Having recently helped out at some launch events for the School Food Trust’s ‘Lets get Cooking’ clubs I was interested to see how children react to food when they’ve prepared it themselves. During these events children aged between 5 – 16 years come together from a variety of schools and backgrounds and get the opportunity to cook. For one of the cooking activities the children make ‘Dips and Dippers’, comprising various freshly made dips with some healthy crudités of carrot, cucumber, celery and pepper to dip in. I did have to laugh to myself when before the activity the children were asked for ideas of what sort of things you could use to dunk in a dip– most of them chanted ‘Doritos’ (except for one boy who in fact said Turkey Dippers!) Not a thought for a carrot – love it!
Anyway, you have to understand that these children are not middle class kids whose parents boast that they can’t wait to get their hands on the organic veg box when it arrives each week. Many of them are specifically chosen to take part in the programme because they and their families think a leek is just something you get the plumber to fix. One little boy that I spoke to had never eaten an apple before and no coaxing from me was going to make him start then! Because of this, I had every idea that these children would not go any where near those gorgeous dips and sliced vegetables but so proud they were of their own creations I watched bowls of it dissapear before my eyes. I learnt an interesting lesson – if you want your children to be enthusiastic about eating their food, then get them to cook it themselves.
In the spirit of the raw veggies above, this next recipe post is for Kids Salad or you might want to call it Rainbow Salad as it’s so colourful. I’ve found that most children’s objection to salad often comes from a dislike of lettuce, so this is lettuce free zone! This is great for the kids at a BBQ (if you can prise it from the adults), or serve with jacket potato for a vegetarian tea. Inspired by my experience with Let’s get Cooking I think with some supervised grating and chopping you can get them to pretty much make this themselves – hopefully they will then be enthused to eat it!
Kids’s Salad – For 4-6
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2 medium carrots
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½ a cucumber
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2 large handfuls of frozen sweetcorn
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1 large handful of grated cheddar
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1 handful of small cherry tomatoes
Cook the sweetcorn and run under cold water to cool. Grate the carrot and cheese and cut the cucumber into ½ cm dice. Slice the tomatoes in half and then mix altogether in a bowl.
Just vary this salad by adding or taking away any ingredients that your children like or dislike – such as adding in diced beetroot, bacon bits, diced ham, cooked chicken etc. A handful of sultanas might also work well. Cover well and this will keep in the fridge for a couple of days.
