Learning All About Quorn at The Kids’ Cookery School #QuornKids

A few weeks ago Ava and I were invited to a kids cookery class in London with Quorn. The kids were going to be making pizzas and burger buns whilst us parents were in another room with a Quorn Home Economist.

We took the train to London by ourselves for the first time (I know I’m lame but I’ve done London very little by myself before this – once in fact!), enjoyed some croissants and covering the train in crumbs, and navigated our way (correctly – thanks Citymapper app!) to Acton where the Kids Cookery School is located.

The Kids Cookery School‘s aim is to give every child in the UK a unique and fun cooking experience in order to help them make informed choices about food and an understanding around health and diet. It’s a brilliant place, with great gadgets to make it suitable for kids, like a sink with a lever to move it up and down, so that all different sized children can reach! It’s all set up to be safe and practical for children so it was the perfect place for the #QuornKids event.

I’ll be honest – I love meat. But around half of our meals are actually now vegetarian. Meat is expensive, and obviously it’s healthier to not eat meat every day. Eating less meat reduces the impact of livestock on the environment, improves our health and wellbeing as well as reducing the burden of diet-related diseases treated by the NHS.

We eat lots of vegetable fajitas, butternut squash risotto, pasta with roasted veg – but I have never actually cooked with Quorn. So I was really interested in finding out more about this meat free product and what the Quorn products are like.

Quorn is made from Mycoprotein; an edible fungi similar to mushrooms which have a low environmental impact. Quorn products are generally lower in fat and calories than their meat equivalents but have high density which means you feel fuller for longer. They are a good source of high quality protein and dietary fibre.

Quorn is a great option for busy parents, as it is quick and easy to use and can be cooked from frozen. This makes it really appealing for me to use to cook with, as it means I can keep the fillets or pieces in the freezer and make a quick and healthy dinner when I haven’t had time to plan anything.

I tried lots of the Quorn products whilst we were there – sausage rolls, chicken pieces in a really lovely dressing, frankfurters, and a couple of dishes the chef whipped up. I’ll be honest – I wasn’t sure I would like them – but I really did! Like I say, I’m a big meat eater, and I usually find meat ‘alternatives’ lacking, but the Quorn products I tried tasted really nice. The sausage rolls the chef made were particularly nice, and I also loved the chicken pieces in the dressing (I will add the recipe to this if I get it). They tasted very similar to actual chicken and would be great to use in a stirfry or in fajitas. I have now bought some Quorn and I’m really looking forward to cooking with it myself.

The Quorn fridge products – the sausage rolls, frankfurters, pork pies, and deli ‘meats’ would be great for kids parties or for a picnic with your children. If you are meat eaters but you would like to cut down on the meat your family consumes, then these products would be great to introduce – high in protein and fibre and low in fat, and I reckon most children (and probably adults!) wouldn’t even know they weren’t eating meat.

Whilst we were learning all about Quorn, and trying some of the great products, our little ones were in the kitchen whipping up some pizzas with Quorn toppings, and baking buns for some Quorn burgers. Ava had so much fun, and was so proud that she had made an entire pizza all by herself. She’s been so interested in helping with cooking recently, that it came at the perfect to take her interest further and perhaps be allowed to do more than mummy would let her do at home!

Ava’s masterpiece!

The chef’s at the Kids Cookery School were brilliant with the kids, and you could tell that they had all had a great time, despite being a little nervous about leaving their Mummy’s at first!

It was a great afternoon, and it was really good to learn more about Quorn and how I can use some of the products to replace some of the meat products in my family’s diet as well as making quicker dinners from scratch sometimes. I’m looking forward to finding meals with Quorn in that we all love. You can read more about the event over on the Quorn blog.

Thanks to Quorn for inviting me and A to the event.

Photo Credits: Preston Perfect Photography