top of page

Cooking Activities

Cooking with kids is a great activity to do any time of year, in any size home and kitchen. It can be tailored to children of different ages and can span a whole week or a single weekend afternoon. Here are some ideas on how to make cooking with kids a delicious success.

Carrot
Tomato
Spring Onion
Bean Pod

Herb Guessing Game

A guessing game to test young chefs' culinary knowledge. If you are

doing an entire day - or days - of cooking, this is a fun way to start. Lay

out different types of fresh herbs alongside a stack of labels and see

how many they can correctly identify. If you grow your own herbs in a

garden or window box, have the kids cut and collect them themselves. 

IMG_5440.jpg

Knife Skills

Using a knife can be dangerous and a lesson on knife skills should be

reserved for older children. There are many chef knives you can buy

with duller blades designed specifically for children (this Cook’s

Illustrated article reviews different options), or you may want to skip

straight to a regular knife and just teach them how to properly use it.

For my 6 and 9-year-old, we went the latter route but you know your

children best. 

 

Once you’ve settled on a knife, review how to safely hold it. Our three

rules were:

 

-Keep your right hand on the handle

-Keep your left hand on the top of the knife and away from the blade

-Keep the tip of the knife touching the cutting board

 

Demonstrate and have them practice on a variety of foods requiring different knife skills. Some suggestions – 

 

-Make a chiffonade of basil or mint 

-Slide rosemary off the stalk and chop

-Peel, score and dice an onion (tip – wear goggles!)

-Wash and chop lettuce for a salad

-Smash, peel and chop garlic 

 

Reinforce knife skills during other cooking activities. 

IMG_5444.jpeg

Make Your Own Vinaigrette

Take a basic vinaigrette recipe and let your chefs add their own twist.

Each child gets a mason jar with lid, a cutting board and knife. Their

challenge is to create a vinaigrette using the following formula:

 

1 part acid 

3 parts oil

Emulsifier 

Additional flavor elements

 

Lay out an assortment of ingredients for them to choose from. Here

aresome ideas – 

 

Acid - Different kinds of Vinegar, Limes and Lemons 

Oil – Olive oil, Canola Oil

Emulsifier – Dijon mustard, Mayonnaise

Additional Flavor elements – Garlic, Onion, Herbs, Salt, Pepper 

 

Encourage your chefs to use their newfound knowledge of herbs and knife skills when making their vinaigrette. Once they have selected their ingredients and chopped as needed, everything goes in the mason jar and gets a good shake. 

vinaigrette.jpeg

Recipes and Menus

Decide on a handful of dishes and print out the recipes in advance. Below is a selection of dishes my children have enjoyed making, but cook whatever you like.  Combine recipes that pair well to make a full meal. 

Herbed Rice

Everyone should know how to make rice. We again used those knife skills and chopped and sauteed some garlic and onion in butter before adding the rice and water. The kids selected and chopped their own herbs to add in at the end. 

Click for Recipe

IMG_7034.HEIC
IMG_5433.jpeg

Salad with Homemade Vinaigrette

We planted a garden for the first time this summer and tried to utilize it as much as possible during cooking activities, including morning trips to gather ingredients. We made several salads, with the kids’ own vinaigrette creations, of course. Add whichever greens and veggies you like. Link below for a basic, all purpose vinaigrette.

Click for Recipe

IMG_5430.jpg
IMG_5556.jpg

Breaded Chicken Cutlet

Breading is a great staple technique to know, and a fun one too. It involves coating a piece of meat in flour, beaten egg and breadcrumbs before frying in a cast iron pan. Young chefs will also enjoy pounding the chicken breasts thin with a meat mallet or metal spoon before breading. 

Click for Recipe

IMG_5451.jpeg
IMG_5452.jpg

Homemade Pesto

Another recipe inspired by the bounty of the garden and a great use of abundant basil. Freeze leftovers in small portions (an ice cube tray works well) to enjoy in the winter. 

Click for Recipe

IMG_5469.jpg
IMG_5467.jpg
IMG_5472.jpg

Dulche De Leche Lava Cakes

My son saw a similar recipe in the MasterChef Junior Bakes Cookbook and asked to make it. Browsing through cookbooks and selecting recipes is another great element to incorporate into cooking activities. 

Click for Recipe

IMG_5478.jpg
DDL lava cakes.jpeg

French Baguette

For our cooking activities, I wanted to include a recipe that involves rolling out dough. We used a bread maker for this recipe but you can also make the dough in an electric stand mixer with a dough hook.

Click for Recipe 

IMG_5481.jpg
IMG_5483.jpg

Kale Salad

Prepping and chopping kale requires a different technique from other kinds of greens. Kids will have fun sliding the green leaves off the woody stem. We left the croutons in this recipe out but include them if you like.

Click for Recipe

IMG_5493.jpg
IMG_5503.jpg

Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Frosting

Knowing that my two kids would each want to make their own cake - and also that we did not want two full sized cakes on our hands - we used adorable 6” round cake pans. The recipe calls for chocolate frosting but we used a separate recipe for vanilla frosting instead. Since we were making two cakes and also wanted leftover frosting for decorating, we tripled the frosting recipe. We colored the vanilla frosting by mixing in Wilton gel colors and used piping bags and an assortment of cake decorating tips. 

Click for Recipe (cake)

Click for Recipe (frosting)

IMG_5491.jpg
IMG_5514.jpeg
IMG_5521.jpeg

Mashed Potatoes

Peeling potatoes is another basic skill that is good to know. We peeled and quartered Yukon gold potatoes, boiled them until tender and drained them in a colander, then mashed them with butter, milk, salt, pepper. Link to a good standard recipe below, though we added a little garlic salt and some extra butter - always!  

Click for Recipe

IMG_5504.jpg
IMG_5508.jpg

Cast Iron Steaks

My daughter specifically requested how to cook and butter baste a steak in a cast iron pan. So we did! We had seen Gordon Ramsey do this on television before, so we watched his Ultimate Cookery Course linked below for a refresher.

Click for Recipe

IMG_5525.jpg

Homemade Naan

We got the rolling pin out again to make this soft and delicious classic flat bread from India. We paired the naan with the kebabs below for a tasty lunch. 

Click for Recipe

IMG_5558.jpg
IMG_5557.jpeg
IMG_5561.jpeg

Chicken and Onion Kebabs

To make these simple kebabs, we soaked wooden skewers in water for 15 minutes so they wouldn’t burn when placed on the grill. We cut boneless chicken breasts and onions into 1” pieces and threaded them alternately onto the skewers. We basted the kebabs with a mixture of olive oil, salt, lemon juice, lemon zest, garlic and fresh oregano and grilled them on high heat for roughly 15 minutes. Link to a similar recipe - just without the onions - below. 

Click for Recipe

IMG_5539.jpeg
IMG_5537.jpeg

Cake Pops

This was another child request and a recipe new to all of us. The process was more successful than the finished product (nailed it!) but we had a lot of fun. We found a video tutorial more helpful than a written recipe and watched a clear and straightforward one by Desserts by Areesa, linked below. We ordered the candy melts and sticks online. We did not have a piece of styrofoam so improvised and used an egg carton flipped upside down for a drying rack. If we make these again, we will make sure to thin out the candy melts using more canola oil. 

Click for Recipe

IMG_5546.jpeg
IMG_5553.jpeg
IMG_5567.jpeg
bottom of page