Cooking Tasks for Children One of the positive things about lockdown has been cooking more with my children (6 and 9). They enjoy the obvious tasks to give them peeling &amp; washing veg, grating, picking leaves of herbs, and stirring saucepans. I’m pretty safety conscious so while they sometimes chop things these are only things that can be chopped with a table knife, like mushrooms. They also enjoy opening packets, etc. I like them doing these tasks as it can be a genuine help as they prefer that to invented jobs. But, these tasks unfortunately all tend to be clustered at the beginning of most recipes and I’d like to find things for them to do. But, I want to keep them away from boiling water, hot fat, chefs’ knives, and the inside of the oven until they are a bit older.
I’d love suggestions of other things they can do so they don’t wander off disillusioned. Equally, I’d be super grateful for  suggestions of recipes where they can contribute throughout. Or if there is equipment or other ways to make other activities safer that would also be great. I’m not terribly interested in baking type things which we already do.
Dumplings! (The minced meat fried with vegetables wrapped in dough kind)
It's a tradition for many families to make dumplings together at the holidays, which in many cases, are when family reunions take place. It's really common to see children helping out, as there is usually a task for everyone.
Your children can help you with the dough, as it's very hard to mess up. Simply measure some flour, salt &amp; water (we don't even measure in my household), knead, and you're good to go. While the dough is in progress, either being kneaded or resting in a covered post, you can make the filling. Not much to it, just seasoned minced meat stir-fried with finely diced vegetables.
When the dough and filling are all set, the fun begins!

You roll out the dough into multiple narrow log-shaped portions, and constantly slice the logs forming cylindrical chunks.

With each slice, you pass the chunk onto the next section of the &quot;production line&quot;, well dusted with flour, where your 6 year-old can roll out the cylinder into a flat circle.

With each rolled out dumpling wrapper, your 9 year-old can scoop some filling onto the center of the wrapper, fold the wrapper around the filling like a taco, and seal by pinching the edges of the wrapper with their fingers (or with a fork).


Of course, your children won't be able to keep up with your slicing, so you can transition to rolling out the dough or wrapping dumplings here and there.