We continue with our Summer Special with children and today we are going to start a series in which we hope to give you ideas to prepare fresh dishes specially designed for children to like.
In summer, the nutritional needs of children should not be neglected, nor, as we have seen, the importance of proper hydration. To ensure that we cover them there is nothing better than starting lunch and dinner with a delicious cold soup or a gazpacho.
Cold soups and gazpachos They are full of water, vitamins and natural energy, which will give children everything they need to enjoy games, the beach and the outdoors. In addition to gazpacho, a dish with multiple variants that can not be missing on the summer table there are many cold soups that we can reinvent to fill our table with fresh and appetizing colors and flavors.
Hercules soup
It is one of our favorite dishes of the summer and, because of its refreshing and mild taste, children often like it a lot. It is a variant of the classic Greek tzatziki that is made with garlic, yogurt and cucumber that we make at home and call Hercules soupWell, we said that it was what the famous hero took to always keep fit.
We do not usually put garlic, to make it softer for children and we calculate a medium cucumber and a natural yogurt not sweetened by diner. The trick is to beat the ingredients instead of grating the cucumber, which will be like a thick soup. It is seasoned with salt and garnished with some mint leaves or chopped parsley.
It has many advantages: it provides cucumber vitamins, yogurt proteins, it is digestive and it is done in three minutes, so there is no excuse for not starting the meal with a refreshing and nutritious dish.
Our visual trick is to put, in addition to the green leaves above, a few flakes of pink salt or black salt, so the effect is really beautiful and whets the appetite.
We can change the cucumber for melon and it is also very rich, adding a splash of lemon and decorating with toasted ham or fried almonds.
Tomato soup
To vary the typical gazpacho, we can prepare this cold tomato soup, vegetable but very succulent, that you can drink warm but really cold is delicious.
One slice of bread is fried per head and set aside. We will use a tablespoon of extra virgin oil per person. In that same oil, a garlic, half a scallion and a tablespoon of green pepper chopped by diner are fried. To this is added, once it has taken a golden color, three pear tomatoes cut into dice per person or the equivalent of a glass of crushed raw tomato. It lets itself be done, without losing its color. Then, the bread is added and everything is passed through the blender, adding water until it is liquid but not lumpy.
It can be taken hot, with croutons of bread, but in summer it is delicious cold, with a chopped ham, boiled egg or smoked salmon.
Children's Gazpachuelo
He gazpachuelo It was one of the dishes my grandmother prepared, completely different from the usual kitchen of my house. Surprising and delicious, especially suitable for preparing it with rock fish that we can buy very fresh in the coastal areas. We can prepare it adapted as children's gazpachuelo, avoiding the raw egg but getting a delicious taste equally.
Cook the fish, for example, scratch, until you get all the flavor. Then we completely strain the fish and discard it, because it has many scrapes. In the broth we cook some sliced potatoes and in the end we add some peeled prawns and dilute an egg yolk for each child. The original dish is made with mayonnaise mixed with the broth, but for children it is usually safer not to use raw egg so I give you the option of the egg yolk that is also very rich.
The soup, full of sea flavor, is taken fresh, garnished by the cooked egg white very chopped on top. We can also go through the blender at the end, if the child can be bothered by tripping or textures, it will be equally rich.
There are no excuses for not taking a good cold soup or a gazpacho in summer, original, each day a different one, full of nutrients and refreshing taste. I hope that these fresh recipes for children encourage you to make them, to look for more dishes, to experiment and not to give in to laziness. Most cold soups are made without much work in the kitchen and will help us keep our children's diet balanced and, to them, full of health.
