3 Easy dinner recipes for toddlers that are quick & tasty

Tired of coming up with dinner recipes for toddlers? Are your kids fussy eaters who turn up their noses at ‘healthy food’? As parents, this can be a challenging situation. Kids need complete nutrition and must enjoy their food as well.

Keeping this in mind, here are some delicious and extremely filling meals for your young kids. Two of these are soups and one is a curry, but you will notice that the meal portions are substantial for a child. Making the dishes colourful is always a bonus, since kids are more interested in vibrant colours that will make food engaging.

3 Easy dinner recipes for toddlers

Recipe for Beetroot Pumpkin Soup

This is a hearty winter soup with earthy flavors. Super easy to cook, yummy, colorful and healthy!

Note: Kids love this soup because it is so colorful. I purposely don’t puree it because my son enjoys picking at the beetroot pieces in his soup and eating them, this gets him excited about the soup. If your child doesn’t like lumpy soups, you can cool it down and make a puree in mixer. Beetroot takes a while to cook, you can chop beetroot finely and add raw while preparing soup or boil it separately then add to soup.

Preparation steps 

1. Heat oil in pot, add chopped garlic pods and fry.
2. Add cinnamon sticks, followed by onion and fry.
3. Then add soaked masoor dal and stir.
4. Once everything is thoroughly mixed add potatoes, beetroot and pumpkin pieces. Stir.
5. Add 2 cups water, until all vegetables are covered.
6. Add salt, pepper, vegetable stock powder to the soup. Cover the pot and let it simmer.
7. Cook for about 30 minutes, or until beetroot is soft.

Preparation time: 40 mins |  Serves: 4 

Recipe for Broccoli and Potato Soup

This soup is our family staple. It’s super simple to make and tastes yummy.

Note: For the Vegan version of the soup add almond meal/coconut cream/coconut meat. For the Vegetarian version add butter/whole milk/cream.

Preparation steps 

1. Heat oil in a large pot. Add onions, garlic and sauté.
2. Add potatoes and stir.
3. Add broccoli and stir. Cook for 2 minutes.
4. Add 2 cups water, followed by adding almond meal/grated coconut meat. Mix well and close lid.
5. Bring to boil. Once it starts boiling, open lid and mix well. Then add vegetable stock powder.
6. Continue cooking on medium flame and add black pepper. To check if it’s done the broccoli and potato should become mush in texture.
7. Then turn off the flame and add Himalayan pink salt before serving.
8. If you prefer even consistency in soup you can cool it down and blitz in mixer once cooled for a thick puree texture.

Preparation time: 40 mins |  Serves: 4 

Recipe for Vegetable Coconut Curry

This is another quick and wholesome recipe that is also nutritious. Coconuts are rich vitamins C, E, B1, B3, B5 and B6 and minerals including iron, selenium, sodium, calcium, magnesium and phosphorous.  Adding vegetables to the curry amp’s up the nutritional content of the dish.

Preparation steps 

1. Heat oil in a pot. Add jeera, and let it sizzle. Then add ginger garlic paste.
2. Add carrots and peas and mix well. [Steam the carrots prior to reduce cook time]. Let these cook for 5 minutes.
3. Then add all the vegetables – cauliflower, capsicums, mushrooms and brinjal and mix.
4. Add turmeric, paprika, salt and stir.
5. Let this cook on medium flame for 30 minutes.
6. Once the carrots are soft the dish is ready. You can serve with steamed rice.

Preparation time: 45 mins |  Serves: 4