Healthy Autumnal Cooking and Nutrition

Over the first half of our Autumn term, the boys have been cooking up a storm in the kitchen.

Our budding chefs have grown in confidence and improved their cooking skills substantially over the past few weeks. They have been learning about different flavours and spices, and how to enhance a dish with different ingredients.

As we move into Autumn, we thought it would be a great time to reflect on how all of the lovely produce in our Kitchen Garden has grown, putting the freshly grown ingredients to good use in our Cooking and Nutrition dishes. Keep reading to find out what each year group has been up to.

Year 4 have been making salmon dishes with organic fish and vegetables from their Kitchen Garden, as well as pesto pasta with their freshly picked basil. They smelt a variety of different spices and herbs used in Asian cuisine, and then helped to make a bed of vegetable ribbons to bake our salmon on. We infused the salmon and vegetables with lemongrass, lime leaves, soy sauce and ginger.

In addition, Year 4 have also started learning about Gut Microbiome. Our boys made a healthy granola whilst learning how to support a healthy gut microbiome through the food they eat. They used a selection of seeds and learnt how to dehydrate berries, which they added to their granola jars to take home.

Year 5 have been experimenting with a variety of dishes this term. They made chicken skewers, whereby they made their own marinade selecting from a host of ingredients, and assembled the skewers themselves, choosing from different vegetables to accompany the chicken, and finally popping them in the oven to cook. The boys also made vegetable tagines and prepared all the ingredients themselves.

Year 6 have been making egg fried rice. This is an excellent dish to teach the boys how to reuse leftover ingredients that can still taste good and be nutritional. They used onions harvested from the Kitchen Garden by the Year 4 Gardening Club to make this dish.

Year 7 have been making red lentil and kale dhal, which they very much enjoyed whipping up. Using their knife skills, they carefully chopped up the kale, which was fresh from the Kitchen Garden. The kale and the onions were freshly picked by the boys and put to good use in this dish.

Year 8 have been working proficiently with their knife skills, following the demonstration and recipes given. They are slowly building a portfolio of recipes that they are able to cook at home, and to take with them into the next chapter of their lives. The boys have been preparing their own balti spice blend to cook a vegetable and brown rice balti curry.

Parent quote – “I’m a happy and keen cook, so the fact my 2 boys are loving their Cooking & Nutrition lessons is just magic. Hunter now helps prep veggies for Sunday roasts, and Orlando is hoovering up his weekly dinner made in lessons, so thank you for inspiring them both. Last week’s curry smelt delicious!! I’m incredibly grateful”

Parent quote – “Zachary has been very inspired by your classes and is desperate to make pesto pasta for all of us for lunch, but is adamant that he follows your recipe. We have been so impressed with his new passion for cooking, he has made us omelettes for lunch and peeled the carrots for us yesterday, along with cracking the eggs for our Yorkshire puddings and picking the rosemary for our roast. It’s certainly something we want to continue to encourage!”

All recipes can be found on seesaw, along with videos of the boys preparing and cooking. Great to see the boys enjoying a nutritious fibre-rich healthy meal.

Take a look at our picture gallery below.