The Art of Cooking with Kids: A Family Affair
When it comes to cooking at home, many parents opt for making "kid food" versions that cater to their children's tastes and preferences. However, this approach can lead to a recipe rut and a lack of culinary creativity. In our household, we take a different approach. We make the food first, and then enjoy watching our kids' reactions when they're presented with a meal that's not just plain old macaroni and cheese.
As a chef, I believe that getting your mise en place together is crucial to cooking for your kids at home. It's essential to have all the ingredients and tools ready to go before starting to cook. This not only saves time but also ensures that everyone involved in meal prep is on the same page. Getting the kids involved in the process is key, whether it's pulling vegetables out of the ground, grating cheese, dressing salads, or simply helping with simple tasks like chopping veggies.
Our main focus for lunch today was using the beautiful produce available at Coleman Farms just outside of LA. We're lucky to have access to an abundance of fresh ingredients, which inspires us to create meals that showcase their natural flavors and textures. Our star dish is a simple wild salmon, cooked either by grilling or pan-searing – we chose the latter today. The key to achieving a perfect sear is having one big cast iron pan at home that can get hot enough to make a real difference.
Once the salmon is cooked, we add marinated beets with just a hint of shallot, red wine vinegar, balsamic, and lemon juice for added depth and brightness. A simple wedge salad with arugula and a drizzle of garlic dill yogurt sauce provides a refreshing contrast to the rich flavors of the salmon. The pasta is bucatini, cooked al dente in that same cast iron pan, and we add aromatics like rosemary, chili thyme, and a few currants for added texture and flavor.
As I mentioned earlier, our kids love getting involved in meal prep, even if it's just for a short time. They're fascinated by the process of cooking and are always eager to try new ingredients and flavors. Our six-year-old daughter has mastered the art of balancing seasoning, and her salad is now a staple on our menu.
The best part about cooking with kids is watching them interact with each other while they work together in the kitchen. They're not glued to their screens; instead, they're engaged in a fun and collaborative experience that fosters creativity and teamwork. My youngest son, Charlie, loves putting more pine nuts on top of the salad, while my daughter enjoys making radishes for our dish – she's developed quite the taste for them!
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhen we're making dinner at home we don't make like the kids version in our version we just make the food and then you just look at them like they're crazy if they don't eat it i think the more you kind of cater to that like kid food thing you're digging your own grave later i'm suzanne goin and i'm cooking lunch with and for my family here at coleman farms just outside of la the good thing is as a chef getting your mise en place together is really important and i think that's actually one of the key things for cooking for your kids at home getting the kids involved is key whether it's pulling the thing out the ground out of the ground or grating the cheese or dressing the salad or even just helping like chuck peas or whatever as if they're involved they're definitely way more interested brianna somebody can do the cucumbers somebody can put somebody can put more pine nuts on top you're gonna do radish so obviously the main focus of coming up and cooking lunch here today was using the beautiful produce that's here at coleman farm the salmon dish is really simple it's just a wild salmon that you can either grill or we just we didn't have a grill so we just did it in a pan i think that having that one big cast iron pan at home for me saves the day every time you can get it really hot so just the seared salmon and then the marinated beets just with a little shallot our red wine vinegar balsamic and lemon juice and just doing some wedges and some few leaves of arugula and then just did a little sauce with pounded garlic dill and yogurt the pasta is a bucatini and we're going to start out with again in that cast iron pan good amount of olive oil a little rosemary chili thyme so again get a lot of aromatics in that oil because the sauce really is just olive oil and the juices from the greens so get that all really simmering caramelized uh currants and pine nuts just for like a little sort of sicilian twist and thickness too that kids the kids like we're finished with a little ricotta salad and bread crumbs and then the salad really is a it's not really a recipe salad it's really just the idea of whatever you have whatever you're finding whatever you love i mean i make it more radish because i love the radishes and then it's just lemon juice olive oil and salt when you master that balance of of the seasoning which my six-year-old daughter has done it's just the best side you can eat today was really fun at the end because i had not only my own three kids jack alex and charlie but i had the coleman kids oh jack don't do it on that plate cause i need that plate for um salmon if you gotta just sort of like breathe through those moments and love the fact that they're fighting over who gets to put the pine nuts and who gets to grate the cheese as opposed to being you know glued to a tv somewhere to me it's just more like it's awesome that they're all in it and just kind of like let them do their thingwhen we're making dinner at home we don't make like the kids version in our version we just make the food and then you just look at them like they're crazy if they don't eat it i think the more you kind of cater to that like kid food thing you're digging your own grave later i'm suzanne goin and i'm cooking lunch with and for my family here at coleman farms just outside of la the good thing is as a chef getting your mise en place together is really important and i think that's actually one of the key things for cooking for your kids at home getting the kids involved is key whether it's pulling the thing out the ground out of the ground or grating the cheese or dressing the salad or even just helping like chuck peas or whatever as if they're involved they're definitely way more interested brianna somebody can do the cucumbers somebody can put somebody can put more pine nuts on top you're gonna do radish so obviously the main focus of coming up and cooking lunch here today was using the beautiful produce that's here at coleman farm the salmon dish is really simple it's just a wild salmon that you can either grill or we just we didn't have a grill so we just did it in a pan i think that having that one big cast iron pan at home for me saves the day every time you can get it really hot so just the seared salmon and then the marinated beets just with a little shallot our red wine vinegar balsamic and lemon juice and just doing some wedges and some few leaves of arugula and then just did a little sauce with pounded garlic dill and yogurt the pasta is a bucatini and we're going to start out with again in that cast iron pan good amount of olive oil a little rosemary chili thyme so again get a lot of aromatics in that oil because the sauce really is just olive oil and the juices from the greens so get that all really simmering caramelized uh currants and pine nuts just for like a little sort of sicilian twist and thickness too that kids the kids like we're finished with a little ricotta salad and bread crumbs and then the salad really is a it's not really a recipe salad it's really just the idea of whatever you have whatever you're finding whatever you love i mean i make it more radish because i love the radishes and then it's just lemon juice olive oil and salt when you master that balance of of the seasoning which my six-year-old daughter has done it's just the best side you can eat today was really fun at the end because i had not only my own three kids jack alex and charlie but i had the coleman kids oh jack don't do it on that plate cause i need that plate for um salmon if you gotta just sort of like breathe through those moments and love the fact that they're fighting over who gets to put the pine nuts and who gets to grate the cheese as opposed to being you know glued to a tv somewhere to me it's just more like it's awesome that they're all in it and just kind of like let them do their thing\n"
