Having spent most of last week (and the early part of this week) talking about books for teaching us grownups to cook, let’s talk about kids’ cookbooks. Most children’s cookbooks, in the interest of simplicity, rely heavily on processed ingredients.  That’s not particularly helpful for teaching kids to cook.  It’s really not helpful for feeding them nutritious food!

Although there might be others, after having done a good bit of poking around, I found these three that seem to be pretty good.  They’re also very different from each other, so different ones will meet different needs.

The Young Chef

The Young Chef comes to us from the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), the same organization that brought us Techniques of Healthy Cooking and Cooking at Home, but this one is, obviously, written specifically for kids.

I don’t feel the organization of this is quite as straightforward as Cooking at Home.  It’s bright and colorful and energetic — good for keeping kids’ attention — but probably a little harder to follow for the more linear thinkers among us.  It’s divided into two sections: learning the basics, and recipes.

The first section talks about food safety, essential kitchen equipment, and essential techniques.  Techniques start with basics like knife skills and mise en place (gathering ingredients together), then move on to cooking methods, building flavors, and “how food fuels your body.”  This seems to be better-rounded, overall, than Cooking at Home (note that flavors are discussed!), but it seems to be somewhat less orderly and intentional, and is a bit skimpy on the techniques, in my opinion.  (It hits some of the big ones, but they’re kind of all there together in a mishmash.)

This portion is very well-written, and would be great to hand off to a child who also has access to a knowledgeable cook for asking questions, gaining great context, etc.  This section seems to be designed less as a standalone section, and more as an introduction to some basics so the recipes are more accessible.

The recipes comprise about 135 pages of this 191-page book.  Recipes are laid out clearly, with title, yield, ingredients, then instructions.  Ingredient abbreviations are not used, which is helpful for newer cooks.  Some recipes have variations added onto the end, and/or “safety first” tips for things to watch out for in that particular recipe.  A few recipes are followed by “think like a chef” sidebars that encourage creativity of flavoring, or alternative variants of the recipe.

As you can see in the photo above, there are also other tips and bits of information occasionally tossed into the mix.

This book is, for the most part, for older children.  It isn’t one you’re going to get a lot of use out of with your preschooler or kindergartener.

ChopChop

ChopChop a book I stumbled across online.  This is a more mainstream book, overall, and definitely better than The Young Chef for younger kids.  It’s bright and colorful and visually appealing.  (In fact, it’s apparently based on a magazine, which I’d never heard of before.  Knowing that, the magazine formatting is apparent.)

This isn’t something you can just hand off to your kids, though; expect to join them in the kitchen.  There are a few recipes children might be able to do on their own (depending on age), and these are marked.  Along with the time and yield, each recipe is marked according to whether an adult is needed.

ChopChop is more of a recipe book than a how-to-cook book, but it’s a good addition to the kitchen bookshelf.

Neither The Young Chef  nor ChopChop is a whole foods cookbook, per se, but both emphasize cooking “from scratch,” so any non-real-food ingredients (such as white flour or canola oil) can be readily substituted.

The Nourishing Traditions Cookbook for Children

The Nourishing Traditions Cookbook for Children has a cover that looks just like the other Nourishing Traditions books.  To be honest, when I saw this cookbook, I thought, “How boring,” and didn’t think there was any way a child would be interested in it.  But I ordered it anyway.  Don’t judge this book by its cover, folks!  The inside looks nothing like the outside.

(That’s the end of the basic scrambled eggs recipe and the start — obviously — of the Mexican Scrambled Eggs recipe, which is a little awkward, but it lets you see a couple different parts of the recipe layout.)

It’s actually a really great book — especially for younger children.  The sections each start with a little bit of information, written in a conversational style to the child, about where their food comes from, what makes for good quality, etc.

It does a good job of touching on or hinting at issues like free range vs. battery chicken eggs, while staying age-appropriate and not getting overly political or scary.

Unlike the other cookbooks, this is an entirely whole-foods cookbook.  In keeping with the Nourishing Traditions…well, tradition, there are even ferments included!

Chapters include:

• Incredible Eggs
• Mighty Milk
• Butter is Better
• Super Snacks
• Vibrant Vegetables
• The Secret’s in the Soup
• Friendly Ferments
• Soak, Sour and Sprout
• Meet Your Meat
• My Healthy Lunch
• What’s for Dessert?

I don’t agree with every single detail of Nourishing Traditions, and there are a few minor details here that I don’t agree with, either, but I’m very impressed with this book and if I only ever had one cookbook for my children, I’d want it to be this one.  (Moms who are new to this way of cooking might benefit from its simplicity, too!)  It’s unfortunate the cover is so un-kid-friendly, because I suspect a lot more people would buy it.

(And of course it’s not a book, but don’t forget about the Kids Cook Real Food course as an option if your aim is to teach your kids to cook.)

Do you have any favorite cookbooks for children?  Leave a comment letting us know what book you like and why you like it!