SPINACH MONSTER PANCAKES

This recipe is from Charlotte Stirling-Reed’s book How to feed your toddler.  Charlotte has earned a huge following as SR Nutrition on Instagram. She is a Registered Nutritionist with the Association for Nutrition, an author and mum to little foodies Raffy and Adaline. Having worked with Joe Wicks aka The Body Coach, it’s her mission to give parents confidence in feeding their children.

One of the things we love about Charlotte’s recipes is that she uses clever and simple tweaks to up the nutritional levels – and these pancakes are a perfect example.

Charlotte says, “Raffy named this ’Monster Pancake’ as it’s seriously bright green with red dots all over. This is a fab recipe for getting some veggies in in the morning. This looks amazing with the green spinachy batter – it should hopefully get a bit of a ‘wow’ from your kids! This is another one that’s great as a snack, lunch or even as a party piece. Feel free to use whatever fillings you fancy if you don’t have everything I’ve suggested here: tomatoes and peppers can easily be switched for mushrooms and courgettes, for example.”

Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 8 minutes
Serves: 2 toddlers

INGREDIENTS

For the batter:

• 1 large free-range egg or 1 flaxseed egg
• 100g self-raising flour
• 80ml milk of choice
• A handful of spinach (about 80g), washed
• Olive oil, for cooking

For the topping:

• 6 cherry tomatoes, finely chopped
• 50g red or yellow pepper, deseeded and finely chopped
• 30g Cheddar cheese, coarsely grated or dairy-free alternative (optional)

METHOD

1. Preheat the grill to the highest temperature.

2. Add all the batter ingredients to a blender/high-speed mixer and blend to make a thick green batter. Leave to one side.

3. Heat a little olive oil in a 20cm ovenproof non-stick frying pan over medium heat.

4. Once the pan is hot, pour in all the batter then sprinkle over the topping ingredients. Cook for about 2 minutes, then pop the pan under the grill for 5–6 minutes until the pancake is puffed up and cooked through.

5. Leave to cool a little, then slice into wedges, fingers or squares – whatever you fancy.

Team Tip: To make a flaxseed egg, mix 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed with 3 tablespoons of warm water and leave to one side for 5 minutes to thicken.