Category: Cookery Books

Eat Your Greens, Reds, Yellows and Purples 

Any book that can encourage our kids to eat more healthily has to be a good thing.  That goes for adults too, if I’m honest.  I think a very large proportion of the population doesn’t eat enough fruit and veg.

In this book, there are more than enough recipes to get started with, and includes lots of lovely and bright images of foods and their descriptions. We get to meet the fruit and veg within each colour, and there are lots of little tips, more than suitably tailored towards our younger cooks, with handy safety rules and a guide to the equipment needed for the recipes.

You can soon be cooking tasty, healthy meals with this recipe book.  Alongside nutrition facts, there are 25 simple vegetarian recipes for children to cook at home, including soups, salads and stir fries, as well as sweet delights, such as muffins, cheesecake and cupcakes.  The focus of the book is on earning to cook with our greens, reds, yellows and purples.

You can find out how carrots help your vision, and why peppers boost your immune system, while learning how to use different fruits and vegetables, and using different cooking methods.

For reds, recipes include tomato, pepper and cherries, with the purples, like aubergine, blueberry and raisins being quite neat.

My personal favourite is always going to be the oranges, with carrot, butternut squash and pumpkin featuring, much to my approval.

There are some lovely recipes, including:

• Green Bean Stirfry
• Green Smoothie
• Tomato and Onion Tarts
• Layered Berry Cheesecakes
• Sunshine Rice
• Carrot and Orange Treats

The carrot and orange treats will go down nicely with my boys, and the green smoothie for me.  Thanks for the permission to post the smoothie recipe.

Green Smoothie

Ingredients

• 1 small or 1/2 large banana
• 75g (2oz) green grapes
• 60g (2oz) baby spinach
• 150ml (5fl oz) milk (use almond milk if preferred)
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp almond or peanut butter
• handful of ice cubes

Method

1. Peel the banana and break it into chunks.  Put into a blender along with the grapes.
2. Add the spinach, milk, honey, nut butter, and a handful of ice cubes to the blender.
3. Blend the mixture until smooth.  If it’s too thick or not chilled enough, just add a few cubes of ice and blend again.

We’re told that spinach is rich in vitamins, which helps keep our blood healthy, and we can adapt the recipe to get a different flavour, by adding a large pinch of ground cinnamon or even a few fresh mint leaves.

In summary:

I love the light and bright pictures, with the great tips throughout the book.  This would make a lovely present for kids who already have everything.

Eat Your Greens, Reds, Yellows and Purples is published by DK on 1 April 2016, £9.99. DK.com