PUPILS at a Romsey school tested their cooking skills last week by whipping up dishes using vegetables from the school garden.

Children from Romsey Abbey C of E Primary School, Church Lane, picked vegetables from the school grounds that would feature in their tacos.

Teaching Assistant, Stephanie Schürfeld, said: "I look after the school’s vegetable allotment with the support of many of the pupils and I often help the children to cook the vegetables which we have grown and this is also a really good way of getting pupils to try new foods – they usually like eating new things when they have done the cooking.

"This week we made tacos; I think the pupils were expecting to have fillings of meat and cheese but I introduced then to the idea of just using vegetables for the filling and to add even more flavour we chose spices that were new to the children too.

"I like to introduce new ingredients to expand the pupils knowledge of different flavours and this week the pupils decided pick some kale, from the school’s winter allotment, to add to the taco filling.

"The children learnt how to make tacos from the basic ingredients starting with wholemeal wheat bread flour.”

She added: "The children were delighted to see the tacos puff up as they cooked and they agreed that next time they would be adventurous and choose different ingredient – we decided that the new ingredient may be lentils.

"Once cooked and filled, the pupils were very keen to offer their dishes to the adults to sample as well as trying the tacos themselves.

"They were very proud of their finished dish and really enjoyed the praise from the adults about how tasty they were. In future we may even start taking orders.”

Headteacher, Julie-Anne Palfrey, said: "I am delighted with the high standard that the children reach. We aim to ensure our curriculum fully meets the needs of all children.

"Pupils benefit from the additional enrichment activities on offer to ensure they learn skills and gain knowledge in areas in which they have a particular interest and may choose to specialise in when they are older.

"All children can work in the garden growing fruit and vegetables during their break and lunchtime; the produce is then used during cookery at different times of the year."

The pupils cooked their tacos on Wednesday, January 15.