I struggle to get my kids to eat veggies at all, yet alone the recommended daily intake of veggies. Recently my kids and I invented a recipe called potato snakes, which my kids love, especially when they get to roll the potato dough into snakes.
So last night I decided to try something similar in order to get a few other veggies into them. It was successful! So here's my recipe for bread sticks (grissini) and scones with some hidden vegetables in. And the great thing is, you can say things like, "You can only have another bread stick if you eat the veggies on your plate first!"
Basic dough (scone dough).
2 cups self raising flour (you can use gluten free but may need to adjust the quantity)
30g butter (approximately, or 1 heaped tablespoon. I used salt free butter).
Milk (cows milk, almond, coconut or any other type of milk you like)
Cheese, salt, pepper and any other flavourings are optional
extra flour for rolling the dough.
Now for the veggies...
I had some baby spinach, sweet potato and a zucchini. I steamed the spinach and sweet potato, but just grated the zucchini. Make sure you squeeze the excess moisture out of the zucchini. You could really use any vegetable you like. I didn't use any broccoli due to the strong taste (I thought I might be pushing my luck getting my kids to eat it).
Blend the vegetables until you have a puree. I blended each separately so I could make different batches.
Preheat the oven to 225C or about 450F. If making bread sticks, line a baking tray (like one you use for biscuits). If making scones, line a deep oven dish (such as a lasagna or lamington tray) so that they rise up beautifully.
Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the pureed zucchini and mix in. Add in whatever other vegetable(s) you want and just enough milk to make a stiff dough. Do not knead too much, otherwise your breadsticks and scones won't rise nicely. I did one lot with just the zucchini added in, another lot with sweet potato and a third lot with the spinach.
For making scones: Roll dough out to about 2cm thick. Use a scone cutter to cut out shapes and place in lamington tray so scones are touching (a great tip for getting scones to rise up rather than out). Brush with milk and place on top tray in oven (hottest part of oven so they rise quickly before starting to actually cook).
For making bread sticks: Roll dough between hands to make a snake shape. Place on biscuit tray, brush with milk and you can top with things like sesame seeds or poppy seeds if you so desire.
For both, bake for about 10-15 minutes until they have browned on the top and make a hollow sound when you tap them. Place on a cake rack to cool.
My kids ate the bread sticks with dinner last night and had the scones for morning tea today, and then asked for more!