Cooking with Toddlers: Baked Carrot Top and Spout Egg Rolls

” I need plan B”. That’s what my 27 month old said to me upon tasting ( and hating) the Carrot Top and Sprout Egg Rolls we made together.

Firstly; You’re two and we don’t own a TV. How do you even know what a plan B is?

Secondly: There is no plan B because mama doesn’t do plan  B’s for dinner. We only have plan  A and plan  A is Carrot Top and Sprout Egg Rolls.

After desperately trying to coax my little one into eating the egg rolls I eventually did give in and fashioned together another little plate of odds and ends for him. I’m pretty much against Plan B’s when it comes to meals but both my husband and I agreed that the carrot tops and sprouts were a little much for a two year old’s palate. (Bonus: my husband and I didn’t have to share these delicious eggrolls and ate the entire batch of 15 ( yes, you read that right) between the two of us.)

And while Fig happily devoured his Plan B meal I certainly wasn’t concerned about his vegetable intake. Only 30 minutes before I saw him shovel in his veggies while he was helping me. That’s one of the added bonuses of cooking with little ones. Even if they don’t eat the actual meal, chances are they’ll do a healthy amount of sampling during the process.

Fig certainly wasn’t a fan of the finished product; but loved the helping me “make” them. Of course after witnessing him strange the life out of the egg roll wraps (see photographic evidence below) I decided it was best if I set him up with his own station. He was content to sample his veggie tray and mangle his egg roll wrappers, even deciding that the best methodology was to cleaver them with his toy meat cleaver.

Ingredients: 

• 1/2 a cup of julienned carrots
• 1/2 a cup of carrot tops, diced
• 1/2 a cup of sunflower sprouts
• 1/2 teaspoon of grated ginger
• 1/2 a cup of pea sprouts
• 2 teaspoons of tamari
• 1/2 teaspoon of toasted sesame seed oil
• Salt to taste
• Egg roll wrappers

Directions:

• Simply saute the veggies on low with the tamari, salt and sesame oil until they are vibrant and tender
• Lay out the egg roll wrapper so one of the corners is facing you. Place several spoonfuls ( or more depending on desired thickness) onto a wrapper and wrap up corners  Fold left and right corners toward the center and continue to roll. Seal with a bit of water.
• Every egg roll wrapper brand might have slightly different directions for baking. I brushed ours with sesame oil and baked them at 425 degrees for about 10 minutes until they were brown and then laid them out to drain the remaining oil on a paper towel before serving.

Notes:

• I think frying the egg rolls would give them a slightly more authentic taste but for reasons having to do with health we chose to bake ours. I think it compromised the texture and taste of the egg roll wrapper. The inside however was delicious!