#DinnerGoals, unlocked: Three simple chef-created recipes that you can cook with the kids

Make dinner prep a family bonding activity and cook up restaurant-quality dishes with these easy recipes, courtesy of our pro chef friends from ANATTA Culinary Academy.

As Chef Gusteau from Ratatouille once said, “Anyone can cook.” And we at HoneyKids believe this applies to our kiddos as well.

If you have a toddler or preschooler like me, you’ll know that they love to feel useful and are always keen to help. So, why not let your little one help out in the kitchen? Cooking isn’t just an important life skill, it’s a great way to teach kids about healthy eating habits. Plus, it’s a fantastic way to get in some precious family bonding time. And you have an extra pair of (little) hands to get dinner sorted – win-win!

Keen to cook with the kids? We’ve got the perfect recipes to get you started. Don’t worry about the difficulty level, as they’re all beginner-friendly and suitable for kids as young as four years old. Best of all – these are all restaurant-quality dishes, crafted by the professional chefs at ANATTA Culinary Academy themselves!

Appetiser: Meatball marinara

Everyone loves meatballs, and you’ll be surprised at how easy it is to make. The kiddos will have fun making these too, as they get to help mix and shape them.

To make six meatballs, you need:

• Olive oil
• 112g ground beef, or meat of your choice
• 14g egg
• 7g grated parmesan
• 6g breadcrumbs
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• ¾ teaspoon dried parsley
• ⅛ teaspoon each dried oregano, dried basil, and black pepper
• Shredded mozzarella cheese

And for the marinara sauce, you need:

• Olive oil
• ½ shallot, diced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 198g crushed tomatoes
• 50g tomato paste
• 50g water
• 2 tablespoon mozzarella
• ¼ teaspoon each dried basil, dried oregano, and black pepper
• ⅛ teaspoon each sugar and salt

Let’s start cookin’:

1. Kid-safe step: combine all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix everything until it’s well combined. Be careful not to overmix it as doing so will make the meatballs tough.
2. Kid-safe step: Roll the meat mixture into balls, about one-and-a-half inch big.
3. Heat a large fry pan on medium high heat, add some olive oil or fat of your choice, and start cooking the meatballs.
4. Once they’re brown on all sides, remove the meatballs and put them on a baking pan or round tin.
5. You can start pre-heating the oven to 180°C at this point.
6. The same pan can be used to prepare the sauce – just add more olive oil into the same pan and put it on medium heat, then add the chopped onions and cook till they’re soft.
7. Add in the minced garlic and cook until it’s fragrant, followed by the herbs.
8. Stir in the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, and water. Let it simmer for 10 minutes and stir occasionally.
9. Kid-safe step: Pour the marinara sauce onto the meatballs in your baking pan or round tin, then sprinkle some shredded mozzarella cheese over. We say, the more the merrier!
10. Bake for 10 minutes until the cheese is golden and bubbly.

Pro-tips from the chef:

• Use a mix of ground beef and pork for extra flavour.
• When shaping the meatballs, you may want to get the kids to put on gloves for hygiene purposes. Always make sure they wash their hands thoroughly before and after handling raw meat.

Main: Pumpkin gnocchi with nut-free basil pesto

This recipe puts a twist on the Italian dish by substituting the traditional potato with pumpkin, giving it a fun orange shade that will brighten your kids’ day. ANATTA’s chef also recommends to pair it with a basil pesto that’s nut-free, suitable for most diets!

