little bit more appealing. This also helps with the texture.
4 Broccoli recipes children will love
You can also try some different recipes which are a good way of seeing whether your kids might like broccoli in more inventive guises than just beside their potatoes - these are some ideas to get you started.
Broccoli sweet potato cakes recipe
Read more here.
Ingredients:
Method:
Broccoli cheese recipe
Read more here.
Ingredients:
Method:
Broccoli soup recipe
Read more here.
Ingredients:
Method:
Fruit and vegetable muffin recipe
Read more here.
Ingredients:
You can really use anything which you think works in terms of fruit and vegetables, as long as they're quite moist that will help. Also if the muffins are too large, they won't cook through so make sure they are small enough.
Method:
Soften the butter in a pan
Broccoli omelette recipe
Cook a quick omelette with some small pieces of broccoli and cheese (or/and tomato?) and serve with chips!
Do you have any broccoli recipes you swear by to encourage the children to eat up their greens?
Good luck with your broccoli recipes! Let us know if you have any other tips or tricks to get the kids to eat broccoli over on Facebook and Twitter.
You might also like...
The 25 meals children should be able to cook by 11-years-old
These four-year-olds talking about marriage will make your day