Jollof Rice
Jollof rice is tasty, colourful and easy to adapt and add to – perfect for a family weeknight dinner, and simple to change and tweak in small ways to improve and add more veg over time. We’ve gathered some expert tips and small, simple steps for you to take your favourite jollof recipe from good to great!
Why is jollof rice so great?
Jollof rice is simple, cheap and delicious, and kids tend to enjoy its flavours and fun colour, making it a great recipe to slowly tweak to add a little veg and make a little better over time.
With a basic jollof rice recipe, you can start simply and add some little bits of veg to make more of a “rainbow rice” dish that builds up the veg portions and introduce children gently to new ones.
With a fun bright colour, jollof rice is visually appealing to kids, which can make it more likely they will eat it! And with veg already present (blended peppers, tomatoes and onions give it its colour), it doesn’t take much effort to get a couple of portions of veg out of this dinner.
Use the basic recipe, small tweaks and tips below to take your jollof rice from good to better!
How are your jollof rice skills?
Getting
started
I’m just starting out.
Next
Level
I’m ready to take it to the next level.
Engaging
Kids
How can I get my kids involved and interested?
Getting Started
Jollof rice is simple, cheap and delicious, and kids tend to enjoy its flavours and fun colour, making it a great recipe to slowly tweak to add a little veg and make a little better over time.
Here is a simple recipe for jollof rice which you can use as a base and build on over time…
Jollof Rice
Claire Wright
Ingredients:
Rice (1 mug is enough for 4 people)
Chopped tomatoes (1 tin for 4) or tomato sauce (1 jar for 4)
Optional red pepper and onion, blended with the chopped tomatoes until smooth or thinly sliced/chopped
Optional chilli
Method:
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Traditionally, the jollof sauce is made from blending tomatoes, peppers, chilli and onions. If you don’t have a blender but want to include all those ingredients, try frying finely sliced/diced onions and peppers in a little oil in the bottom of a large saucepan over medium heat until softened, stirring regularly (about 5-10 mins), then stirring in the chopped tomatoes or sauce. If you’ve blended the veg and chilli into a smooth sauce, pour this into the saucepan and bring to a simmer, then cook on a low heat for 5 mins.
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Add the rice to the pan with the blended or softened veg and add water or stock (usually 1 mug rice + 2 mugs water makes perfect rice for 4, but since there is a fair amount of liquid in the tomato sauce, add only equal amounts of water and rice – so 1 mug rice and 1 mug water for 4).
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Bring to the boil, then simmer for as long is it takes to cook the rice (check packet instructions), checking regularly and adding a little more water if it’s going dry and the rice isn’t fully cooked yet.
There is no need to go any further with this recipe until you are confident with it and feel up for the next step.
Feeling ready? Let’s see how you can get your next small victory without battles…
Engaging Kids
Kids who engage regularly with veg through veg-themed activities, such as arts and crafts, sensory experiences, growing and cooking are shown to be more likely to eat the veg they engage with. Encouraging kids to engage and play with veg is the handy first step to them developing a good relationship with veg and life-long healthy eating.
Kids in the kitchen
You could get the kids to help with browning the mince, or getting the rice ready.
Activities
While getting kids to interact with veggies for real and using their senses to explore them is best, encouraging hands off activities like arts & crafts, puzzles & games or at-home science experiments can be a great start, particularly for those who are fussier eaters or struggle with anything too sensory. Use these veg-themed activities as a stepping stone to interacting with the veg themselves. We have loads of crafty downloads here, puzzles here, and quirky science with veg here.
Sensory
Once you feel your child is ready to engage a little more, you can show them how to explore the veg you have on hand with their senses, coming up with playful silly descriptions of how a veg smells, feels, looks, sounds and perhaps even tastes. Find ideas, videos and some simple sensory education session ideas to get you started here.
Serving
The moments before food is offered can be a perfect opportunity for engagement that can help make it more likely a child will eat it! Giving children a sense of ownership in the meal can make a big difference to their feelings going into it and the pride they take in it. You know your child best, but if you aren’t sure where to start, we have some fun and simple ideas for easy roles you can give them in the serving process over here.
NEXT LEVEL
I Want To Improve My Jollof Rice
If you are feeling confident with your favourite jollof rice recipe, but you’re wondering if there are some small tweaks you could make for the better, this is for you.
We’ve outlined some simple stages for continually improving on a basic jollof rice to get you from good to great. Find where you feel your current recipe sits and see if the next step is something you could aim for. You don’t have to go any further, but if you choose to, make sure you are feeling confident with this new stage before you try the next one.
And remember, the MOST important thing is that the family enjoys the meal! These changes and swaps can take as long as is needed if your family isn’t ready for big changes all in one go. Small simple improvements over time may not even be noticed.
Better Sauce
Read the labels on jars of sauce and make changes as slowly as needed for your family, gently moving them towards lower sugar, salt and fat options and ingredients you recognise.
