After school fillers

As children often don't eat their school lunch, it's a good idea to have something nutritious ready for them when they get home, writes DOMINI KEMP

SCHOOL LUNCHES ARE an absolute bore. It seems that for many parents – or maybe it’s just me – you’re either fighting about them or making them, knowing full well no-one’s going to eat them. I wonder what the top 10 school lunches would be, as voted for by kids. I am sure that white bread with anything from ham to Nutella to crisps as fillings would be top of the list. Fruit rarely gets eaten and anything vaguely healthy seems to get chucked in the bin.

The idea that kids will happily munch things like carrot sticks with hummus or home-made brown bread with goat’s cheese, fresh fruit and dried fruit or nuts, plain yoghurts and lots of water is a bit of a parental pipe dream – although I live in hope.

I find that when kids come home is the time that the stretch between lunch and dinner can seem endlessly long. Sugar levels are low and this can be a good time to get something into them that’s instant.

Sometimes a small cup of soup can help here, which is where this mushroom and barley soup comes in. Barley is one of those great grains that was quite possibly the most important grain of ancient civilisation. It stands out among other grains for having low glycaemic index and out of all the whole grains, it seems to have the highest fibre content.

Pearl barley is a more refined or processed version, so try to buy the darker barley which has a better coating of bran and therefore more fibre. But be reassured if you can only get pearl barley that unlike most grains, the fibre in barley is distributed evenly in each grain, and not just on the outside. So although pearl barley is more refined it’s still very good for you. It’s also deeply satisfying and a little goes a long way.

The muffins in the recipe on these pages have plenty of apple, carrot and nuts in them. Yes, there’s sugar and sunflower oil too. But a small muffin will be better than a chocolate bar or bag of crisps at break time, or after school. We went through quite a few recipes to find a decent one that worked well – I’ll be taking my spelt berry recipe to the grave – but these ones are from Ottolenghi: the Cookbook and were very accommodating.

After the photo shoot, I gave muffins to my pals who had come over to eat the leftovers from the day’s food shoot cooking. I was sure that like many kids’ lunches, the muffins would be forgotten about and never consumed, found squashed the next day in their handbags. But the next morning, I received some very grateful texts from all the recipients.

They are a bit bland without the topping, so it’s worth making and don’t be put off by what seems like a lot of ingredients. They’re very quick and easy to make.

Mushroom and barley soup

Serves 4-6

30g dried porcini (approximately)

1 onion, peeled and diced

5 tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper

2 carrots, peeled and diced

500g mushrooms sliced

3 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced

1.75 litres stock

200g barley

1 bay leaf

Few sprigs thyme

Soak the porcini in 100ml hot water for about 10 minutes, until they are soft. Drain and roughly chop them, but keep the liquid. Sweat the onion in a large saucepan in the olive oil until it is soft. Season lightly. Add the soaked mushrooms, carrots, sliced fresh mushrooms and garlic. Mix and then add the stock and strained mushroom liquid. Once it’s coming up to a simmer, add the barley, bay leaf and thyme. Simmer for 45 minutes until the barley is tender.

Season well and serve.

Carrot, apple and pecan muffins

The carrots, once peeled and grated, should yield about 220g and the three to four apples should yield about 200g when peeled and grated.

Makes at least 16 muffins.

Muffins

300g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp ground cinnamon

Pinch salt

4 eggs

160ml sunflower oil

280g caster sugar

2 tsp vanilla essence

3-4 medium carrots, peeled and grated

3-4 apples, peeled and grated

100g pecans, roughly chopped

100g sultanas

50g desiccated coconut

Topping

50g butter

75g plain flour

2 dessertspoons Demerara sugar

50g rolled oats

1 dessertspoon sunflower seeds

2 dessertspoons pumpkin seeds

1 tsp sesame seeds

1 tsp water

1 tsp sunflower oil

Little squeeze honey or agave syrup

First make the topping by mixing the flour and butter in your hands to form breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and lightly rub between your fingers. Then add all the other ingredients, mix well and set aside.

To make the muffins, sieve together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. In another bowl, lightly whisk the eggs, sunflower oil, caster sugar, vanilla essence. When well combined, stir in the apples and carrots, along with the pecan nuts, sultanas and coconut. Then pour the flour mix onto this wet mix and fold it in. Do this very lightly and don’t panic if you have small pockets of flour. The less this is worked the better.

Spoon into muffin cases in a muffin tray, top generously with the topping and bake for about 25 minutes.

These were good once they had cooled down and were lovely the next day.

Domini recommends: Cavolo Nero I picked up some bags of this king of cabbage in Superquinn and was delighted to see it was grown locally in Donabate, nicely packaged under the Donnelly brand. This is great stuff if briefly blanched and then sautéed with a little garlic and olive oil. Nutrient heaven

Food cooked and styled by Domini and Peaches Kemp