First Friday Night: India
What comes to mind when you think about Indian food? Is it a certain dish, or maybe specific spices? Or, is it a smell you connect to the cuisine?For October’s First Friday Night, we’re cooking up delicious spiced lentils and a carrot-rice pilaf dish from our Indian unit!
If you couldn’t join First Friday Night in person, you can still make this meal with your family at home. We’ve got the ingredient list, recipes, and even a fun family activity linked for you below.
Fun Fact: Lentils are a legume (like peanuts or chickpeas) and like other legumes, they grow in pods. Lentils are a good source of fiber, iron and folate - which helps your cells grow and work how they’re supposed to. Lentils are a rich source of plant protein and make a complete protein when combined with cereal grains like wheat or rice!
Indian Recipes:
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Ingredients:
1-2 medium carrots
1 1/2 cups basmati rice
2 Tbsp. butter
3 1/2 cups water
2-inch cinnamon stick
3/4 tsp. salt -
Ingredients:
1/2 tsp. whole cumin seed
1/4 tsp. whole coriander seeds
2 cans lentils (15 oz.)
4 medium tomatoes
2 Tbsp. butter
1 tsp. ground mild red chile
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. fresh cilantro leaves
Fun Fact: Two things make pilaf different from plain white rice. One is that pilaf is almost always cooked with something - meat, nuts, fruit or vegetables. The second is that the rice is rinsed multiple times to remove any surface starches and make sure the individual rice grains are fluffy and separated!
Everyone has a job to do!
Suggestions for Cooking by Age
3-5 Year Olds: setting out ingredients, washing produce, stirring things together (with help), setting the table.
K-2nd Grade: measuring ingredients, rinsing rice, grinding spices, clearing the table, wiping the table and counters.
3rd-5th Grade: washing dishes, melting butter, grating carrots, cutting and mincing (with supervision), adding ingredients to a pan.
Middle School - Adult: chopping vegetables, boiling water, cooking rice and lentils.
Before you start, check out these helpful videos on hand washing and knife safety skills. When you’re ready, its time to get cooking!
At Kids Cook! we have a few simple rules that guide our cooking (and eating!) time. One rule is that we wait until everyone is seated to eat. We say our magic words - Bon Appetit, it's time to eat! - and we all enjoy the meal we’ve worked to create.
As you enjoy your dinner together, here’s a few conversation starters you can use to talk about your meal:
a) What textures do you notice in the food?
b) How would you describe the flavor of the lentils? The rice pilaf?
c) How do the spices used in the meal smell? How do they taste? Are they familiar or new?
d) What was your favorite part of the meal to prepare?
If you have kids (or adults) who don’t love the food, that’s ok too! It’s fine to try (or not try) something new, and there are lots of ways to talk about or interact with food besides eating - try cutting it, squishing it, pouring it or comparing it instead!
Another rule at Kids Cook! is that we cooperate and work as a team. When the meal is over, everybody gets to take part in cleaning things up! This is another opportunity for the whole family to get involved - from washing, drying, putting away or tidying up the rest of the kitchen.
We hope you enjoyed these recipes and had fun cooking at home! Feel free to take pictures of your family cooking together and post them on social with the hashtag #FFNathome.
See you next time!