Kids can LOVE spinach (no i haven’t gone mad!)

WHAT? Yes you read right, kids can LOVE SPINACH!

How ridiculous I hear you cry…. Its a bit of a mission sometimes for us parents to get veggies into our children isn’t it. Mine i have to say have always been pretty good at munching on broccoli and its friends on the veggie side of things but there is always room for a bit on a boost to the 5 a day isn’t there and for those of you who struggle to get the good stuff into your little ones tums, i may have found a recipe for you to try…

Thanks to the rather clever Annabel Karmel, my two kids and many others who have dined at my table just love this fabulous and very very green pasta sauce. I am sure you could rename it many things, monster pasta, alien sauce, green slimy sauce according to your childs likes and dislikes but in our house it’s Popeye pasta because it makes you so strong!

This is quite possibly the easiest sauce you will ever have to make too. Quite often I will make a batch to use for dinner and freeze whats left in the pots I used to use for baby puree. I have tweaked the original recipe a few times and this week we had a load of courgettes given us so I simply steamed a couple above my cooking pasta and whizzed them in with the rest of the sauce and quite often I will put frozen peas in it too as it sweetens it up quite a lot.

Here’s my slightly tweaked version of this recipe:

POPEYE PASTA a la me

Recipe Ingredients

one big bag fresh spinach, washed or 100g frozen spinach
15g butter
2 tbsp milk
1 pack of cream cheese
4 tbsp parmesan cheese, grated or to taste

2 mugs full of frozen peas / two courgette sliced

Recipe Method:

Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions. If using courgette and / or peas steam this above the cooking pasta

Carefully wash the spinach and cook with just the water clinging to its leaves in a saucepan or microwave over a low heat until tender.

Gently press out the excess water. If using frozen spinach, cook according to the packet instructions.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small frying pan and sauté the cooked spinach.

Combine the spinach and courgette / peas with the milk and cheeses and chop finely in a food processor.

Mix with the cooked pasta.

Information:

MAKES 2 PORTIONS
Suitable for freezing
Suitable from 8 months
Prep time 10 minutes
Cooking time about 10 minutes

Please note – when this sauce dries out on dishes and childrens chubby chops it has quite a cement like quality so, if like my dishes and my kids, they end up covered in it, have a warm cloth to hand soon after the plates are licked clean!

Caution……Even mummies and daddies find it tasty!

If this goes down well, another staple pasta sauce in my freezer that i turn to is this hidden veg one – great for getting loads of different veggies into their tums or using as a base for tuna / chicken pasta for all the family 🙂