Cooking With Kids - Home-made Hummus & Peppers

Cutting bell peppers into fun shapes and making hummus from scratch is a great activity for kids aged 3+ to get more exposure to healthy food. Even if they don’t eat the meal the first or second time, you are creating a long term positive association with healthy eating and that is invaluable! Below are items you will need. Recipe at the bottom. You can find any of these tools on my Amazon store if you don’t already have in your kitchen cupboard. Click here

Tools for Preparing Hummus & Peppers with Kids

• Veggie/cookie cutters (3+ year olds

• Curious Chef/kid safe knives, butter knives (5+ year olds)

• Crinkle cutter (optional)

• Food processor/blender

• Strainer

• Can Opener

• Citrus Squeezer

• Measuring cups

Start by preparing the peppers so they are flat and safe for kids to work with. As you slice them, take the opportunity to talk about how peppers have vitamin C and keep us from getting snotty noses and coughing.

Use the veggie cutters to turn the peppers into fun shapes. Engage all of the senses! By touching, smelling, and potentially tasting as they prepare… the kids will potentially become more comfortable over time with this vegetable!

The little chefs under 5 years old will need assistance.

Bite size bell peppers just became so fun to eat!

Food is a communal exercise. Take the pressure off yourself as a parent! Let little buddies feed each other the healthy food :)

Prepare your hummus making station ahead of time.

Let the kids take turns opening the can, straining beans, and rinsing.

Line up your sous chefs to take turns squeezing lemons, grinding salt, assisting with measuring and pouring ingredients, and pushing the buttons on the food processor.

And now the fun part… tasting!... if they want :) Let the exercise be fun and engaging. Even if they don’t taste this time, don’t give up… they probably will next time!

Home-made Hummus & Bell Peppers

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• prep time: 15 minutes

• Servings: 4-6
  
  Ingredients:
  • 3-4 bell peppers (red, yellow, orange)
  • 2 can garbanzo beans drained and rinsed
  • 1 lemon (juiced only)
  • 1/2 cup tahini paste
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • sea salt
  • dash of water to thin the hummus
  • garnish with za'tar seasoning

• Instructions:
  • Kids Prep:Use crinkle/veggie/cookie cutters & kid safe knives to prepare bell peppers into bite size pieces for dipping into hummus. Assist adult with opening garbanzo beans with can opener, rinsing beans, meauring olive oil and tahini, grinding salt, squeezing lemons.
  • Adult Prep: Slice bell peppers so that they lay flat and kids can cut into strips or shapes. Set up hummus station in advance. Work with kiddos to open cans of garbanzo beans and rinse. Add beans to food processor. Squeeze lemon juice into processor with citrus squeezer. Meaure olive oil and tahini and pour in. Grind salt and add. Pulse the combination of ingredients. Add a dash of water to reach desired consistency. Add more salt if needed and garnish with za'tar seasoning.