We were really excited to receive a copy of Kids Can Cook Vegetarian. Over the last year we have reduced our meat consumption to a minimum and are always looking for new vegetarian recipes. We’re huge fans of the other two cookbooks in the series, Kids Can Cook and Kids Can Bake, all of them introduce children to cooking and baking in a simple but fun way.
Kids Can Cook Vegetarian is a wonderfully informative vegetarian cookery book which encompasses learning across several curriculum areas. The easy to make recipes encourage children to prepare and eat delicious meat free meals.
A clear contents page at the beginning of the book lists all the recipes. The book is divided into three sections – Snacks and Sides, Main Meals and Sweet Treats.
There’s a guide to what to do before you begin cooking and a list of safety instructions. We are also given a fabulous pictorial list of the kitchen equipment that is needed to create the recipes. We love the way that basic techniques are shown including how to chop different kinds of vegetables as well as how to crush garlic and beat an egg.
The recipes are simple enough for an older child to follow independently with minimum intervention from an adult. Ingredients are listed at the beginning of the recipe and each one is accompanied by step by step illustrations, these are fabulous for a child who is not yet a fluent reader, they can use the pictorial clues to help them follow the instructions.
Snacks and Sides include dips, muffin pizzas, potato tots and bake courgette fries.
Main Meals and Sauces includes recipes for spinach lasagne, Thai green curry, cauliflower crust pizza and mixed bean chilli. Several of the recipes are also gluten free. We really enjoyed the veggie balls which we combined with courgetti (courgette spaghetti) and tomato sauce.
Sweet Treats include courgette brownies, butternut squash cookies, chocolate and beetroot cake and two different kinds of pancakes – blueberry and banana.
Kids Can Cook Vegetarian is a great book to introduce children to basic vegetarian cooking. Cooking is a great activity to initiate learning in maths (counting, weighing and measuring), science (how food changes when it’s combined, heated or frozen) and literacy (following and writing instructions). And it’s always a treat to eat delicious homemade meals!
Age Range: 6 +
Author / Illustrator: Esther Coombs
Thank you to Button Books for sending us Kids Can Cook Vegetarian. It’s given us lots of inspiration for vegetarian cooking.
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