Eating the Rainbow with Jamie Oliver’s VEG…

For the longest time we have been on a quest to eat the rainbow. Jamie Oliver’s book, VEG is the perfect inspiration for that quest. We have honestly tried and enjoyed so many recipes from this book… it is a colourful explosion of freshness. Loads and loads of recipes, absolutely packed with a wild variety of vegetables… taken those boring old veg recipes off the menu and adding a whole riot of new ideas to the menu.

I love that he gets excited about fresh veg and enthusiasm for trying new things certainly does inspire even my most fussiest eaters to try something new.

The crisp and clear instructions for his recipes also means that my kids are keen to try the recipes out themselves… and everyone knows that nobody tries a recipe without tasting it… and so my kids have gotten used to trying all sorts of things that they had never made before…

This book has been a great learning oppertunity for our whole family.

Recipes we Tried and Tested

Sticky Onion Tart:

This recipe is one of those that requires a little more effort than usual, just a smidge more, and yet gets full marks – 100%, for its level of “aesthetically pleasing” and that is before you have even tasted it. This little flipped/over onion tart looks as impressive on a picnic as it does at a family roast dinner. We loved it, rich flavours, instantly impressive and literally made out of onions peeled and halved and a roll of pastry. Could not be easier, really.

Scrumptious Veg Tray Bake

This is the sort of dish that my family could eat slight variations of every single meal of their lives. A heap of vegetables roasted, the secret to rich the flavours are the mushrooms, and then the beans turn it into a hearty meal. We all loved this and I have been making it ever since we first tried it here, for lunches.

Squash Gnocchi

We made these with butternut squash and the question I have to ask is why do hardly ever make gnocchi. I always think they would be too much trouble to make from scratch, but many hands make light work and my kids love it. Other than that, my family enjoyed this so much that they made it again the next day… and again… and now it is a firm favourite on the menu.

Courgette and Feta Scones

Yum, yum, yum… my family thought these were so fantastic that they have become firm favourites on our picnic menu, as well as our Sunday afternoon tea menu… and any other time you need a delicious savoury snack.

Tomato and Spring Veg Frittata

I love making frittata, love them, but my family inhale them so fast that I save them up for lazy weekend brunches. This was absolutlely delicious and we have made it several times, mixing and matching it with ingredients from the garden.

Reverse Puff Pastry Pizza

This was harder to make than we expected, but once we had managed the flip and got our vegi pizza baking away, they turned out to be quite delicious. And just like that reverse puff pastry pizzas have become a lunch time treat.

Really if you are looking for some cook book inspiration and would like to improve your families vegetable skills then leave this cook book lying around… in no time at all they will be asking if they can make this or that. This book has been a great way for my kids to up their all round cooking skills and helped us to eat the rainbow.

These books were given to us for review purposes by Penguin Random House South Africa. (I have bought the audible books myself). This is not a sponsored post and opinions expressed are entirely our own.