Reply to Lentils! Help me get my kids to eat them.

Forum Index » Food, Cooking, and Restaurants

Reply to "Lentils! Help me get my kids to eat them."

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]Here are some ways that I've had success getting kids to eat them (note: Not all of these for any one kid, I have 3 of my own and regularly watch my siblings' kids, so I've got a bigger sample size than most!  Also, I really like lentils)

Mixed 25/75 and then working up to 50/50 with ground beef for something like bolognese sauce, meatballs, taco meat, filling for gemista (stuffed vegetables).  In my experience, if there's a lot of cheese they are less likely to notice.  So, putting the taco meat in quesadillas, or using it as a topping for nachos is an easy win.

Lentil soup with a lot of sausage, again gradually decreasing.

Lentils mixed with a rice for the base of a grain bowl with flavors that they like (think Cava, we actually call this "fake Cava" in our house)

Some variation on this salsa with black lentils instead of black beans.  https://www.savorynothings.com/avocado-mango-and-black-bean-salsa/.  I'll do just lentils, mango, red pepper, and the dressing.  Some kids like onions, some don't, some kids want jalapenos, others REALLY don't.  Adding avocado is good, but I am very bad at timing when avocados will be ripe.

Lentil shepherd's pie This recipe is good:  https://rainbowplantlife.com/healthy-vegan-lentil-shepherds-pie/. except then I add a bunch of cheddar cheese on top since we're actually not vegan (in case the "mix it with ground beef" strategy didn't clue you in to that) and cheese is a huge motivator for my kids.

These crispy lentils as a topping for various things:  https://rainbowplantlife.com/butternut-squash-soup-with-crispy-lentils/. My kids probably wouldn't have eaten them at first on that soup, but on a familiar soup that they already liked like roasted red pepper (popular because it's sweet) these lentils were a hit.

Mix with pico de gallo, or bruschetta topping as a dip.  Basically this:  https://smittenkitchen.com/2022/01/my-favorite-lentil-salad/. except I usually just used store bought pico.  Again, start with a ratio that's low on the lentils.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics