I’ve always known that labeling recipes as Kid-Friendly is somewhat misleading; children, like adults, all have different tastes, so predicting what other children might like based on my own child’s taste (which seems to change as often as her clothes lately) is kind of presumptuous as well as silly. Still, the error of my ways was brought home to me in a big way this week during our annual extended-family vacation.
Each year, the whole bunch of us, including my parents, my sister and brother-in-law, and their three kids, ages 9 to 14, rent a condo on the Gulf coast. This year’s destination was Pensacola Beach, where the condo had a huge kitchen that I would have loved to take home with me.
I was in charge of making dinner for all of us one night, and I knew that it was going to be difficult to find something to please my nephews and niece, who are renowned in the family for being picky eaters. As my middle nephew told me, “We don’t eat vegetables. Or beans.”
That pronouncement was made to me after I’d spent an hour making two large enchilada casseroles, something I’d hoped would be enough like regular, non-vegetarian food to entice the kids to eat with us, but no way: they wound up eating big plates of cheese-covered tortilla chips instead…and we adults wound up eating enchilada casserole leftovers for the next three days.
Eating her beans and vegetables at the End of the Line Cafe
My point is, most of my recipes are kid-friendly only if the children you’re cooking for will actually eat vegetables and beans. If you’re trying to transition your family to a plant-based diet and your kids absolutely refuse to eat most of the foods on it, my kid-friendly recipes may not help much, and all I can suggest is that you try to veganize dishes that they already like.
My daughter E was raised as a vegan, so she readily eats foods that cause other kids to say “yuck,” like tofu, beans, and broccoli. Still, she’s gotten pickier as she’s gotten older, and sometimes we have to require her to at least try something before she decides she hates it, but usually she’ll find that she likes it after all. When we went out for lunch in Pensacola at the all-vegan End of the Line Cafe, E tried everything we ordered and loved it all, except the stuffed grape leaves, which at least she tried. (She’s never liked grape leaves–more for us!)
So I often forget how super-picky kids can be. Well, thanks to my nephew, consider me reminded! If I’d posted this family-favorite last week, I would have been selling it hard as a kid-friendly recipe; after all, it’s a dish that my daughter asks for all the time. But it has beans in it and, in this version, it even has greens in it, so if your kids won’t touch either of those ingredients, I’m afraid you may be out of luck.
But if they’re open to eating beans, I think they’ll enjoy this vegan version of the childhood favorite, Chili Macaroni. Feel free to leave out the kale until you get your family addicted to it and then slowly add in the greens a little at a time. You’ll find that the kale provides nutrition and color but relatively little taste, so your more open-minded family members won’t mind it at all.
Chili Mac
Ingredients
- 2 cups elbow macaroni
- 1 onion , chopped
- 1 15-ounce can tomato sauce
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 4 teaspoons mild chili powder*
- 1/4 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
- 10 ounces frozen corn kernels
- 1 16-ounce can pinto or kidney beans , rinsed and drained
- 2-3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 5 cups thinly-sliced kale (thick stems removed before slicing) or other greens**
- salt and pepper , to taste
Instructions
- Cook the pasta in plenty of boiling water until tender. Drain.
- Sauté onion in a large non-stick pot until translucent. Add remaining ingredients, as well as cooked pasta. Simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve hot.
Notes
Nutritional info is approximate.
If you’re ever in Pensacola, Florida, please check out the End of the Line Cafe. It’s a small coffee house near the railroad tracks, but we were all impressed by the delicious sandwiches, hummus, quinoa tabouli, homemade vegan cheeses, and incredible potato chowder.
Please pin and share:
amanda
October 22, 2009 at 3:42 pmI can't wait to try this tonight…do you think this could be frozen??
SusanV
October 22, 2009 at 3:48 pmAmanda, I think it would be fine frozen. Hope you enjoy it!
Bath
December 16, 2009 at 11:29 amThankyou for posting.
it is realy useful for us.
Bathmate
Kelleigh
January 5, 2010 at 11:36 amI love Vegan cooking. I've been doing a lot of it lately but my boyfriend has Gout and can't eat nutritional yeast. Is there something else I can add to this recipe and others to replace it?
Sophie B
February 17, 2010 at 11:20 amSusan,
This was the first recipe I have tried from your website and all I can say is YUM!!! I stumbled upon your website when I agreed to start weight watchers with my mother. I was skeptical at first since both of us are vegan and I had a feeling that we would have a difficult time. Your website is a perfect balance for people who want to eat healthy, low fat, and vegan. Thank you so much for posting these wonderful recipes along with their nutritional facts!!
Thank you again ~ Sophie B
Lauren
March 4, 2010 at 7:37 pmThis is also the first recipe I have tried from your site and it was delicious! It made me feel so warm and full on this windy day. Thank you!
Anonymous
March 15, 2010 at 7:18 amWe tried this the other night. It came out just as your photo. We found that it needed a lot more punch though – so we put in an asian hot sauce that is vegan. Yummy! thanks for the idea!
lovemyfamily
March 31, 2010 at 1:34 pmThis was great. I did it with three cups of pasta and doubled the sauce and onions and added a little more kale. I made a non spicy batch for out 2 year old with basil and oregano and he loved it. I then made ours extra spicy, it was great
Mary C.
April 24, 2010 at 6:37 pmI made this last night and my girls (8 and 6) LOVED it!!!! We all did, but they loved it much more than I thought they would — and they didn’t say a word about the kale 🙂 Yippee!!!! Thank you
OhioVegan
May 27, 2010 at 10:19 amThanks Susan~ My family loves this recipe as it is a nice comfort food for vegans. We have made it a few times but loved it each and every time! We used some fun corn noodles that are vegan and gluten-free in the shapes of animals – perfect for children or those (like me) that are young at heart. So much fun!
KatieBeane
July 8, 2010 at 2:07 pmThat looks to delicious! Also, I am really impressed that Pensacola has an all-vegan cafe. I used to go there ever summer when I was younger, and now I am missing it!
Pushpa
July 17, 2010 at 2:14 amThe dish looks delicious.Please check out my blog I have some Indian vegan dishes.
Lauren
August 9, 2010 at 7:31 pmI just finished making this recipe and it is absolutely delicious. About the only thing keeping me away from a bowl of this wonderful recipe is my need to thank you for it. Keep up the great work. Thank you! 🙂
Hillie
September 21, 2010 at 11:16 amYum!
Vegan In the Kitchen
October 13, 2010 at 3:26 pmI posted this recipe on my blog’s weekly meal plan, but had not read the story to go along with it until now (as I’m cooking this very cool recipe).
We love Pensacola Beach and End of the Line Cafe. Next time you are back over here, check out their Thursday night seated meal or Sunday brunch. They also just made a delicious chocolate on chocolate vegan cake for mine and hubby’s birthday last week. Very good and affordable.
Slothbear
October 17, 2010 at 1:44 pmI should wait until i get home and make this tonight… But i already know it will be a hit. Pictures to follow.
Laura
October 17, 2010 at 7:37 pmI just moved from Pensacola, FL and dearly miss End of the Line. I could be found there at least twice a week (for the Thursday Dinner and Sunday Brunch, as mentioned above). If anyone is close to the Florida Panhandle it is absolutely worth the trip for this amazing all vegan joint. If I didn’t live in Boston now, I’d still make the trip!
Gloria
November 9, 2010 at 11:31 pmAfter having this recipe printout on my coffee table for a month, I a finally made it tonight. It was a hit and I am glad I made the full recipe, because I now have lunch for the next two days.
Thanks!
Fiona
November 16, 2010 at 8:54 pmI just tried this and I only simmered for about 5 minutes or so to ensure the kale would still be chewy and it was really yummy! I would add some red bell pepper next time too to get the vegetable level up. I made without any salt too and the dish was still very flavorful! It will be a repeat dish for me!
Fiona
September 5, 2011 at 3:25 amJust made this again and used frozen green beans instead of kale because I’m feeling lazy. My fiancé added ketchup to his and said it was great so I tried it too and admitted it made it even better. It makes it even more kid-friendly probably with the addition of ketchup. I also used butter beans because my fiancé really likes them and they are just as good as pinto.
sidney
December 16, 2010 at 1:35 amMy boyfriend and I are vegan but we joke that he has the palate of a picky six year old who doesn’t like nuts, veggies, and beans. Narrows the field a bit too much. I manage to get him to eat all of the things he hates the most by whizzing it all up in a food processor. I add spinach and legumes to just about everything and he seems to love my cooking. I bet he (and those uber picky eaters) would eat it if the veggies and legumes were more like a sauce. Chili is a great way to ‘hide’ veggies! Can’t wait to make this for my honey bunny, though I’ll blend the veggies and beans up first! Thanks for all the awesome recipes!
