Does your family also have a child who is quite selective about vegetables? That’s how many other families live, so you’re not alone.
Nutty Tomato Paste is One to Eat! About the recipes in the book Vegetarian Food Made by Mothers. Viola Minerva Virtamo
Cooking for more than 300 children in the school kitchen every day Aino-Kaisa Sihtola is a mother from Vaasa. Plant-based recipes A year of vegan food Sihtola, who shares his blog and social media, has a touch on what children want to eat for their work.
Sihtola’s recipes can also be found in the fresh, newly published To eat! Vegetarian food made by mothers book, which brings together recipes from 12 mothers to make everyday life easier for other parents and give them vegetarian inspiration.
Sihtola knows that simplicity is an asset when it comes to children and vegetarian food.
– Children usually like very simple food. In many cases, vegetarian dishes go too far into making them complicated and adding a lot of new spices when you should start with simple flavors, Sihtola says.
He says he prefers to cook at home the most plant-based versions of ordinary, familiar dishes that taste and look familiar. Soybean meal, tofu, lentils and legumes are in heavy use.
Child involved in the trade
As the mother of 4- and 7-year-old children, Sihtola knows that vegetables do not always taste good to children, no matter how delicious the food. And when there is an effort in front of the food and the child does not eat, even large emotional reactions are easily aroused. Emotions may culminate at the dining table.
Sihtola says that it is important to remind yourself that work is not in vain, even if it is sometimes frustrating. Toughness is worth it. There will still be a day when the new food tastes good.
But what could practically be done to get a child to eat more vegetables?
Sihtola reminds that the first step is in the store. Vegetables must be purchased at home and available.
– Whenever possible, children should be involved in choosing vegetables. It is good that the child feels able to influence himself. Depending on the age level, the vegetables can also be treated together and tasted as is. Hunger is the best spice and it is worth offering to crunch, especially when there is still some time to eat and the hunger is already hard.
– Secondly, tasting food can also be a fun game. Various raw materials can be tasted, for example, in the form of a blind test. Attitudes towards raw materials are different when the eyes are blind and the senses are open in different ways. When prejudices are ruled out, the child can find good tastes and find that the new acquaintance or old “disgust” was good. These have been popular with us.
You can also get busy with food. Snacks can be made to look fun and are worth investing in if children are very selective about hot foods.
– If the actual food doesn’t taste good, it’s worth making the snacks nutritious, Sihtola suggests.
Snacks can be made more nutritious by using, for example, legumes or nuts – as such, or in the form of flour and pastes.
In the Sihtola family, a nut tomato paste has become a favorite, which the selective firstborn loves today. A simple serving of pasta contains protein and green and is an excellent everyday food when the food needs to get to the table quickly.
Walnut tomato paste
2.5 dl cashew nuts
1/2 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon rapeseed oil
4 dl crushed tomatoes or pasteurized tomatoes
1 teaspoon (70 g) of tomato puree
200 g of frozen spinach
250-300 g of spaghetti
1 dl of water
a handful of basil leaves
salt and pepper
(200 g cherry tomatoes)
1. Put the nuts in a bowl and pour over the boiled hot water until they are covered. Allow the nuts to soak while you prepare the sauce.
2. Peel and chop the onion and garlic finely. Heat the oil in a saucepan or flat barrel and saute both onions. Add the tomato puree and puree, frozen spinach and cook for a moment. In a second saucepan, cook the spaghetti according to the instructions on the package.
3. Pour the water out of the nuts and transfer the nuts to a blender. Add 1 dl of water to the set and drive finely. Finally, add “cashew cream”, basil leaves and spaghetti to the tomato sauce. Season with salt and pepper.
4. If you want a stronger tomato flavor, finally add a packet of sliced cherry tomatoes to the sauce.
Recipe: To eat! The Food Made by Mothers (Cozy Publishing, 2022)