Parenting Today
Cooking with your kids is a fantastic way to spend quality time together. It’s also a wonderful opportunity to introduce them to other countries and cultures by making — and sampling — delicious dishes from across the globe.
The world is a big place, and you can expand your young chef’s culinary horizons as you whip up some global goodies in your own kitchen and share a geography or cultural lesson along the way. Be sure to dole out duties according to your child’s age and help younger ones as needed.
Consider calling cooking nights something fun like “Taste the World Tuesdays” or “Food from Afar Fridays,” or whatever day works best for your family. And follow these tips and try these kid-friendly international recipes to get started.
Choose a Recipe from a Kid-Friendly International Cookbook
To get your child excited about your cultural culinary adventure, let them choose a recipe from a kid-friendly cookbook.
Increase the fun by taking them to a local bookstore like Barnes and Noble to pick out the cookbook or order one online on Amazon or Thriftbooks.
Some kids’ cookbooks also include games, activities, and stickers, along with recipes, such as “Ultimate Food Atlas: Maps, Games, Recipes, and More for Hours of Delicious Fun.“
Another good option is “Cooking Class Global Feast!: 44 Recipes That Celebrate the World’s Cultures.“
Let your young chef browse through the book and choose a recipe. If you have more than one child, rotate turns picking what to make.
And if age and time allow, take them grocery shopping to buy the ingredients. Involving kids in as many aspects of the process as possible builds their life skills and enthusiasm.
Set the Scene for Global Cuisine and Share Fun Facts
Each week, set the scene in your kitchen to match the global cuisine you make. Teach your kids fun facts about the country or culture, too.
If family members have passed down cultural recipes, international cooking nights provide the perfect opportunity to discuss those ancestors, share family food traditions, and exchange their favorite recipes.
Also, try these ideas:
- Get a globe or a world map and have your child point out the country your recipe comes from. Let’s use Italy as an example.
- Explain (and show them) that Italy is in Europe and the U.S. is in North America. Look up the distance between the two countries (5,675 miles) and ask them to name the body of water that separates them (the Atlantic Ocean).
- Create flashcards in advance or search online to learn three popular Italian foods.
- Practice simple cooking-related Italian words, such as “cucina” for “kitchen,” “insalata” for “salad,” and “il pane” for “bread.”
- Use colored napkins to match the country’s flag (like red, white, and green).
- Ask them to help line up native sauces or spices, like oregano, basil, and garlic.
- Play some Italian music.
Kitchen Safety Tips
For optimal safety, always supervise your kids in the kitchen. As kids get older, give them more prepping and cooking responsibilities.
- Storing toxic cleaners or dangerous products out of reach
- Separating sharp instruments, like knives, scissors, and forks, from dull, safe utensils and keeping them out of kids’ reach
- Always turning pot handles to the back of the stove
- Keeping kids away from hot burners, pans, scalding water, and gas
- Unplugging unused appliances
- Supervising microwave use
- Keeping a fire extinguisher in the kitchen
- Keeping matches out of reach
- Keeping kitchen magnets out of reach
Try These Kid-Friendly International Recipes
Making and eating international foods expands a child’s cultural understanding and culinary tastes.
If you prefer online variations to cookbook versions, a Google search for kid-friendly international recipes presents lots of options.
The Gingerbread Whisk blog categorizes recipes by continent and offers over 20 suggestions:
- African favorites include African Peanut Chicken Stew and Beef Pilau.
- Asian dishes include Chicken Teriyaki Bowl or Slow Cooker Pork Ramen.
- European suggestions include Irish Potato Soup (Ireland), Quick Beef Ragu (Italy), and Sourdough French Bread (France).
- Indian recipes include Chicken Tikka Masala and Indian Lemon Rice.
- Latin American suggestions include Tex Mex Migas and Slow Cooker Mole Tacos.
- Mediterranean recipes include Beef Souvlaki and Greek Chicken Meatballs.
These are just a small sample of the myriad kid-friendly global recipes you can find online.
Whatever dishes you and your kids try, you’ll create terrific memories as you make new meals together. To boost your young chef’s confidence, always praise them for a job well done, ask them what they like about the food, and fill the experience with smiles, love, and fun.