If and when you feel ready, you could start making your own sauce. A traditional jollof will blend together tomatoes, peppers, chilli and onions – and simple enough recipes aren’t hard to find online, but if you aren’t ready for that or don’t have a blender, just swapping a jar of tomato sauce for chopped tomatoes is both cheaper and healthier. To add more flavour, add a little salt & pepper, and perhaps some fresh chilli or chilli powder if you like some heat.
If you have a little time to make and store a big batch of homemade sauce for a few meals, why not try our rainbow veg sauce? Rainbow veg sauce is perfect for when you’re busy, as it’s a super quick way to get an excellent mix of veg into your kids and helps to produce tasty meals in a flash!
Add veg
Adding veg means adding bulk, vitamins and fibre, so you can fill up hungry bellies while making a favourite meal cheaper, more filling and healthier! For the best chance of success, start small (with a veg you know the family like if possible), add a little more each time, don’t try to hide it, and build up over time.
Aim for 2 handfuls of veg per person in the long-run, but it’s better to go slowly and get there eventually than to rush to the finish line and find no one is ready to get there with you.
- Start with frozen veg – there is less waste, it’s cheaper and easier to add a little more each time. Try sliced peppers, diced onions, peas, sweetcorn, mixed veg, mushrooms, carrots, broccoli, or spinach.
- If using fresh veg, make sure it is added at the start and allow time for it to soften in a little oil before adding the protein, and sauce. Try blending peppers and onions with the tomatoes or finely slicing/dicing peppers and onions, or finely diced fresh carrots, celery, mushrooms, or okra.
- Most veg will work here, but classic choices are peppers, onions and tomatoes, and adding peas or sweetcorn or carrots adds sweetness and extra colours.
Don’t forget that the MOST important thing is that the family enjoys the meal! There’s no rush, and no pressure in not getting to 2 portions per serve.
Batch cooking
Once you are happy with your recipe, why not batch cook and freeze extra to save you future time, effort and money? Jollof rice batches really well, just batch and freeze in freezer bags for up to 3 months and heat through to piping hot, or keep in the fridge for 1-2 days.
Not sure if batch cooking is for you? People often think batch cooking means you have to have a big freezer and a slow cooker. But while those things can be helpful, they’re definitely not essential. Find out more about how to start small with batch cooking in our guide.
engaging kids
Play is essential!
Think of children helping in the kitchen as a role play game with plenty of fun for maximum effect. One of the best ways to develop a love of veg in kids is to get them involved in the prep of the veg. Not only is cooking an essential life skill for kids to learn, but it’s a great, fun way to get them engaging with healthy foods!
Cooking with kids
One of the best ways to develop a love of veg in kids is to get them involved in the prep of the veg. Not only is cooking an essential life skill for kids to learn, but it’s a great, fun way to get them engaging with healthy foods! They don’t have to be involved in the whole process especially when they are very young (let’s keep the mess to a minimum!), just give them 1-2 smaller jobs they can own with some supervision.
If you are making jollof rice, why not get younger kids blending the sauce or stirring the chopped veg with your help, measuring out the rice and water in a mug, and chucking a couple of handfuls of your chosen veg into the pan.
Older kids might be ready to learn how to chop some fresh veg to add at the start of the meal, stir everything together in the pan, and serve the hot rice into bowls!
See if they can tick off our Kitchen Ninja skills over time as you all get used to the recipe.
Arts & crafts
While getting kids to interact with veggies for real and using their senses to explore them is best, encouraging veg-based arts & crafts can be a great start, particularly for those who are fussier eaters or struggle with anything too sensory.
Use these arts & crafts as a stepping stone to interacting with the veg themselves. While you make your jollof, why not set them up with a pepper crown?
Games & puzzles
Like arts & crafts, games & puzzles are a very safe way to get veggies to become more familiar and takes any pressure off eating or engaging their senses around veg for now.
A great place to start with jollof might be our Take It To The Board peppers game!
Sensory
Sensory engagement with veg is possibly the best way to get children to slowly become more familiar with a veg. Take away the pressure to taste for now (and remember that ‘tasting’ could be expanded to include sniffing, licking and smelling) and instead encourage exploring a veg with a sense of smell, hearing, touch or sight.
Why not start with a whole pepper and get them to describe what they see – does it remind them of anything? Maybe it looks like an upside down tiny umbrella, or like a flower when viewed from its base. Perhaps it’s a giant’s tooth or a top-heavy mushroom. See if they want to chuck some into the jollof after having engaged with them.
Serving
If your kids aren’t ready to be in the kitchen helping with part of the prep or cooking process, why not give them a job around the serving that could help them feel involved in the meal?
A crafty kid may like to design a beautiful menu, one who likes to help can lay the table. One may like to help you plate up the food, another may love to give the meal a theme! If you can (and we know it’s not always possible), try to eat with the kids, as they are much more likely to eat healthier food if they see it being eaten (and enjoyed!) by their families.
Why not let your child lay the table the way they want to – perhaps they want to create a centrepiece, serve the food in bowls instead of on plates, make a placecard for each person with their name on it. Make sure to praise them for their choices and see if once the table is ready they may want to help you serve up the food and sneak a little taste with you before it gets there!
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