Herby Couscous Salad

& how to make it with 5 year olds.

Welcome to the first Simple & Seasonal post of June. As always, I’m starting the month with a seasonal recipe and a story from my kitchen. Today, I’m sharing how I found my way into food education, along with some insights and tips on cooking with five-year-olds.

Later this month, I’ll be back with my usual seasonal round-up featuring the best veggies and recipes to cook right now, what else I’ve been cooking lately, and any upcoming events.

Thanks for reading, and if you enjoy this post, I’d love it if you’d leave a ❤️ and subscribe.

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I kind of fell into food education. I started culinary school with two years of recipe blogging under my belt, hoping to become a better cook and eventually transition into professional food writing. Perhaps there would be a stint as a chef along the way, I wasn’t sure.

But, the idea of teaching cookery never really entered my head until I spent some hours at a cookery school completing some of my extern hours as part of my course. I had a lightbulb moment after unexpectedly finding joy helping a cack-handed participant make a paper packet for steaming fish. After a bit of support I’d helped them to accomplish a new skill that they could easily replicate at home. It was a small achievement for them, but a significant moment for me – I’d finally found my purpose. I left the cookery school that afternoon buzzing, truly inspired that cookery teaching had to be part of my career.

Some twelve years later I’ve racked up a CV’s worth of experiences running food and cookery workshops for all ages: toddlers sat on their mother’s laps, whole primary school classes, iPhone glued teens, trainee chefs, and elderly community groups. I’ve been working three days a week as the Food Educator at the Garden Museum for the last nine years, but I have also more recently started freelancing with the Hackney School of Food as well as Eat Club. It’s exhausting at times, but I absolutely love it.

Working with the youngest groups was the steepest learning curve at first. As a child-free adult, it was a slight mystery to me what kids would actually enjoy to eat, and they certainly don’t hold back with their opinions. Over time this got easier. Now, as long as we focus on getting them stuck in and enjoying the process of making the food together, the joy of eating something they’ve had a hand in making usually follows and the room often feels the change in energy from ‘sceptic’ to ‘can I have seconds please’. There are always those who give it a try but still don’t like it. We always congratulate them for trying something new.

Herby Cous Cous Salad, with a Grilled Za’atar Chicken Thigh Skewer

We spend most of the class working together around the dining table as five-year-olds generally can’t reach the worktops. And what about knives, aren’t they dangerous? Well, we use plastic kids knives for all our chopping, which will cut through soft veg, like cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, courgettes, peppers, and asparagus but not skin. The ones we use are inexpensive and have the added benefit of being colourful. The purple knife is always so popular. We also make use of scissors a lot, they’re great for snipping herbs and slicing spring onions. Even cabbage can be separated out into individual layers and snipped using scissors. Slightly older kids perhaps aged seven and over can use a paring knife, and then we transition to proper chefs knives.

For cooking at the hob or putting things in the oven, an adult generally helps with this, but if we can everyone gets involved with stirring (if they can reach) and other tasks like weighing out spices so everyone is involved in the whole process.

The class always ends with us eating together round the table which everyone must help lay.

“How many are we today?” I ask, grabbing plates and cutlery from the cupboard.

“Six!” they shout.

“What about the adults? And me? I’m eating too. That makes ten”

“Oh yeah...”

Every. Single. Time.

We then sit round the table and enjoy our lunch, discussing which of the tasks we enjoyed today “baking the muffins for dessert”, and which bits we didn’t like “chopping the onions, because they made my eyes water”.

Over May half term at the Garden Museum I ran a week of herb-themed kids classes. We cooked a menu full of herb-based dishes and at the end of each class everyone planted a chive, parsley or coriander seed to take home.

One of the recipes we made was a simple, herby couscous salad loaded with parsley and mint*. A delightful summer-coded recipe that doesn’t require any actual cooking, so I thought it would be useful to share the recipe now, along with some insight into how I approached making it with a team of five-year-olds and their parents, in case you'd like to replicate it at home. The recipe isn’t just for kids, though. Anyone can make it. Of course, if you’re old enough to use a sharp knife, go for it. But, I still want to know that you’re practicing your claws and bridges…

*We also made homemade herby frying-pan flatbreads, mini frittata muffins and strawberry mint fruit salad with vanilla ice-cream. Delicious!

I hope you enjoyed a different insight into my world of food education this month. I’d love to hear from you if you’ve got any great stories of cooking with kids.

Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this post, I’d love it if you’d leave a ❤️, share and subscribe.

Thank you, Ceri x