FRESH START

Family-friendly dishes can turn kids on to veggies

Like a more nutritionally sound Nutella, David Frenkiel and Luise Vindahl’s chocolate chickpea spread begs to be slathered on bread, waffles or pancakes.

Instead of sugar and palm oil taking top billing in its ingredient listing, as is the case with the famous hazelnut confection, incorruptible chickpeas and dates form its foundation.

Creamy, nutty and ultra-chocolatey nonetheless, it makes an ideal poster child for their fifth cookbook, Little Green Kitchen (Hardie Grant Books, 2019).

Striking a family-friendly equilibrium, it appeals to kids and adults in equal measure.

Whipped up in just 10 minutes, it’s achievable any night of the week.

“Writing this book was probably the hardest book for us to write because of finding that balance: Making something that’s approachable but yet a bit more inspiring than what parents might already do or know,” says Frenkiel. “And writing recipes that parents and kids want to make.”

Since founding Green Kitchen Stories a decade ago, the Stockholm, Sweden-based couple’s family has grown.

When they launched their award-winning vegetarian food blog, Vindahl was pregnant with their first child. They now have three children under 10.

Little Green Kitchen holds all of the wisdom they’ve gained while feeding their young family. And even though their kids’ preferences have influenced their cooking — namely more cheese (especially halloumi, a family favourite), more comfort food and more portable, hand-held meals — their food philosophy has remained the same.

Frenkiel, a graphic designer and photographer, has been a vegetarian for more than 20 years. Vindahl, a nutritional therapist, eats primarily vegetarian food and so do their children: “They eat what we eat.”

Overwhelmingly, Frenkiel says, the most common question their readers ask is how to make eating vegetables more enticing to kids.

Little Green Kitchen is the long answer to this question, in the form of 70-plus inventive recipes (all of which are accompanied by at least one of Frenkiel’s photographs) and plenty of tried-and-true advice.

“We wanted to focus on vegetables. We didn’t want it to be a vegetarian family cookbook. We wanted it to be a cookbook for every parent who wants their kids to eat more vegetables,” Frenkiel says. “That’s basically every parent, I guess.”

Many recipes feature an “adult upgrade” — minor changes that add complexity or amp up the flavour. There’s also “a helping hand” — tasks that kids can help out with to give them a sense of ownership and involvement in the meal.

“You can’t just put a plate in front of (kids). It can be quite tricky. Getting them interested in food, generally, and in the kitchen and talking about food, and letting them try the food — doing all those small tricks definitely helps when it comes to eating.

“I think that’s something many people don’t even consider, just letting them try the food while you cook it, and helping them formulate some kind of feedback,” says Frenkiel.

“Otherwise, the most common thing you hear is, ‘I don’t like this’ or ‘I hate this.’ And by helping them — ‘ Well, we can use other words to describe what we’re feeling here. Why don’t you like it?’ or ‘Is there something we can do?’”

Boosting dishes with extra vegetables has become Frenkiel and Vindahl’s specialty. Creative uses of produce is a thread running through all the recipes, which range from everyday meals to party food and lunch box favourites to baking and sweets.

Frenkiel says introducing vegetables early is key, and it’s even more effective if you can find ways to incorporate them into dishes children already like.

Spinach-laced, viridescent waffles (recipe follows) and rainbow pancakes — red from beets, orange from carrots and green from spinach and fresh herbs ( basil, mint or parsley) — pack vegetables into formats kids recognize.

Their colour immediately sets them apart, but if children are accustomed to eating whole grains and vegetables, they’ll think nothing of it. If not, it may take some getting used to.

Having conversations with kids about different vegetables — what they are, where they come from, the ways in which they’re good for us — is key to cultivating an openness to trying different foods, Frenkiel says. As is modelling a good relationship with healthful food, even if they don’t immediately partake.

“That’s been one of the biggest things I think about cooking for children. It feels like you just do it for the evening; you just need to feed them, but it’s not only about that. It’s also about raising them.

“If I asked my kids today what they want for dinner, they would probably say ice cream. And if I ask them what clothes they would like to wear, that would be T-shirt and shorts, even in the winter.

“We can’t let kids dictate everything, and that’s the same with food. We have to be the parent and see the long game,” says Frenkiel.