Home-grown carrot and runner bean towers with mint yogurt dip (cooking with kids)

You can stack them up, you can knock them down, and you can eat them! These carrot and runner bean towers are great fun for kids to get involved with making, and they’re a fantastically healthy and delicious snack to see them through to tea time.

If you’re looking for ways to get your children involved and enthusiastic about healthy eating, read on!

Getting passionate about ingredients with innocent’s Sow & Grow

I’m always on the look out for anything that helps my kids to eat a healthy, balanced diet. Core to this is trying to get JD and Jay enthusiastic about an array of healthy dishes, while using new ingredients in fun and creative ways.

As they have grown up, my children have gradually become increasingly hands-on when it comes to preparing meals, which has been a really lovely journey.

But one thing I think we could all spend more time doing with our children is really helping them to understand how the raw ingredients they cook with end up in the supermarket, in the pot, and ultimately onto their plate. For young ones, the question of how food gets produced, and where it comes from, can be somewhat of a mystery.

This is why I’m so excited about the launch of Sow & Grow, a campaign from innocent and GIY , which aims to get kids growing their own food right from seed at school, which in turn helps to engage and educate them when it comes to healthy eating.

I think Sow & Grow is a truly fantastic initiative. While modern convenience has certainly made access to a huge variety of foods easier, it also has made many of us more detached from how it gets into our cupboards.

According to a study carried out by innocent, more parents knew where their vegetables came from as kids when compared with today’s children, and 84% of parents believe children would be more open to eating fruit and veg if they knew where their food came from. On top of that, learning about nature and growing food at home or in the classroom were two of the top suggestions that parents made for ways to help kids learn about healthy eating.

So to aid in getting kids more knowledgeable about their food, and inspire them to take a real interest in what they’re eating, innocent is offering Sow & Grow kits to a quarter of UK primary schools across the UK, each of which contains enough material for a class of 32 kids to grown their own runner beans, cress and carrots from seed. The kit includes 32 growing cups, seeds, compost and a teacher’s resource booklet with growing tips, lesson plans and advice as well as a badge and stickers.

As part of the campaign, parents can also get involved directly by entering competitions as detailed on various innocent products, where they’ll be in with a chance to win thousands of packets of seeds to grow at home.

Having potted up the first seeds with my children, it’s clear that the selection has been carefully thought out. The cress, runner beans and carrots are not just tasty, but make an interesting mix of different sizes and colours. They’re also all fast growing plants, which means kids can start to see the results of their labour in just a few days, and stay engaged throughout the growth cycle.

Now, let’s get making this super fun carrot and runner bean stack, complete with yummy, creamy dip.

Carrot and runner bean towers with mint yogurt dip

What better way to enjoy the fruits (or in this case vegetables) of their labour than this ultra fun carrot and runner bean tower with healthy yogurt dip?

With this recipe, growing the food, preparing the meal and building the tower up is almost as much fun as munching it away!

One quick but vital tip to mention before we get started that while carrots are absolutely fine to eat raw, runner beans may contain toxins prior to being boiled and should never be eaten uncooked.

Ingredients

• 3 carrots
• 4 runner beans
• 250g (8.81oz) Greek yoghurt
• 1/2 clove of garlic
• A pinch of fresh mint leaves

Instructions

Prepare the veg

Place the runner beans in a colander and wash thoroughly with water. Do the same for the carrots. This is a fun, easy job for little hands.

Peel the carrots, making sure to use a child-friendly peeler, and helping children to get used to peeling away from their other hand and not towards.

Cut the peeled carrots in half to give two 7cm lengths. From here, a grownup can take over to slice them into 1cm batons with a knife, or you can use a child-safe potato chipper which I love because it only costs a few points and allows the children to take charge as they press down and watch the batons pop out the end.

Run the peeler down the length of both sides of the runner beans and snap off the very tops and bottoms, then snap roughly into 7cm lengths.

You can use a ‘guide’ piece of carrot to help get all of the pieces roughly equal. This is a good chance to about the snapping noise the beans make as you break them up. What do they smell like? Can you see the little beans inside?