Kerri
January 2, 2011 at 5:26 pmI just finished making this and it was soooo good!!! We didn’t have chipolte, and when I was at whole foods they didn’t have it either. So instead I used a little cayenne pepper and it was really good. My family who is afraid of anything I make (since their meat and potato folks) loved it! My mom wants me to send her the recipe. The only issue I had was that slicing the kale was a bit of a pain, but not that much. It was my first time working with it and I tried following instructions from another website on how to slice kale. They suggested folding the kale in half, slice the stem off, and then roll the kale like a cigar and make thin slices. Well as soon as I sliced the stem off the kale just broke off into little pieces and went their own way haha. We also needed a bigger pan since it almost overflowed. But sooo sooo good!!! I’m emailing the recipe to my mom right now!
Andi Lockhart
January 8, 2011 at 6:10 pmLoved this! We made it even more kid-friendly by adding a couple plops of barbecue sauce to the pot! Our 10 year old gobbled it down, kale, beans, and all!!!
Kaitlyn
January 31, 2011 at 7:29 pmThis is good stuff! I used collard greens in this and only the mild chili powder. I also only used a portion of the chili powder (we don’t exactly like it hot!). But wonderful recipe! Great job!
Jaclyn Gadbaw
February 10, 2011 at 9:41 amDelicious recipe. I just posted a link to this recipe for patients at my clinic. Please let me know if you’d like any further shout out on the post.
Christine
February 21, 2011 at 8:40 pmI made this tonight (with some cayenne for a kick), and it is a really filling one bowl meal! I used a cup and a half of cooked dry beans, some thawed frozen mixed greens (kale, mustard and collards) from the store (maybe 2 cups?), and corn that I had frozen from the farmer’s market this summer. Using the frozen greens made this super quick! I think next time I would leave out the corn though – the corn I used made the dish a little too sweet. I have a feeling it will mellow out in the leftovers though! This will definitely be in my recipe binder 🙂
Karen
March 27, 2011 at 10:51 pmmmmm I just made this tonight. I love how I had everything I needed already at my place. I gave it a big kick by grinding in some dried chili peppers I got at the farmers market a while ago. I also loved how fast it came together. I chopped all the stuff while the pasta was boiling and I even used the same pot so easy clean up. I will be for sure using this recipe again and experiment with different veggies and beans. Yum!
Julie & Marty
June 20, 2011 at 9:19 pmThis was good, but it needed something, I’m not sure what. Maybe more spice?
SusanV
August 5, 2011 at 9:26 amI definitely recommend adding something “hot” like cayenne or chipotle pepper for those who like spicy food. That’s why I mentioned it in the recipe. 😉
Heather @ Side of Sneakers
August 5, 2011 at 8:15 amThis sounds delicious and like it could be husband-approved 😉 Congrats on the nomination, what an honor!
SusanV
August 5, 2011 at 9:24 amThanks, Heather!
XQ
August 5, 2011 at 9:19 amI honestly don’t get how one could have a kid who “doesn’t eat vegetables.” SERIOUSLY?! That kind of pickiness is created by the parents. I have cousins like that, and it’s because their parents are like that. I won’t invite any of them to my house for dinner because I cannot feed them. They all only eat junk food but they don’t even like the SAME junk food(and they are always sick). A kid who is old enough to articulate “I don’t eat vegetables,” got that way because his palate was shaped that way by his parents before he was old enough to articulate anything at all. Meals that don’t have vegetables and fruit in them, whether they’re vegan or not, do not qualify as “regular,” but as “junk.” (Off soapbox, sorry, but this stuff makes me MAD. 🙂 You’re so nice to your readers and I want to smack any who might be offended because they have been poisoning their kids.)
Missy
August 8, 2011 at 11:48 amVery tasty! I just made it for lunch. I didn’t have chiptole, so I added some cayenne pepper 🙂 super yummy. Thanks for the recipe.
Izzy
August 9, 2011 at 1:16 pmHey Susan, thanks for this recipe – as always it was fantastic and SO easy.
http://crashtestvegetarian.wordpress.com/2011/08/09/chili-mac-with-kale/