Certified Health Coach, Plant-Based
Best Vegan Meals for Kids
What are the best vegan meals for kids? I would say the best of the best would be those who are also healthy, so no deep fried food. Can be baked though!
It of course depends a little on the age of the child, but here are a few meals or dishes that children usually like:
- pesto pasta (you will find vegan pesto in health food stores)
- baked potatoes or cooked and then sauteed (lightly fried) in olive oil and rosemary
- falafel
- home made veggie burger
- sweet potato soup, broccoli soup and all kinds of vegetable soups
- couscous or quinoa with some yummy sauce
- chili sin carne
- risotto with mushrooms and lemon (use organic rice)
- tacos with home made tomato sauce and beans
- rice noodles or glass noodles with vegetable stock and veggies
- sauteed mushrooms with potatoes
- burritos
- lettuce wraps
- gaspacho
- avocado and cucumeber and mango sushi/maki
- tofu sandwiches
Side dishes could be vegetables or grated carrots with lemon and raisins.
Also, if you are a little creative you can take almost any recipe and remove the meat and add something else instead.
Here two girls are having fun making their favorite dish:
Good subs for
meat are beans, chickpeas, lentils, cauliflower, mushrooms or tofu. I'm
not such a huge fan of tofu myself but many people love it.
But really, no worries! You can make anything from Italian food to Vietnamese food and no meat or dairy will be needed. I always make vegan meals for my family.
Vegan Food for Kids – Amazing Recipes
On this website you will find ONLY vegan recipes. As me and my kids follow a vegan diet and I want to share the joy with you.
Go ahead and look through all recipes I have for you here on this site. You might for example like the chickpea soup or the chickpea patties or this amazing recipe: vegan oatmeal raisin cookies
You can also sign up to get some recipes straight to your email. More about that later.
Some parents ask, but is a vegan diet healthier? Well, not eating any meat is much easier on the digestive system and definitely good for most of us.
And eating more vegetables as a result of starting to eat this way, is def good for the whole body.
Also, this was quite interesting: one major study shows that not eating meat is better for the colon than a diet that includes meat.
So your kids most probably won't
have to worry about for example colon cancer when they grow up. Eating this way also seems to be
better for the heart!
Often those who grew up as vegetarians or vegans make healthier choices in other parts of life too. Like not starting to smoke for example. But this depends on the circumstances of course. We sure all hope our kids will be wise when it comes to stuff like that as they grow up.
So far it looks good with my oldest, he is 22 and shows no interest in experimenting with those things. He is very intelligent, loves to learn and definitely a really good boy. Hope it will stay that way.
Best Vegan Meals for Kids
Kids love spaghetti and
pasta, right? So a traditional tomato sauce with for example some added
black lentils would make a very nutritious meal.
Another traditional
easy meal without meat that most children like would be a vegetable
curry and potatoes. If you want to add
something cream-like to the curry, just add coconut cream or a little
rice milk.
Broccoli in the oven with salt and coconut oil tastes good too!
A little girl that I babysit sometimes doesn't have a favorite meal, in fact she doesn't like eating almost anything right now. She is almost 2 years old and today as I was taking care of her for a few hours she suddenly started smelling so I changed her diaper, and at the same time I thought to myself... 'she must be eating something, otherwise this wouldn't happen' haha
But her mom says small amounts of cereal, grapes, watermelon, chocolate and plant based yogurt is all she actually puts in her mouth or lets someone feed her. I have also been lucky enough to get her to eat some traditional Finnish rice pasty (most kids love that in Finland). But warm food - nah. That's nothing for her! She is a funny little one.
Still wondering what the best vegan meals for kids are?
Check out the easy vegan meal section of this website.
And find good dinner ideas and other meals here:
Healthy smoothie recipes for kids
Vegan oatmeal raisin cookies recipe
Like adults, kids need to eat fresh greens regularly. So a salad is always a good idea. I love to make all kinds of different salads. I also like some fruit salads, they are great as part of breakfast in my opinion.
Fruit is not always that good to eat straight after a heavy meal, except maybe pineapple that contains compounds that help with digestion.
Lately I have started using my grater a lot! I can make so many different salad combinations with it, Children often like grated carrot and grated apples mixed together with some raisins and a little lemon juice.
Here is another one:
Salad Recipe
1 cucumber
1 sweet red pepper, cut into small pieces
1 carrot
1 lemon
Black pepper and some olive oil
10 cherry tomatoes
A little white kale/cabbage, you choose how much, it is not that exact.
Grate the cucumber, carrot and kale.
Put it all in a large bowl.
Cut the cherry tomatoes in halves and cut the bell pepper into small pieces. Put all of that in the bowl too. Add some lemon juice, black pepper and olive oil.
Something that worried me a little when my son still went to schoo (now he has graduated), and also worries me a bit when I am thinking of the future of my little baby is school food. Especially for a vegan child. Will they have good plant-based options? In my son's school they has some, but in his opinion the food at school wasn't good quality (and he might have had a point there). So he didn't go to the cafeteria at noon like the others. Instead he ate dinner when he got home around 4 pm (so more like his lunch) and then he had a second meal around 8 pm. After that he still had a small evening snack around 9.30 pm, tea and fruit.
He has never been someone who gets tired early. Rarely goes to sleep before 11 pm. But then again, he is already quite 'old' - I wouldn't advice any young kids to follow his example when it comes to bedtimes.
So, what's your child's favorite meal?
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