EST. 2011 BY LIZ RUEVEN
Soba Noodle Salad & Cooking with Tweens
photo: Liz Rueven

Soba Noodle Salad & Cooking with Tweens

There’s nothing like spending time with kids to brighten a grey winter week. On Monday, I taught a meat-free menu of three dishes to a trio of tweens who are 12 years old. I’ve worked with them before and I consider them a dream team. They’re excited to learn, considerate of each other, attentive listeners and have healthy appetites.

Kosher Like Me cooks with tweens
photo: Liz Rueven

When planning my classes with this team, I imagine what these girls would love to eat. And I’m sure to make notes about my talking points so I don’t loose track of what I want to share. On this past Meatless Monday, we made a soba noodle (gluten-free buckwheat) salad with garlicky peanut butter and tehini dressing topped by a healthy dose of raw julienned (sort of) veggies.

Kosher Like Me cooks with tweens
Photo: Liz Rueven

In addition to micro-planing, peeling, roasting, simmering, blending and chopping, I hope to teach them larger lessons, too. I want to help these girls to gain confidence in their judgement, work as a team, learn skills and techniques, and make recipes that they’ll be tempted to re-create for their families and friends.

As we pre-heated the oven to 425 to roast veggies, someone tossed out a quick reminder about a minor burn injury that occurred while we cooked together over the summer. That prompted another to call out a warning when she was moving behind her BFF with a sizzling tray of roasted snow peas. I love that we are building on safety, skills and memories.

Kosher Like Me cooks with tweens
Photo: Liz Rueven; We decided unanimously that hands would be the better tool here.

We shared questions and thoughts about culture (rice vinegar in Asian inspired dishes), history (the roots of Meatless Mondays originating in WWI as a way of rationing wheat and meat for soldiers), and team work (plating and choosing props for a few minutes of photographing our creations for instagram).

Kosher Like Me cooks with tweens
photo: Liz Rueven

What’s next? I think I’ll throw out some suggestions to this dream team and allow them to choose.

 

 

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