Garden-Grown Pasta Salad
Your young green thumb will love to help prepare this recipe.
What you need:
- one package macaroni (16 oz)
- two cucumbers, peeled and diced
- four small or medium tomatoes, chopped four carrots, diced
- one head iceberg lettuce
- two tablespoons chopped fresh herbs (oregano or basil works best)
- one cup mayonnaise
- small bowls
- large serving bowl
What to do:
- Ask your child help you find some of the necessary ingredients in your garden or at a farmers market. Explain how you know when items are ripe.
- Take time to touch and smell the different vegetables and herbs and note their differences and or similarities. Talk about how each is grown — tomatoes grow on a vine, carrots grow beneath the soil, etc.
- Back in your kitchen, prepare the ingredients as described above. Place each in a separate small bowl.
- In a large pot of salted boiling water, cook pasta, rinse under cold water, and drain. Add to a large serving bowl.
- Invite your child to combine the diced cucumbers, chopped tomatoes, diced carrots, herbs, and mayonnaise with the pasta. Mix well!
- Place the salad in the refrigerator to chill for at least a half hour. In the meantime encourage your child to select large, crisp leaves of lettuce to place in the center of salad plates.
- Once the pasta mixture has chilled, scoop and serve on top of the lettuce.
Learning benefits:
- strengthens observation skills
- introduces basic cooking
- builds understanding of where vegetables come from
From Play! Scholastic