To make one serving of pumpkin gnocchi, you need:

• 102g flour
• 86g cooked pumpkin
• 1g salt
• ⅛ teaspoon each salt, black pepper, and nutmeg

For the nut-free basil pesto, you need:

• 45g olive oil
• 30g Italian basil leaves
• 24g canned chickpeas, drained
• 12g parmesan
• 1.5 garlic clove
• 1g salt
• ⅛ teaspoon pepper

Let’s start cookin’:

1. Blend all the pesto ingredients in a food processor until you get a smooth green paste, then set aside.
2. Kid-safe step: Mash the cooked pumpkin until you get a smooth texture. Then, mix in the flour, egg, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
3. Kid-safe step: Knead the mixture until a dough forms, then cling wrap it and let rest for five minutes.
4. Kid-safe step: Roll the dough into 1.5cm x 2cm pieces – you have your gnocchi!
5. Bring a pot of salted water to boil, then drop the gnocchi into it. You’ll know they’re fully cooked when they float to the surface.
6. Heat a small pan with some olive oil and gently fry your gnocchi until they’re evenly toasted on all sides.
7. Kid-safe step: Set your pumpkin gnocchi on a plate with a few tablespoons of pesto, remember to mix before you serve.

Pro-tips from the chef:

• Don’t over knead or be tempted to add more flour to your gnocchi dough as this will result in a rubbery gnocchi. Your dough should feel soft and a little sticky.
• You can lightly dust some flour to make handling the gnocchi dough easier for little hands.

Dessert: Fudgy brownies

When it comes to brownies, my kid and I are definitely on Team Fudgy. It’s just richer in flavour due to having more chocolate-y goodness over flour. I have a good feeling that this will be my family’s new favourite recipe.

To make a six-inch brownie, you need:

• 196g light brown sugar
• 130g each butter and dark chocolate
• 128g eggs
• 70g milk chocolate chunks
• 60g plain flour, sifted
• 30g cocoa powder or dark cocoa powder, sifted

Let’s get bakin’:

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C.
2. Melt your butter and chocolate on a bain-marie (in a bowl over a pot of simmering water) over medium heat and keep stirring. Remove from heat once the butter and chocolate have completely melted.
3. Kid-safe step: Add the sugar and keep whisking until the temperature of the mixture drops below 55°C.
4. Kid-safe step: Add in the eggs and whisk till it’s thoroughly combined.
5. Kid-safe step: Add the sifted flour and cocoa powder, then mix until there are no visible traces of flour.
6. Kid-safe step: Gently fold in the milk chocolate drops – this will give your brownies the awesome gooey texture.
7. Pour your brownie mixture into a lined six-inch baking tin, then bake for 25 minutes.
8. Once done, wait patiently (tough, we know!) for it to cool before serving.

Pro-tip from the chef: Opt for dark cocoa powder if you prefer a more intense chocolate flavour.

An exciting kids’ culinary bootcamp is coming your way this school holiday

If your kid has got a serious passion for cooking, they’ll want to check out ANATTA Culinary Academy’s upcoming Young Chef’s Academy: Passport To Flavour bootcamp. Starting on 2 June 2025 and through the local and international school holidays, this bootcamp will bring kids as young as four years old on a culinary adventure around the world as they learn how to cook iconic dishes from different countries. Think Mexican quesadillas, French cordon bleu, and American rocky road brownies. The course runs for four hours per day at $100; or you can sign the kids up for all five days for $400.

Prefer to join the kids? ANATTA has parent-child courses too that run on weekends and public holidays. You can learn how to make everything from sushi to cookies from $88 per class.

ANATTA also runs structured culinary enrichment classes during the school term (vs the bootcamp, which is conducted during school holidays), which are designed to focus on teaching 1 or 2 techniques through a recipe. This enrichment programme is conducted every Saturday throughout the school term.

All of its cooking courses are run by highly experienced chefs, with only five kids under an instructor. So rest assured that your kids will get maximum guidance and supervision in a safe learning environment.

Check out ANATTA Culinary Academy’s website for its full range of kids’ courses, and keep an eye out on its Facebook and Instagram (@anattaca.sg) for more updates.

ANATTA Culinary Academy, Neil Road Academy, 130 Neil Road, Singapore 088859; Sentosa Academy, 31 Ocean Way, #01-16 Quayside Isle @ Sentosa Cove, Singapore 098375

This post is in partnership with ANATTA Culinary Academy.