Vegetable soda bread from Get Your Kids To Eat Anything – book review

This delicious vegetable packed soda bread recipe comes from Get Your Kids To Eat Anything by Emily Leary – a fantastic book to banish picky eating and make family mealtimes interesting and fun!

I am extremely blessed in that my daughter Kipper will eat just about anything. Not tomatoes – she hates tomatoes! – but pretty much anything else. But I realise that many other parents are not so fortunate. Some children seem to be picky almost to the point of starvation! I recently asked my Facebook followers to name one food that their kids won’t eat, and received the following replies:

“Only one?”

“One! I wish!”

“One of mine wouldn’t eat any fruit or veg save apples and watermelon.”

So it should be no surprise that Emily Leary’s book “Get Your Kids To Eat Anything” was so hotly anticipated ahead of its release!

Easy stages are a recipe for success

Emily, who blogs at A Mummy Too, has spent years advising parents on how to tackle their fussy eaters and encourage good eating habits. She has collected all her experience into this book, which guides parents through a 5-phase programme that will change the way they approach family meals. Successful completion will broaden children’s culinary horizons and make mealtimes more interesting and less stressful for everyone involved.

The programme is broken down into the following:

Phase 1: Put the unfamiliar into the familiar.
Give ‘safe’ family favourites a new twist or a fun makeover to pique your kids’ interest.
Phase 2: Educate.
Learn with your kids! Experiment with flavours and have a go at growing your own food.
Phase 3: Discover the fun in food.
Encourage your kids to get creative with some exciting new dishes.
Phase 4: Step into the unknown.
This section includes some surprising recipes to nudge kids out of their comfort zones.
Phase 5: Cement variety.
Techniques to ensure family mealtimes never become boring or routine.

Delicious recipes the whole family will love

As well as background information and instructions, each phase includes numerous delicious recipes. These include plenty of vegetarian options like Puy lentil shepherd’s pie, Tomato and wild garlic focaccia, peach and plum breakfast bagels, and Smoked cheese and apple quesadillas.

There are also plenty of great illustrations and charts to fill in, including reflection journals, tasting charts, and of course weekly meal planners. The book holds your hand all the way through Emily’s programme to give you the best chance of success!

Busy in the kitchen!

Since there was no point trying out the method on my already quite adventurous eater, Kipper and I decided to test out the recipes instead. We made this delicious “Sticky hands vegetable soda bread” as part of an informal Sunday lunch with friends. Kipper grated the courgette and carrot while I got everything else ready. Then she helped to mix the dough together.

Annoyingly, I found we didn’t have quite enough wholemeal flour to make the soda bread recipe exactly as written so I had to substitute a little bit of white flour. We also substituted natural yogurt for the buttermilk. I don’t know how different our vegetable soda bread was from the original but it was certainly delicious! Kipper ate two thick slices for her lunch and asked if there was any left for breakfast.

Get Your Kids to Eat Anything: The 5-phase programme to change the way your family thinks about food by Emily Leary, is published by Mitchell Beazley, RRP £16.99. It’s available from Amazon and other bookshops.

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📖 Recipe

Sticky-hands vegetable soda bread

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This easy, no-knead, no-prove bread has vibrant flecks of colour thanks to a generous handful of carrot and courgette. Expect to get messy, sticky hands as you make the dough – it’s all part of the experience!

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Total Time 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Course Bread, Side Dish

Cuisine Vegetarian

Servings 4

Calories 383 kcal

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 50 g carrot, shredded (1¾ oz)
• 50 g courgette, shredded (1¾ oz)
• 400 ml buttermilk (the thick kind) (14 fl oz)
• 1 medium free-range egg
• 350 g self-raising wholemeal flour (12 oz)
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• plus 50–100g (1¾–3½oz) for dusting

Instructions

 

• Preheat the oven to 220C (400F), 200C fan, Gas Mark 6. Line a 500g (1lb) loaf tin with nonstick baking paper.
• 50 g carrot, shredded, 50 g courgette, shredded , 400 ml buttermilk (the thick kind), 1 medium free-range egg, 350 g self-raising wholemeal flour, 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
  Grab 2 bowls, and tip all the wet ingredients (carrot, courgette, buttermilk, egg) into one, and the dry ingredients (flour and bicarbonate of soda) into the other.
• Mix each bowl well.
• Form a well in the middle of the dry ingredients, then pour the wet ingredients into it. Mix until well combined.
• plus 50–100g (1¾–3½oz) for dusting
  Dust your work surface with the extra flour and tip the dough onto it. Gently form the dough into a sticky rectangle, just firm enough to hold its shape and place in the prepared tin.
• Score some 1cm (½ in) deep lines in the top and bake for 50–60 minutes.
• To test if the loaf is baked through, take the loaf out of the tin and tap on the bottom to see if it sounds hollow. Leave to cool inside the tin with a clean tea towel over the top (this helps to soften the crust a little).

Notes

TIP
Try adding nuts and seeds, or experiment with other veg: grated beetroot will turn your loaf pink!

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts

Sticky-hands vegetable soda bread

Amount per Serving

Calories

383

% Daily Value*

Fat

 

7

g

11

%

Saturated Fat

 

3

g

19

%

Trans Fat

 

0.01

g

Polyunsaturated Fat

 

1

g

Monounsaturated Fat

 

1

g

Cholesterol

 

52

mg

17

%

Sodium

 

407

mg

18

%

Potassium

 

542

mg

15

%

Carbohydrates

 

70

g

23

%

Fiber

 

10

g

42

%

Sugar

 

6

g

7

%

Protein

 

16

g

32

%

Vitamin A

 

2348

IU

47

%

Vitamin C

 

3

mg

4

%

Calcium

 

159

mg

16

%

Iron

 

3

mg

17

%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Keyword carrot, courgette, soda bread

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More recipes using carrots and courgettes

If you’d like more family recipes using carrots and courgettes, try my carrot & parsnip kugel, or creamy courgette puff pastry tart. And for more family-friendly savoury breads, how about quick and easy soda bread with yogurt, easy vegan soda bread, loaded cheesy breakfast focaccia, or quick and tasty malawach – Yemenite fried flatbread.

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