6 Dishes Kids Can Cook Without Any Help From You

There comes a time in every child's life, whether out of necessity, curiosity, or sheer bullheadedness, when she or he decides tostart cooking. Chef Ming Tsai was 10 and home alone when this pivotal moment came, in the form of two family friends on a surprise visit.

"In the Chinese culture, you ask, 'Have you eaten?,' not 'How are you?,' " says Tsai, owner ofBlue Dragonin Boston and host of the PBS series "Simply Ming." "I'd never made fried rice, I'd never put the wok on the stove and cranked up the burner, but I'd seen it made and I knew how to use a cleaver because I'd been sharpening knives with my grandfather since I was 5 or 6."

Long story short, Tsai whipped up a batch of fried rice without burning the house down ("honestly probaby a five out of 10 in quality," he says), impressed his parents' friends, and laid the foundation for his future career as a celebrity chef.

My own earliest unsupervised kitchen experiment, a Malt-O-Meal-based cookie thing that turned out more liquid than solid, pales in comparison. But the point is, our kids will inevitably want to stopbeing our sous chefsand take over, however exciting or slightly terrifying the thought may be, so why not encourage them? You don't want to have topack their lunchesforever, do you?

I asked Tsai and other parents for ideas of dishes that youngsters can tackle on their own, many of them dishes their own kids have mastered.

But first, a few ground rules

Tsai's 10-year-old moxie aside, your kids shouldn't expect unfettered access to the kitchen without you guiding them in the basics. "Your kid has to earn the right to be able to cook by themselves," Tsai says, "so they have to watch you and help you. Even learning how to stir, it's never with one hand, it's always a towel in the hand, holding the handle of the pot."

他们应该能够使用关键设备,比如blender or toaster oven if they're younger and the stove when they're older.Knife skillsare important. We're not talking Iron Chef–level mastery of a full-size chef's knife. Tsai says a plastic salad knife is the perfect starter tool.

No-cook snacks and drinks are a natural starting point, says Melissa Graham, founder ofPurple Asparagus, a nutrition education nonprofit, "because then they get to the point of, 'I can do this by myself and I like this,' and they find ways to insert their creativity into it."

A reminder for cooks of all ages, if using a recipe: "Read the recipe in its entirety first, before you do anything," Tsai says.

The following dishes, listed according to difficulty level and heat requirements, tend to be ones kids like to eat, have watched you make, or have helped you make—or maybe all of the above.

1. Smoothies

Fruit and juice or a nut milk blended together is hard to mess up andeasy to customize. My 13-year-old daughter recently concocted her current favorite: frozen berries, grape juice, Greek yogurt, hemp seeds, and a touch of cocoa powder. Graham's son, Thor, also 13, helped come up what's become one of Purple Asparagus' most popular class recipes, a squash smoothie made with cooked butternut squash purée, a banana, and apple cider.

Tsai buys bananas two bunches of a time and lets one bunch ripen solely for using in smoothies. Slice and store fruit chunks in freezer bags for easy access.

2. Mashes and dips, with or without bread

Guacamoleandhummusare universally kid-friendly. The former can be made with a fork, and when it comes down to it, neither reallyrequires a recipe. Your kid can decide for herselfwhether lime juice belongsin guac or not or ifdessert hummusis >, <, or = actual cookie dough. It's all about discovery.

With her newly acquired food processor and blender skills, she can also makepestoandpeanut sauce, both excellent for dipping. Schmearing these spreads on bread or toast is only a matter of time. Another of Thor Graham's favorites, marmalade bread, is cream cheese mixed with marmalade and spread on whole-grain bread.

3. Eggs

In my experience, and according to the adults I interviewed for this, kids leap at the chance to crack eggs, and cooking them is one of the first stovetop dishes many want to try. One of the first things Epi's Anna Stockwell mastered as a youngster was the classicegg-in-a-hole, while scrambled was how food writer Matthew Amster-Burton declared his kitchen independence in elementary school, as did his now-teenage daughter Iris when she was around the same age.

"Eggs are nutritious so if they at least know how to cook an egg when they move out of my house, I know they'll be okay. Also, even if you overcooka scrambled egg, you can still eat it. They're very forgiving in that aspect," says Nathan Sears, executive chef of Chicago's theWit Hotel and dad of Nolan, 7, and Elijah, 6.

Nolan Sears appears to be on the right path. A few weeks ago, he made his favorite egg tacos entirely by himself for breakfast: scrambling the eggs, warming the tortillas in the microwave, and topping the whole thing with ketchup and cheese while his dad drank coffee andInstagrammedthe occasion.

4. Quesadillas

Speaking of cheese and tortillas, or any form of bread,quesadillasandgrilled cheese sandwichesare no-brainers. Graham's son was 9 when he started making his own quesadillas. It's still his go-to meal. "He'll find whatever's in the fridge and throw it in there, like edamame or leftover chicken or roast pork," his mom says.

5. Pasta

Once kids are at the point of boiling water for boxed mac and cheese (no shame in that!), it opens the door to possibilities, whether it'sstepping up their mac and cheese game, making the world's lowest-effort, highest-rewardtomato sauceor the aforementioned pesto and peanut sauces to toss with spaghetti, ormaking the pasta by hand.

Skeptical about that last one? Talk to chef-turned-butcher Rob Levitt of Chicago's Butcher & Larder, whose 6-year-old daughter Avery recently asked to make pasta."I was tingly, I was so happy," says Levitt. Granted, he supervised and did the homework in advance, calling on his buddy Jeff Michaud of Osteria in Philadelphia for advice and an easy dough recipe of basically semolina flour and water. Still, he says, once he got the dough going, Avery kneaded it the rest of the way and rolled and shaped 75 percent of the cavatelli herself. (Check hisInstagram feedfor proof!)

6. Fried rice

Okay. Your kid has proven himself with a knife, a cutting board, and a hot stove, and there's leftover rice in the fridge.Fried riceit is. As the Epi test kitchen knows, it's one ofthe most adaptable dishesout there.

Tsai's quickest version, the one he fed his two boys and that, no surprise, his older son, David, 17, first learned on his own, is four ingredients: leftover rice, diced smoked lunch meat ("smoked is key because it adds great flavor"), garlic oil, and tamari. His son now knows that minced garlic, sliced scallions, ground meat or another protein, and vegetables make it even better.

"Kids love fried rice. It's like a slice of pizza," says Tsai. Oh, andpizza? Kids can and will totally make that on their own, too.