If you notice any stringy bits remain after peeling you can remove them by pulling on them.

Fill a pan with cold water, add the runner beans and bring to the boil. A grown up will need to deal with this part as it will get hot, but children can be in charge of timing the 3-5 minutes needed to cook the beans until slightly soft. Drain the beans, run under cold water and leave to dry.

Make the dip

While the beans are drying, peel and grate the cucumber. You can use a standard grater, just be cautious of catching little knuckles. We love to use a child-friendly rotary grating tool as again, it puts the kids in charge.

After grating, squeeze any excess water out of the cucumber over the sink with your hands – do your hands smell different now?

Finely chop the mint and garlic (a job for a grown up, or use a garlic mincer), then add it to a bowl along with the yogurt and grated cucumber.

Mix together and then place into serving bowls.

Assemble your tower

Begin to assemble the tower, with two pieces per layer, alternating between green beans and carrots.

Keep going until you’re six layers high.

Enjoy! Or see how high you can stack your tower before gravity wins!

Look out for two more Sow & Grow recipes on the blog for even more uses for the produce you can grow with the kit. Here they are: home grown carrot and mango curry and home grown carrot soda bread egg and cress sandwiches. Are you tempted to try making these at home?

And don’t forget to remind your children’s school to apply for their own Sow & Grow kit!

If you’d like to print this carrot and runner bean towers recipe, just click ‘PRINT’ on the recipe card belo

Carrot and runner bean towers with mint yogurt dip

Course: dips and condiments, sides, Starters

Keyword: kid friendly, snacks

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Servings: 2

Author: Emily Leary

A kid-friendly recipe with stacked carrot and runner bean towers, and mint yogurt dip, that's almost as much fun to create as it is to eat.

Print Recipe

Metric - Ounces

Ingredients

• 3 carrots
• 4 runner beans
• 250 g Greek yoghurt
• 1/2 clove of garlic
• A pinch of fresh mint leaves

Instructions

Prepare the veg:

• Place the runner beans in a colander and wash thoroughly with water. Do the same for the carrots. This is a fun, easy job for little hands.
• Peel the carrots, making sure to use a child-friendly peeler, and helping children to get used to peeling away from their other hand and not towards.
• Cut the peeled carrots in half to give two 7cm lengths. From here, a grownup can take over to slice them into 1cm batons with a knife, or you can use a child-safe potato chipper which I love because it only costs a few points and allows the children to take charge as they press down and watch the batons pop out the end.
• Run the peeler down the length of both sides of the runner beans and snap off the very tops and bottoms, then snap roughly into 7cm lengths.
• You can use a 'guide' piece of carrot to help get all of the pieces roughly equal. This is a good chance to about the snapping noise the beans make as you break them up. What do they smell like? Can you see the little beans inside?
• If you notice any stringy bits remain after peeling you can remove them by pulling on them.
• Fill a pan with cold water, add the runner beans and bring to the boil. A grown up will need to deal with this part as it will get hot, but children can be in charge of timing the 3-5 minutes needed to cook the beans until slightly soft. Drain the beans, run under cold water and leave to dry.

Make the dip:

• While the beans are drying, peel and grate the cucumber. You can use a standard grater, just be cautious of catching little knuckles. We love to use a child-friendly rotary grating tool as again, it puts the kids in charge.
• After grating, squeeze any excess water out of the cucumber over the sink with your hands - do your hands smell different now?
• Finely chop the mint and garlic (a job for a grown up, or use a garlic mincer), then add it to a bowl along with the yogurt and grated cucumber.
• Mix together and then place into serving bowls.

Assemble your tower:

• Begin to assemble the tower, with two pieces per layer, alternating between green beans and carrots.
• Keep going until you're six layers high.
• Enjoy! Or see how high you can stack your tower before gravity wins!

Tried this recipe?Share your pics on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter and tag @amummytoo or use the hashtag #amummytoomakes. I can't wait see your creations!

Let me know if you try a tower of your own, and how high your tower got!

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Find out what we learned from taking part in innocent’s Sow & Grow initiative.

This is a commissioned post for innocent.