Simple is sometimes best

Oh the joy of hearing a small child cry “Let’s have salmon for tea, the special way you cook it Mum!” This from a 10 year old who doesn’t often like fish though as it is good for them I do try and get it into their diet quite often.

I had tried dressing things up a bit and almost disguising the flavour of fish with other ingredients. This didn’t seem to work. The “special” way of cooking salmon my daughter is referring to is simply pan fried with herbs and lemon. It takes no time at all and last night I kept the accompaniments really simple with new potatoes, carrots, runner beans and courgettes. The new potatoes, beans and courgettes were from our garden but unfortunately the carrots were not as this year my carrots were a disaster! Don’t think I did anything different than normal so I blame the weather!

There are two schools of thought when trying to get children to try new foods. Some people say to mix everything together so no flavour stands out whilst others say keep the flavours separate so they can work out which they like and which they don’t. I think you really have to go with what method suits your own child best but it is useful to distinguish which flavours they like or don’t.

When my children were younger I used a tasting diary to keep track of new foods we had tried and what they had liked or disliked. I found it so successful that I have developed it in to a product for others to buy. There is more information about the tasting diary on my website.

The key thing is getting children to try different foods, flavours and textures. Get them involved with the shopping; helping you choose the freshest vegetables and recognising different fruit and vegetables. Also, let them help or at least watch you in the kitchen. Children will often try a new food that they have helped cook.