These pickled carrots are fresh and tasty, with the perfect bit of crunch. Serve them as a salad, or as part of a snack tray. In the spring, try to find tiny new carrots to pickle for a lovely presentation. If all you have are large carrots though, as we did here, slice them up in bite sized pieces. They will look delicious as well.
Yield: 6 – 8 servings
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Grissini, or breadsticks, are a fun and easy addition to the snack tray. Make a batch and dip them into hummus. Or, wrap in prosciutto for an Italian-style appetizer. Vary the toppings depending on preference, or what you’ve got in your kitchen. Don’t forget to serve them in a jar or vase so they look like a delicious bouquet of flowers!
Yield: About 12 grissini
Preparation Time: About 2 ½ hours
Baking Time: About 15 minutes at 425 F
Every culture has recipes that are important to that culture. By making and sharing these recipes, we remember family, friends and familiar places. Even though families move to new countries, we can connect to our culture through the food we make and eat.
It’s a true sign of spring when rhubarb pokes its head out of the ground. This BC vegetable grows all over, including in many school gardens, yet we’re surprised that many children don’t know what it is when we introduce it to them. Tart when fresh, to be sure, but when cooked with a little sweetness, oh what a difference!
Cook. Healthy. Edible. Food. That’s what the CHEF in Project CHEF stands for. It’s called an acronym. We think that the words stand for what Project CHEF is all about. An acrostic poem starts with a word and this is the topic of the poem. The letters of the word become the first letter of each line of the poem. The word or phrase in each line of the poem is related to the word topic.
Tortillas are flatbreads popular in Latin American cuisine, and are eaten at all times of the day. They are often made with corn, a whole grain that is grown abundantly in Latin American countries, but can also be made with wheat, which is plentiful here in Canada. They are readily available in most grocery stores, but often, the package lists ingredients that we don’t recognize! When we make tortillas at home, we know all of the ingredients. This is a fun project to try, perhaps for Taco Tuesday?
Yield: 8 x 20cm (8”) tortillas
Preparation Time: including resting time, about 40 minutes
Cooking Time: about 10 minutes
At Project CHEF, we believe that children of any age are capable of helping out in the kitchen. It’s hard to put a number on what age your child may start using a knife, but if you are looking for a place to start, we have a few helpful tips to get your kids in the kitchen.
Do you ever feel regret about putting unused veggies or vegetable trimmings in the city compost? At Project CHEF we believe food is much too important to waste. If you have a little patio garden, it might be time to try a worm bin to make your own compost. Put those veggie scraps to work and make what we gardeners call, black gold.
It’s all the rage – growing your food waste to eat it again. There is a remarkable joy in making something from nothing. For this activity, you will have everything you need at home to watch these plants grow.
There is nothing better than harvesting something and eating it right away. Herbs are our flavour makers, they bring joy to our food and fill our hearts with the flavour of home. In this activity we share some tips for a mini herb garden, especially geared toward young people and what we know they love. If you have never really grown anything before, pick one plant you like to use in the kitchen, and try growing it.
We’ve been hearing a lot about yeast these days. Everyone wants it and it’s hard to find in the stores. What’s so special about yeast? Lots!
There are many skills to learn in the kitchen to help you cook. In this Project CHEF video we take a look at mashing, creaming, mixing, folding, emulsifying and juicing.
This one-pan recipe has lots of colours, is incredibly delicious, and is quick to make. It ticks all the boxes. A gratin is a dish that originated in France. It’s often made with vegetables, is topped with cheese and sometimes breadcrumbs. This recipe uses different types of vegetables common in the south of France and a special herb combination called herbs de Provence. If you are missing some of these herbs, it is easy to replace them with what you have at home. Give this delicious Vegetable au Gratin a try!
Yield: 4 – 5 servings
Preparation Time: About 15 minutes
Cooking time: About 25 – 30 minutes
Sometimes kitchen tools other than a knife can be used to complete tasks in the kitchen. These tools can speed up a job or help make preparation a little safer. In this video we teach you about how to use sharp hand tools.
Sometimes you just want to do a quiet, relaxing activity all by yourself. The ingredients you find in your fridge or garden, and kitchen tools you find in the drawers or cupboards can provide you with inspiration and objects for drawing.
Some of the classes of students we teach come to the Project CHEF kitchen to gather a few ingredients we’ll be cooking with that day and some of the kitchen tools we will be using. They take them back to their classroom and set them out in different areas in the classroom. Students silently choose what they want to draw, open their food journal and sketch what they are looking at.
A magical spell comes over the classroom as students really focus on what they are looking at and drawing what they see. You dare not make a sound as creative minds are at work and a calm tone prevails in the room.
Scientists keep records, so do farmers, and so do we! Since planting your potatoes, what have you noticed? What can you observe? After planting your seed potatoes, in Part 1 of this activity, your Project CHEF task over the next two months is to look closely, pay attention to the details, and write down your observations. The more specific, the better.
It’s almost Mother’s Day. What are you doing for your mum this year? It’s a tricky year, how can we get creative with what we have at home to show our loved ones gratitude? Well, we are still grocery shopping. If you have some paint and paper around the house, try making some veggie prints for a card. This is a 5-star kid-approved activity. The flower pictured above is made from dipping a bok choy stem in paint and then pressing it into paper with a little twist (just like a stamp).
Each Spring, many of our classes grow potatoes with the Spuds in Tubs BC Agriculture in the Classroom program. Their joy when harvesting potatoes is contagious. After counting the harvest, we have helped the students trade their gardening hats for chef toques to cook up their crop. If you want to try growing your own potatoes at home, check out our Potato Planting Activity.
Yield: 6 servings
Preparation Time: About 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 30 – 40 minutes at 425 F
We love making bread and eating it warm from the oven is such a delight. Practice measuring dry and wet ingredients with this recipe. Spelt is considered an ancient grain and is a type of wheat. Like wheat, spelt contains gluten. Fun fact: In Greek mythology, spelt was a gift to the Greeks from the goddess Demeter. Grab your ingredients and enjoy the wonderful and satisfying process of bread making.
Yield:1 round loaf
Preparation Time: About 15 minutes
Cooking Time:About 30 – 35 minutes
These lemon squares are just simply a good idea. The ingredients are available year-round, the recipe yields 32 squares so there’s plenty to share, and they freeze beautifully. With Mother’s Day just around the corner, they also make the perfect gift to give to someone special. If you keep a stash of these squares in your freezer, you can pull a few out whenever the skies are grey or rainy. You’ll have a bit of sunshine on your plate.
Yield: About 32 squares
Preparation Time: About 45 minutes
Baking Time: First bake for crust: 20 – 25 minutes @ 325 F
Second bake with topping: 25 – 30 minutes @ 325 F