In Canada, when it gets cold outside, things really start to heat up in the kitchen. Needless to say, the wintertime is the perfect time for making soup!
Soup is a great way to use of leftovers from hosting large family dinners or an easy way to fill your freezer for quick and hearty meals. When you make your own soup, you fill your home with comforting aromas and fill your family’s bellies with soul-soothing ingredients and flavours.
Getting kids involved in preparing these homemade miracles have endless benefits, including family bonding and building confidence in their culinary capabilities.
Here are our top 5 reasons why making soup is good for your kid’s soul:
1. Kids are Picky
It’s no secret that picky eating habits are common amongst kids (grown-ups too!).
Although textures and aromas play an important part, picky eating is caused mostly by a fear of the unknown. Like most things in life, if we don’t know where we are going, then we are weary and unlikely to go there. Food is no different. When a kid is told to eat something that has multiple ingredients all muddled together, then the likelihood of eating it is next to none, even if you say, ”but it’s delicious!”.
The counter to this dilemma would be for them to know exactly what goes into what they are eating. This can only truly happen when a kid is a part of the creation/cooking process. Add to this, the excitement of eating what they made and you are highly likely to have your kid try something new or adventurous, like a soup full of a variety of ingredients. (Check out the book Lentil Soup by Carole Tremblay).
2. Kids Can Help… And Should!
Parents often underestimate what their kids and accomplish in the kitchen given patient guidance and the trust to do things on their own. The process of making soup is full of kitchen tasks with varying difficulties. Easier jobs can be peeling garlic and carrots, picking herbs, grating cheese and stirring the soup. For more difficult jobs, they can help with chopping the vegetables, starting or even blending the soup. This is also a great avenue to teach proper cleaning, hygiene, and safety habits. Cooking is a pretty magical thing.
Not only will they be a part of that creative process, but they will feel accomplished in the fact that they have just provided their family with soul-soothing sustenance. “What does everyone think of the soup? The kids made it!”
3. Understanding Food Waste
Food waste fills our organic bins, while making our food more expensive. If 25% of an onion goes into the bin, then that onion just became 25% more expensive. Kids are always learning and will usually copy what they see. If they see a lot of good food and vegetable trimmings go into the waste bin, then they will almost certainly continue that system and sentiment.
Making soup is a superb way to help cut down on food waste by using those vegetable trimming, meat bones, herb stems, leftover meats and roasted veggies, and aging spices to create something new and delicious. Instill this important system and respect for food in your kids at an early age by showing them the art of using these often neglected ingredients.
4. Family Bonding Time
The heart of the home is the kitchen and families who cook together thrive!
Putting meals on the table can be challenging with parents’ busy schedules, we know, but making time for family bonding is crucial to a healthy and happy home. Providing your kid with some basic kitchen skills will allow them to help speed things along, while giving you that important family bonding time
5. Soup Tastes Good!
Did we mention that soup tastes delicious? Eating delicious food stimulates your happy receptors, but healthy, delicious food that you made with your own hands can transcend your body and soul to another level. For centuries, people have enjoyed soup on a cold and rainy day, when feeling under the weather, or in some cases, in hot climates to cool the body down. Soup can heal the sick and invigorate the world traveller.
Soup can create magic, so bring that magic home and get cooking!
Check out our exclusive Rooks to Cooks recipe for Squash and Lentil Soup.