Mukimono Art: Children’s Dishes To Eat With Your Eyes
Art at eating time? What it is? Learn how you can apply and use Mukimono art to create children’s dishes that children will love.
Mukimono art is of Japanese origin and it is a technique of carving in fruits and vegetables used in gastronomic decoration, but that you can use at home. With this method, you can invent nutritious children’s dishes that are also colorful for children to eat with pleasure.
With this kind of idea, you can increase the daily serving of fruits and vegetables in your family’s diet of a relaxed and fun way. In this sense, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends five daily servings of these foods.
Family plan to prepare children’s dishes with Mukimono art
It is important that children participate in the entire preparation process, from buying fruit and vegetables to cleaning. In addition, you should talk to them about the benefits of eating healthy products and how to grow them at home.
Once everything is ready, prepare the children’s dishes together using the techniques of the Mukimono art : peeling, cutting, shaping the pieces and presenting them in an original and different way. To do this, gather the necessary tools, such as knives, molds and doughnut, and choose which fruits and vegetables will be used.
the secret of colors
It is scientifically proven that a dish with multiple colors has a high nutritional value and multiple health benefits. As a guide, here is a list of the most commonly used fruits and vegetables to make amazing combinations:
- Red : strawberry, watermelon, cherry, red pepper, tomato, red apple, berries.
- Green : leafy vegetables, cucumber, avocado, peas, broccoli, kiwi.
- Orange : pumpkin, carrots, orange.
- Yellow : lemon, melon, corn, pineapple.
- Blue and purple : blueberry, grape, blackberry, plum, eggplant, red cabbage.
- White : pulses, onion, cauliflower, pear, banana, celery.
Mukimono art on children’s dishes
Next, we’ll show you some very easy-to-make preparations that contain all-natural, nutritious and healthy ingredients.
Fruit recipes
- Colored rabbit : watermelon, melon, berries, strawberries.
To make this recipe, a watermelon will be used as a base. It is necessary to cut it with a knife leaving two long ears in the silhouette. Empty the interior forming little balls with the bowl. Also make melon balls.
Put them all into the watermelon hole and add the berries and strawberries. You will have the most colorful fruit salad !
- Skewers, lollipops, ice cream : watermelon, strawberry, apple, pear, pineapple, kiwi.
With circular molds, cut the fruit slices and place them overlapping on a toothpick, inserting different colors and textures. It’s important to follow a color pattern to include variety. For example: white: a slice of apple; red: 1 strawberry; yellow: a slice of pineapple; green: 1 slice of kiwi.
You can also cut out watermelon triangles, carved apple squares, and even pineapple slices or stars to put on a stick to make “fruit ice cream.”
- Pork – thorn : pear, green grape, blackberry.
Peel a very firm pear and cut a slice lengthwise so that it is well supported. Stick the green grapes in the fruit with wooden sticks, which will be the thorns of the animal. In the narrow part of the pear, place the nose and eyes using small blackberries.
Recipes with vegetables
- Multicolored vase : carrots, cucumbers.
Cut carrot and cucumber flowers and hearts using the molds, skewer them into long sticks, and place them in a vase instead of the salad.
- Vegetable sticks : carrots, celery.
To make this decoration, cut the carrots into thin sticks and the celery stalks and place them in a container so the children can pick them up with their hands to eat instead of a salad. You can add a container of homemade mayonnaise sauce to spread on the sticks and make them even more delicious.
- Sheep in the field : cauliflower, potatoes, lettuce.
Boil small potatoes and cauliflower. Cool everything and sprinkle with lemon juice. Then, separate the cauliflower flowers into round bouquets the size of a tennis ball. Cut a flat base and place it on the plate on a bed of lettuce. That will be the body of the sheep. Stick a small potato for the head and mark the eyes and mouth.
- Fruit and vegetable sculpture : apple, watermelon, pumpkin
Cutting fruit to make faces or animals will make the piece look more tempting. You can even carve the watermelon rind with children’s motifs or empty the pumpkin to prepare it for Halloween . It will be very fun!
In short, the secret of Mukimono art is having enough imagination to combine textures, shapes and colors in a way that is attractive to children’s eyes. The idea of these children’s dishes is to provoke in the little ones an irresistible urge to eat them just by looking at them. So what are you waiting for to put this technique into practice?
