Post Punk Kitchen Forum

My big boy wants to cook independently for us, so not just cookies and lots of pictures in stages would be a bonus. To be honest I might have to make him one myself!

Don't know about books, but you can finds some resources if you google 'teaching kids to cook vegan', like this one: http://www.youngveggie.org/document.doc?id=8

This site has some book suggestions: http://www.vegansoapbox.com/vegan-cooking-for-kids/

I think it's really great that he is interested in cooking by himself!

So fun! How old is your boy? What does he like cooking? How much involvement are you looking for - ie would you want him to be able to do the whole recipe (including putting things on the stove or in the oven) or would an adult manage that part?

Our friends have an 8 year old whose favorite thing is to make soup. Its really cute - he picks veggies that go together and chops them and then throws them into bouillon with stock. He will eat anything he makes and they make a big loaf of bread and spreads to go along and its a great meal.

I love the idea of encouraging kids to play with their food! L is just 15 months, but we got her a Learning Tower so she is at stove height and she bungs things into the pan for me. She loves it and I'm so excited about doing more as she is able.

I was trying to convince someone to write one last week!

Pretend Soup by Mollie Katzen (and the sequels) is the best I can think of. It's vegetarian, not vegan, but Katzen's books tend to be vegan-friendly, if a bit old-school.

There's some book a friend of mine has called "Kids in the Kitchen" by Judi Rogers. It's plant based rather than all-out vegan (I think some of the recipes call for honey?) It is by a Christian author so it does have some religion-related stuff in it if that's of concern to you, but I don't remember how much exactly. I think it was just in the introduction. There are a lot of cute ideas in it for simple things kids can make.

I like the idea of making one myself. Hmm. Maybe that's an idea for my blog - recipes designed for kids to follow? Because I think that would be awesome.

I'll have to look up pretend soup!

I did respond earlier but it seems to have gone...

My boy is seven and he wants to cook proper meals as independently as possible, I'm right there though so he can use the hob and oven. Yesterday we mad pizza with me as human recipe book- sourdough base from scratch, sauce from scratch and all... I had premade the cheese and chorizo though!

He's a bit old for pretend soup then. That's aimed more at the 3-4 year old set. How good of a reader is he? Can you take some of his favorite recipes and re-write them with more basic instructions and words he knows?

My awesome friend is one of the ladies behind Vegbooks (http://vegbooks.org/), which is a resource for great veg kids books. I'll ask her if she has any ideas - I think it would be so brilliant to add that to that site as well.

Joanna was talking about writing one and I really hope she does it!

I was thinking of doing that but it's hard to find the time, right now I'm being the human cookbook. His reading is fairly basic but at the stage when it's improving extremely fast. I think for a cookbook, while he's got so much to concentrate on I want to keep it very simple!

I'll take a look at vegbooka too...

They had two I found right away: Herb the Vegetarian Dragon: http://vegbooks.org/index.php/2012/05/1 ... an-dragon/

The Vegan Family Cookbook: http://vegbooks.org/index.php/2012/03/0 ... #more-7086

I don't have any suggestions, but I wanted to say this is so neat! One of my favorite memories was making a birthday cake for my mom with my aunt's direction. I did all the pouring, mixing and baking myself, she just told me what to do. My mom never liked to cook that much so it was a rare and exciting experience. Your son is very lucky to have you!

We love Herb, but I wish he was vegan!

Well I've ordered herb and pretend soup. Wish there was a vegan one though- they look great but 7 is a bit young for doing all that vegan subbing ;)

Maybe one day I'll write one for him!

Pretend Soup arrived and I'm pleased with it. It's aimed at very young kids with help which means that as an older reading kid he can take it one step further.

He is very excited about it and went through every recipe deciding what to cook, turning down the pages like I do! Then he enlisted my help and went through every recipe veganising them! Not my suggestion and he is not actually vegan himself... Yet! bwah ha ha. He wrote in all the subs and drew new pictures where appropriate.

He also altered the pizza and pancake recipes to use sourdough. Poor kid doesn't stand a chance :D

That's so cute!

I just discovered this cookbook: Apples, Bean Dip, and Carrot Cake, by the American Vegan Society. It's for kids and is divided by skill level (simple instructions for cleaning vegetables up to things that use the stove). The design is amateurish, but the whole book is vegan.

http://www.amazon.com/Apples-Bean-Dip-C ... 0942401220