We all know the struggle of getting our kids to eat healthy. Preparing veggies in a way that looks appealing addresses one of the holdups that kids have when seeing vegetables on the dinner table. Here are some great ideas to change the way your kids look healthy foods by using these veggie cutting techniques.
What Kind Of Cutting Tools You Can Use
Out of all the shapes and items you probably have in your kitchen already are items that you never thought could be used to dazzle your kids. Veggies already come with that fear factor, so you’ll need to disarm your kid’s senses so they’ll be curious about them. If they resemble familiar things they already know such as slinky spirals, shapes, exotic cuts, and funny shaped items, these will be a welcome sight on their plate.
Here are a collection of some gadgets that give your kid more food for thought when you present vegetables in a different way.
Cookie Cutters
What kitchen doesn’t have a variety of cookie cutters if you like baking? These are often made from metal so they can slice through thin slabs of vegetables such as potatoes, squash, pattypan, and turnip. Even if you have thicker rounded veggies like zucchini and cucumber, cookie-cutter shapes will make neat shapes to add to decorative touches on little fruit salads and creamy coleslaw.
Most people don’t know that pattypan and turnip make great breaded veggies that can be fried and will have a wonderful taste that isn’t your typical veggie flavor. These can be cut into dinos or funny-shaped nuggets that will be irresistible for your little one. Pattypan when fried in thin slabs tends to taste more like fish fingers but is actually a vegetable.
Spiral Cutters
The advantage of a spiral cutter is that they’ll cut any rounded object from front to back with a continual slinky pattern that expands and bends like a Slinky. These can be deep-fried and will keep their shape as they fry. Potatoes and sweet potatoes work best but you can also use zucchini and carrot that also fry just as easily. You can also steam them to use as garnishes next to their meats.
Add a dash of seasoning or sprinkle some sugar over the top to make these veggies taste more inviting without masking their taste. If you decide to fry these, you might want to consider adding plenty of seasoning and place these into an air fryer for the best results.
Crinkle Cuts
All kids love to see crinkle-cut fries which have a wiggly caterpillar-looking shape. They also make a great vegetable that comes from potatoes. You can use a crinkle cutter that is handheld but most of the time you see these attached to veggie slicer mandolins. By rotating the potato one-half turn on each cut, you can get cross-cut ‘waffle’ fries. These will be even better if you use carrots, sweet potato, yams, and also pattypan.
When deciding to deep fry these, stick to oil that will be healthier for kids, so canola oil, olive oil, and coconut oil are good alternatives. You’ll have to check the frying flashpoints of these oils to see which is better and how well they hold up for frying foods.
Herb Scissors
Herb scissors aren’t always the most common item that you’ll have in your kitchen but are loads of fun for cutting veggies from a single cut. This is essentially many blades attached to a scissors gadget and will slice items like chives, parsley, cilantro, and all types of leafy items. These are strong enough to cut the edges of veggies and will allow you to create decorative edges on small slices.
This is also a good substitute if you don’t have a veggie chopper that can make small bits in a short length of time. You can take a simple piece of lettuce and turn it into a palm tree in seconds by cutting this lengthwise up to the spine of each leaf. Using cabbage will produce the same effect except the cabbage will be springier and less likely to wilt as lettuce will after a short period.
Potato Press
After boiling a potato, there is a strange device that holds an entire potato and will have interchangeable filters for different potato extrusions. These extrusions come out like worms and will look decorative if you press these onto your kid’s plate. Add a small bit of sweet paprika powder over the top for added decoration. You don’t need to rely on the only potato since this works well with sweet potato, turnip, carrots, and mixed veggies.
These are also called potato ricers and will be a big item that new mommies will buy to make baby food at home. This ricer is excellent for mashing but depending on the degree of how cooked your veggie turns out, it will keep its shape as it squeezes out. If you mix some flour into these items with a little bit of egg, you can squeeze this mixture into boiling water or hot oil to get varying degrees of cooked veggie side dishes.
Multi-Function Vegetable Slicer/Grater
Just like Ron Popeil always said, But wait- There’s more! Now, if you have one of those multi-slicers with all the interchangeable parts for slicing and dicing, you’re not alone. What makes these great for kids is that you can make a variety of slices that are perfect for chips and crinkly waffle fries. As for getting julienne strips, this is good for making very thin slices of veggies that can be mixed into mixed meats or for making coleslaw.
If you have a multi-function slicer, you can choose different slice patterns and thicknesses that look interesting for kids. Waffle chips and crinkle cuts are typically impressive for kids but don’t let that sell you short. Look for the types of cuts that will give you plenty of variety while you’re planning to make sliced veggies for kids. Cutting veggies with this device also needs some careful attention since these aren’t your typical knuckle buster!
Unlike a vegetable grater, these multi-function slicers have razor-sharp metal edges that can slice your fingers if you aren’t using the vegetable holder. Always be careful while using these at any point.
