Veggie Puff Pastry Cups, and A Game
Oct 19, 2012, Updated Sep 20, 2018
In our home, eating vegetables is important. There are at least two to three servings of vegetables in every meal. Sometimes I even serve vegetables for breakfast – yummy Garbanzo Pancakes with spinach and kale. I typically make recipes that are simple enough for the kids, and with the addition of a topping, sauce, garnish, etc. they are yummy for the adults too.
I believe that fresh is best, especially when it comes to vegetables and fruits. I always use veggies that are in season (as vegetables that are in season taste incredibly yummy!) straight from the Farmers Market or occasionally use frozen veggies. I keep a few cans of veggies in case of a natural disaster but I have never been able to get myself to open a can of veggies. Why bother? Fresh tastes so much better, especially if I want my kids to develop a taste for vegetables.
I fuss about teaching my children about vegetables and their nutritional benefits like I teach my kids how to read or play a game. These are the three ways that I mostly use in our home to get the kids to try new things. Until recently, where I have made up a new game: I will make a dish and come up with a few quick variations on a base and we taste/eat/try and give feedback on what we like better. With simple additions to the base, the recipe becomes appealing to everyone.
With these Puff Pastry Veggie Cups, my 2.5-year-old and I loved the simple cup with the naked veggies. My daughter loved the veggies cups with cheese, while my hubby went for the yogurt veggie dip with Sriracha on top. Viola! One dish, and without too much effort, four happy customers.
Veggie Puff Pastry Cups
Ingredients
- ½ cup diced red onion
- ½ cup diced carrot
- ¾ cups zucchini
- 1 cup mixed bag of frozen mushroom
- 1 tsp. cooking oil
- ½ tsp. salt
- 10 mint leaves finely slivered
- 2 tbsp finely chopped cilantro leaves
- Puff Pastry sheets, Trader Joe’s sell them, I bought mine from my local Indian Store. Check the ingredients to be sure they're unprocessed, or make your own.
Instructions
- Thaw or make home-made Puff pastry Dough.
- Pre-heat oven at 370F.
- Cut the puff pastry sheet into small squares of 2 inches and place them in mini muffin trays. Bake them for 20 minutes till they are flaky and light brown in color.
- Remove from oven and cool the puff pastry cup.
- Heat oil in a skillet on medium heat.
- Add the onions and sauté them for 2 minutes till they become translucent.
- Add frozen mushrooms and sauté for 2 minutes.
- Then add the carrot and zucchini and sauté for 1 minute.
- Add the salt, mint, cilantro for cook for another 30 seconds.
- Turn off the heat.
- Spoon the veggie mixture into the puff pastry cup.
Notes
- Mix Plain Greek Yogurt 1 tbsp yogurt with 1 tbsp veggie mixture and spoon the mixture into the baked puff pastry cup. Fills about 4 mini puff pastry cups.
- After spooning the veggie mixture into a baked cup, add ½ tsp grated Parmesan cheese and bake for 2 minutes till the cheese melts.
Nutrition
Rashmi Nigam is a wife, mother, foodie, and blogger who chronicles her journey towards raising adventurous healthy eaters at YumKid. She draws inspiration for her kid-friendly recipes from her real food upbringing as well as her travels, and she shares her tips to prepare simple, unprocessed meals for her family.
You can also find her on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube.
The veggie puffs look DIVINE and would be an excellent finger-food munchie for entertaining
Just how does frozen puff pastry fit into the Eating Rules mantra? With refined flour and trans fats listed on the ingredient list, plus a shelf life of 1 year, something tells me this is not the best option and is just another processed item in the grocer’s freezer. Let’s get real–with over 20% of the daily value of fat and 35% DV saturated fat, this is a junk food ingredient.
Hi Kym. Rashmi and I actually discussed the puff pastry dough before posting this. The ones she found in had ingredients lists that actually passed the kitchen test. Clearly, the one you found? Not so much. That’s exactly why we put that reminder in the recipe to check the ingredient list, and linked to a recipe that could be easily made with whole what flour.
when I saw puff pastry I figured we’re taking a break from unprocessed – never thought there would be an unprocessed version, SO good to know!
I am learning SO MUCH this month, thank you!!
Those look delicious, Rashmi! I just saw a similar recipe using root vegetables, but I love the idea of making them in muffin tins. Looking forward to trying this one out!