The gardening is on hold as our campus gets new soil, more outdoor play areas and landscaping. The Wellness education and cooking are going strong. 4th and 5th grades began by reviewing the 5 basic flavors - sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami.
Not everyone enjoyed the umami experience. It was important to taste all of these flavors on their own before adding them together to build flavors. Each flavor was added to water so the students could taste the bare flavor.
Next we tasted the flavors in combinations and recorded what we thought of each. The salt, lemon and chile was the favorite combination.
Now we were ready to create a combination to test these flavors. We made spinach and cucumber salads with a citrus dressing. This spinach represented bitter, the citrus was sour and sweet because we used lime and orange. Unfiltered olive oil has a bit of umami and was a great means to discuss good verses bad fats. We added a touch of salt to the dressing. We allowed each person to put fresh milled pepper on their salad if they wanted. This added a touch of heat if they wanted it.
The students practiced their skills of chopping, washing, whisking (good emulsion conversations about oil and water), mixing and collaboration. Good cleaning skills came in handy after we were done.
This experience gave them a new appreciation for what our school chefs, Chef Kimberly and Chef Wayne, have to do to cook food that 350 different people with different tastes all want to eat.
Recipe -
Salad
6 cups of Spinach, 1 large cucumber
Dressing
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
juice of 1 orange and 1/2 a lime
salt and pepper to taste
Add some sliced almonds or pecan pieces for a bit of protein.
Not everyone enjoyed the umami experience. It was important to taste all of these flavors on their own before adding them together to build flavors. Each flavor was added to water so the students could taste the bare flavor.
Next we tasted the flavors in combinations and recorded what we thought of each. The salt, lemon and chile was the favorite combination.
Now we were ready to create a combination to test these flavors. We made spinach and cucumber salads with a citrus dressing. This spinach represented bitter, the citrus was sour and sweet because we used lime and orange. Unfiltered olive oil has a bit of umami and was a great means to discuss good verses bad fats. We added a touch of salt to the dressing. We allowed each person to put fresh milled pepper on their salad if they wanted. This added a touch of heat if they wanted it.
The students practiced their skills of chopping, washing, whisking (good emulsion conversations about oil and water), mixing and collaboration. Good cleaning skills came in handy after we were done.
This experience gave them a new appreciation for what our school chefs, Chef Kimberly and Chef Wayne, have to do to cook food that 350 different people with different tastes all want to eat.
Recipe -
Salad
6 cups of Spinach, 1 large cucumber
Dressing
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
juice of 1 orange and 1/2 a lime
salt and pepper to taste
Add some sliced almonds or pecan pieces for a bit of protein.
