How to get your kids into soup -

Have you had trouble trying to get your kids into soup? It can be a difficult task – for those who are too young to recognize the genius of soup, it can instead seem a bit off-putting. Serious, savory… healthy?! These are not factors that belong on top of most kids’ priority lists!

As a parent, this can be frustrating. Soup is indeed a healthy way to get some vitamins in your kids’ bellies. It’s affordable, easy to make, and you can cook up gallons of the stuff to last the week – as long as you know it’ll get eaten in the end.

So what can you do to get the littluns interested in a bowl of soup? How about this for starters (no pun intended) – take the soup apart into its component pieces in front of their very eyes. Rather than serving up a rather sober-looking bowl of green, red or mustard-colored liquid, get your children involved from the beginning. Show them the ingredients before you get started, and get them interested in the shape, smell, and color of the raw vegetables, herbs, and spices.

You can do this by letting them handle them and even to cut them if they’re old enough, or to draw them or make FIMO/clay models otherwise. Let them see the whole gloopy process. And don’t forget about that money shot: the blender! Tremendous fun to let them guide your hand as you break the soup down.

And if the taste is still a sticking point at the end of the process, find a compromise. The brilliant thing about making your own soup is that you call the shots. If there’s an ingredient that someone in your family objects to, swap it for something else. If the soup is too savory, add some sweet potato or cream.

For some ideas on where to start with this soupy new regime, check out this new visual guide to 9 classic soups. It’s about time everyone recognized the genius of soup!