Cooking with toddlers - Frozen pea humous (dairy free, sesame free, vegan, syn free)

Frozen pea houmous is so ridiculously easy to make, and really fresh and tasty and a huge hit with a certain dairy, egg, and soya free toddler I know. 

I don't know about you, but the coverage in the press recently about salt levels in humous were a bit of a shock. Harry, like so many toddlers, loves humous, and the reports stunned me - especially as he loves to 'dip dip' any extra veggies he might have with his supper in some. Normally I would dismiss reports like this as scaremongering, but toddler's kidneys aren't able to process high levels of salt so, ironically I've been careful with most processed food, just not humous. 

Harry has been 'helping' me in the kitchen for a while, sometimes he just likes to stir things, he loves to roll out pastry and biscuit dough, and helps beautifully with tasting. Other days he likes to watch, be it in his high chair, at my feet, stood on a chair or sat on the worktop. I know it's not the safest way to help, but our floor isn't level so chairs etc wobble.

This is so easy, and a real store cupboard standby dish - I know it's lovely to be able to use fresh ingredients, but all so often I find myself without what I need and these days, being on a strict budget means that it's much more thrifty to use frozen peas. And really, with the exception of M - who doesn't have a bag of frozen peas in their freezer - I'm almost entirely sure it's the law!

You can easily make this with a stick blender instead of a food processor - as it's a small quantity I find the stick blender easier. Or if you like your humous to have a rougher texture, use a large bowl and a potato masher



Frozen pea and mint humous
Dairy free, soya free, Vegan

1 cup of frozen peas
200g of tinned chickpeas (roughly half a tin - if you're egg free, keep the liquid from the tin for egg free meringues or marshmallows!)
3-4 mint leaves - but this is entirely optional
Half a clove of garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons olive oil

Measure out your cup of frozen peas and cover them in boiling water - leave for 3-4 minutes
Pop half a tin of chickpeas into a bowl
Add the mint and garlic to the bowl
Drain and add the peas
With your stick blender, blitz the ingredients until they're a texture you're happy with - we go for fairly smooth
Add the olive oil if you feel you need it - we didn't, the damp peas gave enough wetness to the mixture

This keeps nicely in the fridge for 3-4 days, but seems to vanish much faster in our house!