Recipes for the whole family - The Flavour Led Weaning Cookbook

Our weaning journey has been a pretty great one.
I never realised how much fun meal times could be.Yes I love food and love to experiment with new foods and dishes, but nothing quite compares to seeing your little try and love new foods.

However, sometimes it can be really difficult to make a meal that suits everyone at the table and that can be made relatively quickly and easily.
That's where the Flavour Led Weaning book* comes in handy. It's a healthy guide to introducing your little one to different flavours and textures.




Now this is predominantly aimed at traditional weanings i.e. anyone who starts with purees and then moves up in textures and finally solid foods. If you've read this blog before, you'll know we went down the baby led weaning group, however this books is still great for us BLWers! The purees can be added to yoghurts or frozen into fruitsicles, and mushy textures can be used a dips or sides for a main finger/solid food.

But what is the highlight of the book for me, is towards the end and the 12 month+ category containing 'big table meals'; recipes for the whole family to enjoy.

Today I'm sharing our favourite of the dishes - Chicken Kofta Curry:

Ingredients:
Koftas
500g lean chicken mince (we used turkey mince but you can use lamb or beef mince if you prefer)
2 tsp minced garlic
1.5 tsp ground garam masala
1 tsp ground cumin
0.5 tsp ground turmeric
4 green chillies (optional)
1 tsp salt

Masala Sauce
50ml olive oil
1 onion - peeled &hopped
2 whole cloves
2 black peppercorns
2 cinnamon sticks
3 whole cardamom pods - split
1 tbsp minced ginger
1 tbsp minced garlic
0.25 tsp ground turmeric
1.5 ground cumin
1.5 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground mild paprika (we used smoked paprika)
1 x 400g tin plum tomatoes
1.5 tsbp plain yoghurt, plus extra to serve
Salt,to taste
Red chilli powder, to taste (optional)

How to:
Place the mince in a bowl, then add the garlic, all of the ground spices and combine well. Remove 100g of the mixture for your little one, roll into 1cm balls and set aside. Add the chillies and salt to the remaining mince and combine well. Roll into larger balls and set aside.

To make the sauce, heat the oil in a large pan, add the onion, cloves, peppercorn, cinnamon sticks and cardamom and saute on a medium heat until the onions brown. Add the ginger, garlic and the remaining spices and saute for a further few seconds before adding the tomatoes and yoghurt. Stir and cook the sauce for a few minutes, then reduce the heat to all and add the kofta balls.
Simmer (covered) for 20-25 minutes, until the koftas are thoroughly cooked, stirring gently halfway through.

Once cooked, remove the small kofta balls along with some of the sauce and set aside. Add salt and red chilli powder (if using) to the remaining sauce in the pan and stir. Garnish with coriander and serve with roti or naan and a little rice if you like.

So there you have it, a meal for the whole family, it's healthy, and you know everything that is in it and it's so simple to make too. Plus it tastes really good. The flavours really mix well together, and the koftas are perfect for little hands.

What's your favourite meal for the whole family?

*book sent for review, all opinions are my own.