There was a great post in the forums by Logan5, who is responsible for a kids’ cooking class at her child’s school. I encourage you to read the forum thread—the lengths that Logan5 went to to ensure that each child had a mini-apple pie to take home shows the amazing dedication of parents!
I have been giving kids’ cooking classes for the past ten years, so I have had lots of hits and misses when it comes to recipes and lots of challenging environments to teach in—including classrooms with no power or water, and a couple times outside!
One of my most challenging cooking classes was a series of classes I volunteered to do at an evening program for children who were recent immigrants from Somalia. I taught the class in a small school gym, so I had to bring a folding table in and run an extension cord from the gym teacher’s office to have power. I had to bring things like gallons of water and hand sanitizer, since we were not particularly close by to any water source. On top of all this, I was a volunteer with no budget at all. The old adage that necessity is the mother of invention is what pushed me to think outside of the box and come up with recipes that could be made quickly, individually and inexpensively.
I realized that the kids had the most fun when I introduced them to something that was new but fun (many of the kids were only very recently arrived from Somalia, and were reluctant to taste new things). I know for sure that kids love gadgets, and that gadgets can make cooking much, much easier and provide a teachable moment where children can learn new vocabulary.
One of the biggest (and least expected) hits was a recipe for hummus. The kids just loved it, and the ingredients were cheap. We also made olive tapenade, which they looked at skeptically, but gobbled up, to my surprise. Both of these are easily made in a food processor, and showing the parts of the food processor and how it works is fascinating to the kids. They like to press the button and watch the food whirl in the bowl. Another favorite of mine to whip up with kids is fresh salsa.
I took a pic of our salsa...we had lots of additional ingredients beyond tomato, onions and peppers like peaches, corn, beans and all kinds of heirloom tomatoes. The kids were able to try out samples of their own creation.
Got a go-to recipe for cooking with kids?