Serves 2-4

My three-year-old twins Jack and Holly are already skilled at using a swivel peeler. Tana gets them to peel their own carrots and potatoes for lunch and naturally they can’t resist eating what they’ve had a hand in preparing. Older children will enjoy experimenting with cutting salad vegetables into pretty shapes and leaving them to curl or open up in a bowl of cold water overnight. Next day they can make their own salad plates with slices of salami, ham, sticks of cheese or hard-boiled eggs. The apple juice dressing is light and fruity.

A small pack of radishes
1 bunch spring onions
1-2 medium size carrots
1 yellow or red pepper
Ice cubes and wooden cocktail sticks
About 125g farmhouse cheddar or gruyère
Slices of salami or lean ham or hard-boiled and peeled eggs
Apple juice dressing
2 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp apple juice
1 tbsp white wine or rice wine vinegar
½ tsp sea salt
½ tsp mild mustard

1 There’s a lot of knife work in this recipe, so it’s one for older children and it’s essential that an adult is in charge. Choose a small sharp knife - safer than a blunt one - and have a smooth flat chopping board. Trim the bases of the radishes and cut from the tip almost down to the base three times in a star shape. Place in a large plastic food box half-filled with cold water.
2 Trim the onions of roots then most of the dark green tops. You should have trimmed onions about 10cm long. Using the tip of a sharp knife slash the greener half of each onion about five times to make brush shapes. Add to the food box.
3 Using a swivel peeler, peel the carrot thinly and trim both ends. Place on a board and, using the peeler, shave off long thin strips about 2mm thick. You should have about eight per carrot. If you want more then repeat with another carrot.
4 Curl each carrot strip into a round and skewer on a cocktail stick. You can get two to three per stick, then add to the food box. Add two or three handfuls of ice cubes to the box, cover and chill for at least four hours or even overnight. The vegetables will open up or set in wonderful stars, curls or palm-tree shapes. Carefully pull the carrot rounds off the sticks. If the radishes or onions haven’t quite opened up, then give them another slash or two.
5 Halve the pepper and pull out the seeds. Pull off the stalk and cut the flesh into thin strips. Cut the cheese into sticks. Make small rolls of salami and ham, cutting in half if necessary. Eggs can be quartered or - if you have an egg slicer - cut into thin rounds.
6 Let the children make up their own salad plates. Now make the dressing. Measure everything into a screw-topped jam jar and shake well to mix. Drizzle over the plates just before serving.

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