How to Delegate Cooking Dinner to the Kids - The Wall Street Journal

SUPER BOWL This recipe for a rainbow grain bowl will satisfy the whole family. And... — SUPER BOWL This recipe for a rainbow grain bowl will satisfy the whole family. And it’s easy enough for a kid to make.
Illustration: Sol Cotti

Dana Bowen and and

Sara Kate Gillingham

April 30, 2020 6:00 am ET

AS PARENTS and founders of the Dynamite Shop, a cooking school in Brooklyn where we teach kids to make dinner, we talk a lot about recipes that deliver the most bang for the buck. They have to be crowd-pleasers, but also healthy and easy enough to pull off on a weeknight. And we’re always looking for recipes with great lessons baked in.

When coronavirus sent all of us inside, our criteria for dinner winners changed: Recipes also had to be super customizable, drawing from pantry staples and whatever families had on hand. A month into our Zoom classes, we realized that this kind of flexible, resourceful cooking is actually the best lesson we could teach our kids.

We also know families are facing a new challenge: every meal from home. Every. Single. Day. So we’re all about delegating dinner—a creative, empowering way for kids to help out.

This recipe for Rainbow Grain Bowls With Sparkles checks all our boxes. It’s actually more of a formula, workable with whatever you have in each category of ingredients. It’s packed with lessons, from roasting to vinaigrette to building healthy, veggie-packed meals with lots of color. And it’s topped off with a bright, crunchy garnish—the Sparkles!—that makes anything you sprinkle it on even better. Make big batches of each component, then mix up bowls all week long. Better yet, have the kids do it.

How to Make Rainbow Grain Bowls With Sparkles

The Ingredients

PRODUCE:

5 small beets (or other root vegetables like radishes)

2 small sweet potatoes (or 3 medium carrots)

1 large crown cauliflower or broccoli

1 large bunch kale, Swiss chard or any hearty leafy greens

The juice and zest of 1 lime (or any citrus)

2 ripe avocados

PANTRY ITEMS:

1 bottle extra-virgin olive oil

7 cups chicken or vegetable stock (or water in a pinch)

2 cups (uncooked) grains (rice, couscous, quinoa, millet, farro, bulgur, buckwheat, even oats)

3 tablespoons tahini paste (Other nut or seed butters will work. Even peanut butter!)

⅓ cup unsweetened shredded coconut or coconut chips (You could substitute breadcrumbs or skip altogether.)

2 tablespoons sesame seeds (or other seeds or nuts)

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Wrap the beets in foil, place them on a sheet pan and pop them into the oven.

2. Cut the sweet potatoes in half. With the flat side down, slice into cubes—whatever size seems like a comfortable bite to you. In a bowl, toss with a little bit of olive oil. Remove the pan from oven, spread potatoes across the middle and return to oven.

3. Divide the cauliflower into quarters, chop through the stems and break into florets. Toss the florets in the bowl with a good glug of olive oil, some salt and pepper.

4. Add the florets to the sheet pan with the sweet potatoes (which will need about 20 minutes total to roast) and beets (which can basically roast forever and they’ll still be delicious). The cauliflower only needs about 15 minutes.

5. Use your hands to pull the kale leaves off their stems. Stack the leaves in a pile and roll them up like a burrito. Then: chiffonade!

6. “Chiffonade” means chop that burrito of kale crosswise into ribbons. In a pot, bring 1 cup chicken or vegetable stock to a boil over medium-high heat. Add sliced kale, give it a stir and lower the heat. Let the kale simmer while you prep the other ingredients.

7. In a pot, bring 6 cups stock, water or a combo to a boil over high heat. Rinse 2 cups quinoa or other grain under running water and drain. Add to the pot and bring back to a boil. Lower the heat, cover with a lid and cook according to the package directions.

8. Make the dressing: Mix tahini (or nut butter), citrus juice and salt in a small jar or measuring cup. Drizzle in warm water, 1 tablespoon at a time, and whisk (or stir briskly with a fork) until creamy and pourable.

9. Make the Sparkles! Heat a cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Add coconut and sesame seeds and cook, shaking the pan to avoid burning, until the coconut smells toasty and has an even golden color. Transfer to a bowl. Add the lime zest and mix in salt and pepper.

10. Remove beets from oven and unwrap. Slice off the root end and use your fingers to slip the skin off the beets. Then chop the beets into bite-size pieces.

11. Slice your avocados: First, halve lengthwise and remove the pit. Then, carefully cut through the flesh (not the skin) in a crisscross pattern. Then scoop out the avocado cubes with a spoon.

12. Spread a cup of cooked grain in the bottom of each bowl. Arrange the rest of the ingredients over and around the grain. Add a protein if you like. Drizzle on tahini dressing. Sprinkle on Sparkles. Give it a few shots of hot sauce if you like it spicy. And enjoy!