Recipes for kids to make
As the saying goes, the younger a child is, the better he or she is at absorbing and retaining knowledge. Thats why it is important to cultivate good habits from young such as simple cooking skills and helping out in the kitchen. We encourage you to introduce your children to the kitchen as early as possible, and who knows? They might just grow to become future Masterchefs!
With dangerous elements like stovetops and knives, the kitchen can be a scary place for kids if youre not sure where to begin. Well, let us introduce you to 7 child friendly recipes to kickstart their journey in the kitchen!
1. Handmade Ban Mian/Mee Hoon Kueh
A Singaporean classic, I believe many of us grew up with Ban Mian/Mee Hoon Kueh as a comfort food. What makes this dish deeply memorable is the satisfying chewy texture of the noodles, and if were lucky, we get to see the towkay (boss) rolling the dough tirelessly in the kitchen.
What better way to introduce your child to cooking than to recreate this special experience that shaped your own growing years? All you need is flour and cling wrap to get started, as well as a rolling pin as well if you prefer. Do be mindful of the flour to water ratio to avoid watery dough.
Not only is rolling noodles an interesting bonding activity, perhaps your child will be surprised by the amount of effort put into every bowl of noodles and be more appreciative of their food.
Recipe: http://themeatmen.sg/ban-mian/
Preparation Time: 2 Hour 30 Minutes. Serves 3 to 4.
2. Spring Rolls
Looking for something easy to make, even for kids? Well then, your answer are spring rolls. Easily made with the help of an airfryer, all you have to do is to prepare the fillings and get rolling!
Get your child onboard with you in wrapping these scrumptious fillings neatly into the thin spring roll skins. Not only is it an interesting hands-on activity, this provides the younger ones the freedom to create their own craft, also giving them a sense of ownership towards the rolls they made.
Recipe: http://themeatmen.sg/air-fryer-series-spring-rolls/
Preparation Time: 30 Minutes.
3. Air Fryer Pork Char Siew
Restaurant quality flavours with minimal work? Thats what you get out of our Air Fryer Pork Char Siew. After preparing the marinade and doing the actual marination, you can safely entrust the hardest part to the air fryer.
Now then, youre encouraged to involve your child in the marinating process, which is extremely simple and safe to do. While making the sauce requires some levels of precision, your child can help you with spreading the sauce across the slab of pork and massaging the sauce into it. This creates a deeper flavour in the char siew.
Recipe: https://themeatmen.sg/air-fryer-pork-char-siew/
Preparation Time: 50 Minutes. Serves 3-4.
4. Hainanese Braised Beef Noodles
A favourite in Chinese cuisine, youll be amazed at how simple it is to recreate this dish despite its chim (profound) name. Consisting of mainly marination and blanching of various ingredients, these are relatively easy procedures that young children can do too!
Marinating the meat is relatively straightforward to complete, with easy steps to measure and pour the ingredients. For an added challenge, involve kids in blanching referring to the process of adding food into boiling water briefly, before placing them in ice water. This is to prevent the loss of quality and flavour over time, and sometimes to remove scum (a layer of impurities forming at the top of a broth). Get your child to try this out and learn a new skill while he/she is at it.
Recipe: https://themeatmen.sg/hainanese-beef-noodles/
Preparation Time: 2 Hours. Serves 3-4.
5. Beef Bolognese Pasta
Switch things up a little with some western food, and in particular, the famous beef bolognese! Introducing our rendition of this timeless classic, grab your pots and pans and get cooking with the kids!
The most important part of the beef bolognese is, as its name suggests, the bolognese sauce. A meat-based sauce complemented with an array of chopped fresh vegetables, theres lots of (supervised) chopping to be done. The hands-on activities dont stop there your child will also get to mix these ingredients together to get that perfect creamy, meaty sauce. Top that with some fresh pasta and youre done!
Recipe: https://themeatmen.sg/beef-bolognese/
Preparation Time: 3 Hours. Serves 8.
6. Popiah
Considerably the sister of spring rolls, popiah is also a hugely popular snack/side dish among Singaporeans. The making process for both are similar, but spring rolls need to be fried while popiah doesnt.
Given the amount of pre-work required, such as chopping of turnips, carrots and preparation of toppings (boiled eggs, prawns etc.), it is definitely beneficial to have one more pair of helping hands Yes, this makes a great bonding time for you and your child. As they always say, team work makes the dream work.
We definitely hope you enjoy wrapping away with the little ones!
Recipe: http://themeatmen.sg/popiah/
Preparation Time: 30 Minutes. Serves 4.
7. Malaysian Chicken Curry Puff
With a firm yet flakey and crispy crust, accompanied with savoury curried chicken and potatoes, it is no wonder that people just cant get enough of curry puffs! While the puff may look small in size, the amount of ingredients to pre-prep is definitely not small in comparison.
This is good chance to engage your child in some good ol chopping once again, of the onions and potatoes, the two pivotal ingredients of the snack. After the pre-work is done, its time to move on to the crust. Something interesting about these crusts are their crumbly and buttery taste, which is achieved through adding grated butter to the dough mixture.
Finally proceeding to puff wrapping, you must remember to crimp the edges to seal the puffs fully! This also gives the puffs its signature twisty edges that your kids can be proud of.
Recipe: https://themeatmen.sg/chicken-curry-puff/
Preparation Time: 1 Hour 30 Minutes. Serves 18.
Child friendly food recipes
It is never too early to learn the ropes of cooking, and we hope our guide has shed some light on how you can introduce your little ones into the kitchen from young! All you need are the right ingredients and a watchful eye.
Do share any cute or heartwarming moments with the Meatmen FB group or maybe even funny snippets of the family time. If youre not sure of the steps or wish to explore more similar recipes, our YouTube page has plenty of video tutorials to teach you step by step.
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Some other Child Friendly Food Recipes you might like:
P.S. Weve got recipes for all your Singaporean and Asian favourites on our Youtube channel. Subscribe and share with your friends!
P.P.S. Cant find a recipe you like? Drop us a comment or ping us on our socials.
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