10 Tips for Cooking with Kids

One of the best ways to get kids excited about eating a variety of delicious foods is to involve them in the process. Here are 10 tips for cooking with kids.

1. Invite them in. Kids are naturally curious about all of the sounds, smells, and processes happening in the kitchen, so make your kitchen a place where they are welcome to join you and be involved.

2. Pass along jobs. Give kids age-appropriate tasks, like cutting soft fruit, working with herbs, measuring, stirring, and setting the table. 

3. Use your sense of smell whenever possible. Stop along the way and have kids smell all of the ingredients, especially spices and ingredients like vanilla. 

4. Hire an herb chef. Pass along your herbs to your child, showing them how to take all the leaves off the stems. After all of the leaves are off, have them use small clean scissors to cut herbs into small pieces. If the leaves are big like basil or mint, kids can stack a pile of leaves and roll them up into a long tube and cut small strips, making ribbons.

5. Involve a flatbread/tortilla maker. Making dough is such a great task for kids. Help them make a simple dough and show them how to separate the dough into ping-pong size pieces and roll them out with a rolling pin. 

6. Enlist a taste tester.  Using a clean spoon, have your child taste a dish and determine whether it could use more salt (salt, soy sauce, parmesan) or acid (vinegar, lemon juice). Have them retaste after adding ingredients and keep adjusting until it tastes great.

7. Include plating. Kids love making food look beautiful, so show them garnishing options to put on top of food like herbs, nuts and citrus zest.

8. Skewers. Kids love to put anything on a stick, whether it be fruit, veggies, or even cutting up elements of a sandwich and putting them on a stick. 

9. Make dips. Kids love experimenting with tastes and flavors, so give them the simple task of making a dip to accompany whatever you are having. Their base could be mayo, plain yogurt or sour cream. They can go in a sweet direction for fruit (plain yogurt + honey + cinnamon + lemon zest) or savory for a veggie dip (sour cream + parsley + dill + salt + garlic).

10. Create food memories. All of the tasks above include time and joy together in the kitchen. Food isn’t just about the end result, but also the process of making and sharing together.